Salim Faraji

Department Chair

Contact Information

Dr. Salim Faraji is Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at 好色先生, Dominguez Hills. He is also the founding Executive Director of the Master of Arts in International Studies (MAIS) Africa Program at Concordia University Irvine in Ghana, West Africa. He completed his Master of Divinity at the Claremont School of Theology and M.A. and Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University. He is a member of the International Society for Nubian Studies and specializes in early Christian history, Africana and Africanist historiography, Coptic Studies and the Kerma, Napatan, Meroitic and Medieval periods of Nubian history. He has presented papers on Nubian Christianity at the 11th International Conference for Meroitic Studies in Vienna, Austria and the 12th and 13th International Conferences for Nubian Studies at the British Museum and the Universit茅 de Neuch芒tel, Switzerland, respectively. In 2018 Dr. Faraji presented 鈥淭he Ascendancy of the Kushite Kingdom of Kerma in the Post Middle Kingdom Era: Revisiting the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt鈥� at the 14th International Conference for Nubian Studies at the University of Paris-Sorbonne/Louvre Museum.

Dr. Faraji is a member of the National Council for Black Studies and a founding member of the William Leo Hansberry Society. He is also a member of the American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center (AmSARC). He is one of a handful of Nubiologists in the United States and the only Africana Studies scholar in the country who is also a Coptic Studies specialist. Professor Faraji is a contributor to New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia, Life Under the Baobab Tree: Africana Studies and Religion in a Transitional Age, the Encyclopedia of African Religion, the Oxford Dictionary of African Biography and the author of The Roots of Nubian Christianity Uncovered: The Triumph of the Last Pharaoh.

Dr. Faraji has traveled and worked extensively on the African continent in such nations as Ghana, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia and Namibia as both a scholar and activist-humanitarian. His work in international programs at CSU Dominguez Hills has included organizing Pan African Global Trade & Investment Conferences and co-organizing the Mandela Washington Alumni Enrichment Institute of Los Angeles for emerging African leaders from Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Faraji also presents a ministerial background and has served in the United Methodist and Unitarian Universalist Churches. As a theological pluralist and interfaith practitioner, he is currently an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a practicing African Traditional Priest who has been initiated in both the Akan traditions (Okomfo) of Ghana, West Africa and ancient Egyptian religious practice (Kheri Heb).

PUBLICATIONS (2010-PRESENT)

Books

The Roots of Nubian Christianity Uncovered: The Triumph of the Last Pharaoh; Religious Encounters in Late Antique Africa (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2012).

The Plan: A Guide for Women Raising African American Boys from Conception to College (Chicago: Third World Press, 2013)

The Plan Workbook: A Guide for Women Raising African American Boys from Conception to College (Chicago: Third World Press, 2013).

Encyclopedia & Reference Works

Salim Faraji. 鈥淪ilko,鈥� 鈥淛ulian,鈥� 鈥淟onginus,鈥� 鈥淎meniras,鈥� 鈥淎rkamaniqo,鈥� 鈥淎rkamani,鈥� In Oxford Dictionary of African Biography. Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Emmanuel Akyeampong. (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).

Salim Faraji.听鈥淎tum.鈥� & 鈥淜ingship鈥� In Encyclopedia of African Religion. Edited by Molefi K. Asante & Ama Mazama (Sage, 2009).

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Articles and Chapters

鈥淩ites, Remedies and Oracles: Relocating Ancient Egyptian Religion in the Enduring Spiritual Heritage of Africa and the African Diaspora鈥� in: Bloomsbury鈥檚 Handbook to Ancient Egyptian Religion: Agencies and Practices. R. Lucarelli and L. Weiss (eds.), (Bloomsbury, New York forthcoming, 2025).

鈥淭he First Empire of Kush: Delegitimizing the Colonial Trope of the Black Pharaohs.鈥� New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia, Solange Ashby and Aaron Brody, eds., (Gorgias Press, 2024).

鈥淣ubian Ascendancy in the Middle Kingdom: Exploring the Foundations of Kushite Rule During the 2nd Intermediate Period鈥� In Kush: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference for Nubian Studies XX Paris, 2018. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. Leuven: Peeters, 2023.

鈥淓nvisioning Africana Religions: Seeking a Distinctive Voice for the Study of Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora鈥� Life Under the Baobab Tree: Africana Studies and Religion in a Transitional Age,听 Aliou C. Niang, Kenneth Ngwa, Arthur Pressley, eds., (Fordham University Press, 2023).

