Abstract

The chapters in this volume were presented in May 2016 at a conference at the University of Manchester, entitled ‘Multiple Faiths in postcolonial cities: Living together after Empire’. On 22 May 2017, one year after the Manchester conference, people were startled by a terrorist attack, which took place at the end of a concert of a teen pop-idol, Ariana Grande, in the Manchester Arena. The attack claimed 23 lives and wounded many people. Two days later, religious leaders—Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and leaders of other religious denominations—rallied and showed unity, giving a powerful message of resilience, demonstrating the strength of multiple faiths joining together to address and defeat the forces of hatred and prejudice. These events point to both the continued challenges of living together after empire faced in many post-colonial cities, and the attempts by faith communities to meet those challenges. The theme of the 2016 conference and this volume, ‘Living together after empire’, addresses concerns which are evidently faced in many urban contexts, and not exclusively those of Europe and Northern America. Indeed, African capitals, such as Nairobi and Bamako, have also witnessed terrorist attacks, as have Dhaka and Jakarta, to name but a few. This project then, attempts to engage with these concerns and to resource the meeting of the challenges of living together ‘after empire’.