鈥淎mon is the God of all Africa: Meroitic Kush and the Akan,鈥� Revue S茅n茅galaise d鈥橦istoire No. 22 (December 2022), p. 17-36.

鈥淩ediscovering the Links between the Earthen Pyramids of West Africa and Ancient Nubia: Restoring William Leo Hansberry鈥檚 Vision of Ancient Kush & Sudanic Africa,鈥� Origins and Afterlives of Kush: Proceedings of the University of California at Santa Barbara Conference in Nubian Studies, July 25-27, 2019, eds. Pearce Paul Creasman and Stuart Tyson Smith Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections Vol. 35 (September 2022), p. 49-67.

D茅j脿 vu: The Crisis of the Black Intellectual Again: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Cornel West and the Omission of the Pan-Africanist Tradition鈥� Global Research: Centre for Research on Globalization (January 2018).

鈥淪avior King: Re-reading the Gospels as Greco-Africana Literature & Re-Imaging Christ as Messianic Pharaoh鈥� in Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Madonna Child, Jawanza Clark, ed., (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)

鈥淜ing Silko and the Roots of Nubian Christianity,鈥� The Kushite World: Proceedings from the 11th International Conference for Meroitic Studies Vienna, 1-4 September 2008, ed. Michael H. Zach Beitrage zur Sudanforschung 鈥� Beiheft 9 (2015)

鈥淩eversing Injustice: Combating the Criminality of an Apartheid State鈥� Insights: The Faculty Journal of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary Fall 2014

鈥淓xploding the Myth of the Black Christian Past: What Can the New Black Church Learn From the

Funeral Ceremony of Nelson Mandela鈥� The Journal of Pan African Studies Vol.6, no.7, February (2014)

鈥淜ush and Rome on the Egyptian Southern Frontier: Where Barbarians Worshipped as Romans and Romans Worshipped as Barbarians鈥� in Romans, Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World: Cultural Interaction and the Creation of Identity in Late Antiquity, Ralph W. Mathisen and Danuta Shanzer, eds., (Ashgate: 2011)

Academic Presentations (2014 - Present)
26th St. Shenouda-UCLA Conference of Coptic Studies
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淎mun Hymns, Plotinian Metaphysics and the Theology of Origen鈥� (July 2025), UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Pomona College History Department 鈥� Ancient History of Africa Conference
Lecture Presentation: Seeking Eternal Amun and Praising the Knowledge of Djehuty: Ancient Egypt and the Making of Philosophy and Theology in the Late Antique World ( February 28-March 2, 2025)听
William Leo Hansberry Africa Roundtable
Lecture Presentation: Engaging Ethiopia 鈥� The African Kingdom of Aksum & Early Christianity ( February 22, 2025)听
Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission & Culture - Andrew F. Walls Conference on Early African and World Christianity
Lecture Presentation: Exploring the Links between Ancient Egyptian Philosophy and Alexandrian Theology: A Brief Excursus on Chaeremon Egyptian Priest-Philosopher ( October 2024), Akropong, Ghana & New Haven, CT
University of Delaware, Department of Africana Studies
Lecture Presentation: African American Folk Religion (Hoodoo): The Retention and Adaptation of Ancient Egyptian & Nubian Religion in the African Diaspora and panelist, The John and Patricia Cochran Symposium on Africana Religions 鈥� A Conversation on Black Religious Pluralism ( October 2023)
American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center
Lecture Presentation: Early and Medieval Nubian Christianity: Ancient Rites and Cultural Convergence in the Middle Nile Valley ( March 29, 2023)
好色先生, Long Beach 鈥� Africa Subcommittee, International Education Committee
Lecture Presentation: Engaging Original African Religions, Spiritualities and Ethics: Enduring Insights and Options for our Times ( March 14, 2023), Long Beach, CA
A2MEND African American Male Education Network - 16th Annual African American Male Success Summit
Keynote Speaker & Panelist: The Ausar Project: Resurrecting Black Male ( March 6, 2023), Los Angeles, CA听
William Leo Hansberry Research Symposium
Lecture Presentation: Ritual听Power in Early and听Medieval听Nubian听Christianity: Ancestral Rites and Healing Baths ( February 25, 2023)听
University of Juba South Sudan Philosophical Society & U.S.-Africa Institute
Lecture Presentation: The Seeds of Revolutionary Democracy: African Indigenous Heritage, Philosophy and Governance ( May 21, 2022), University of Juba, South Sudan
Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture 鈥� Centre for Early African Christianity & The Center for Early African Christianity, Akropong, Ghana and New Haven, CT
Walls-Oden-Bediako Lecture on Early African Christianity - Lecture Presentation: African Spiritual Dimensions of Medieval Nubian Christianity (April 21, 2022),听 Akropong, Ghana & New Haven, CT
Stanford University Archaeology Collections
Visiting Lecturer Presentation: Dr. Christina Hodge/Dr. Denise Lim, Museum Cultures: Exhibiting the African Imaginary, 鈥淔ormulating An Africana Transdisciplinary of History: Nubian, the Nile Valley and Sudanic Africa as Case Study,鈥� (April 12, 2022), Stanford, California
Candler School of Theology, Emory University
Visiting Lecturer Presentation: Dr. Emmanuel Lartey, Spiritual Care in African Religious Traditions, 鈥淗arnessing the Force: Nurturing Wellbeing through Trans-Religious African Spiritual Power,鈥� (November 9, 2021), Atlanta, Georgia
22nd听 St. Shenouda-UCLA Conference of Coptic Studies
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淩eflecting Ancient Egyptian Magic & Coptic Ritual Power: A Consideration of Funerary Prayer Inscriptions in Medieval Christian Nubia鈥� (July 2021), UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
International University of Africa, Dept of Archaeology, Sudan
Lecture-Interview Presentation: 鈥淢ulticulturalism and Multilingualism in Late Antique Nubia鈥� ( March 2021), Khartoum, Sudan
Pacific School of Religion and UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淣ubian Ascendancy in the Middle Kingdom: Exploring the Foundations of Kushite Rule During the 2nd Intermediate Period鈥� ( October 2020), Berkeley, CA
21st St. Shenouda-UCLA Conference of Coptic Studies
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淎thanasius and Ancient Egyptian Metaphysics:听Forging Christology, Creed and Canon鈥� (August 2020), UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
San Diego State University 鈥� Department of Africana Studies
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淭he African Kingdom of Aksum: The Crossroads of the Ancient World鈥� (February 2020), SDSU 鈥� San Diego, California
UC Santa Barbara 鈥� Department of Anthropology, Origins and Afterlives of Kush Conference
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淲illiam Leo Hansberry Pioneer of Africana Nubiology: Toward a Transdisciplinary Nexus of Nubian Archaeology, Africana Studies & Africanist Scholarship鈥� (July 2019), UC Santa Barbara 鈥� Santa Barbara, California
UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淢eroitic Kush and Rome: The Politics of Temple Piety and Religious Identities鈥� (October 2018), UCLA 鈥� Los Angeles, California
8th Annual Pan African Global Trade and Investment Conference
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淏uilding an Africana International Studies Program: Pathways to Forging Global Trade & Foreign Investment in Africa & The Pan African Diaspora.鈥� (September 2018), 好色先生, Dominguez Hills 鈥� Carson, CA
14th International Conference for Nubian Studies
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淭he Ascendancy of the Kushite Kingdom of Kerma in the Post Middle Kingdom Era: Revisiting the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt鈥� (September 2018), The Mus茅e du Louvre and Sorbonne University, Paris, France
42nd Annual Kawaida Institute for Pan African Studies Conference
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淜awaida Theory and the Conceptualizing of Africana Religions鈥� (July 2018), The African American Culture Center, Los Angeles, California
19th St. Shenouda-UCLA Conference of Coptic Studies
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淥sirian Motifs in the Martyrdom of St. Peter of Alexandria鈥� (July 2018), UCLA, Los Angeles
Drew University Theological School - The Africana Studies Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium听
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淭oward an Africana Theory of Religion: Seeking out a Distinctive Disciplinary Schema for the Study of Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora.鈥� (March 24-26, 2017), Madison, New Jersey
Penn State University College of Communications Office of Multicultural Affairs
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淔rom Ferguson to Africa: Dispensing with Race; Reclaiming Black Power.鈥� (February 26, 2015), University Park, PA
Candler School of Theology, Emory University
Visiting Lecture Presentation for doctoral study course: African Moral Philosophy Directed Reading Course (February 18, 2015), Atlanta, Georgia
Twenty-Sixth Annual Cheikh Anta Diop Conference
Lecture Presentation: 鈥淐heikh Anta Diop, Physics and the Consciousness of Sovereign Experience: Toward a New Africana Philosophy and the Re-Emergence of Sovereign Theology鈥� (October 2014) Philadelphia, Penna.