Academics
"Built for the Diaspora. Powered by Purpose. Delivered Online."
Programs of Study
The Bahari School of Ministry offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees grounded in ministry, community leadership, technological literacy, and cultural heritage. Designed for those called to serve in urban port cities and African diasporic coastal communities, our programs combine spiritual depth with practical application in real-world settings.
The word "Bahari" means "ocean" in Swahili—a waterborne language from the East African coast. It evokes not only physical seas but spiritual landscapes: the ocean as archive, movement, depth, and ancestral wisdom. Our name reflects a geography of crossing, remembering, and returning, embedding the ocean's memory into every aspect of our teaching.
Our school was not born in ivory towers. It emerged in lived spaces: the sea breezes carrying hymns across Lagos's docks; drums echoing through Havana's alleys; midwives' whispers in Charleston, South Carolina; and revival tents in Port-au-Prince. Necessity, calling, and love for ocean-shaped people forged Bahari's vision, which orients our academic pathways.
Our Educational Philosophy
Our educational philosophy is built on three intersecting commitments:
- Ancestral Memory - Centering the histories and wisdom of African maritime communities
- Applied Practice - Connecting learning to real-world ministry and community service
- Transformative Leadership - Preparing culturally grounded leaders for coastal communities
Why Coastal Communities?
First, urban port cities broadcast the complexity of diasporic life: racial inequity, migration, economic stratification, cultural innovation, and environmental vulnerability. Education in these contexts is under-resourced. Studies show that coastal cities along the Atlantic Seaboard and American South are repeatedly underrepresented in research—even on urgent issues like climate adaptation and coastal resilience.
Second, the African diaspora's educational journey has often been shaped by non-institutional memory—home-based craft, oral transmission, community, faith, and cultural resourcefulness. Yet most formal programs are disconnected from these traditions and the coastal realities where they flourish.
Third, Afrocentric and culturally grounded education is far more effective for marginalized African diasporic populations. When curricula center on the learner's own tradition and environment, not only is the mind decolonized, but identity is reclaimed and agency restored.
Our Graduates Emerge Equipped To:
Teach & Research
With cultural fluency and ethical digital literacy
Serve & Lead
In heritage-rich urban port cities
Heal & Organize
Through practices embedded in ancestral arts and cultural health
Advance Justice
In environmental and human systems shaped by the ocean's edge
Our Academic Departments
At Bahari School of Ministry, programs center on African and diasporic arts, culture, and historical interpretation, infused with visionary and responsible AI use. We're waiting for you to join one of our academic departments:
Department of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Exploring cultural heritage, creative expression, and community narratives
Department of Math, Sciences, and Information Technology
Integrating digital literacy, AI tools, and technological innovation
Department of Ministry
Grounding service in spiritual formation and community transformation
Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
Connecting multiple fields for holistic leadership development
Undergraduate Programs
At the undergraduate level, students enter into a foundation of faith, cultural identity, and ministry readiness:
Coastal Educational Ministry
Preparing culturally informed educators and spiritual mentors to serve in schools, arts organizations, community centers, and civic institutions along coastlines and in underserved urban zones. Students gain experience developing AI-assisted curricula, heritage-based learning tools, and arts-infused teaching strategies that reflect cultural identity and historical knowledge.
Community Leadership Ministry
Where ministry is shaped by advocacy, organizing, cultural preservation, and public engagement, equipping students to lead in movements, non-profits, arts collectives, and faith-rooted institutions. AI technologies are introduced to support civic analysis, strategic planning, and community storytelling.
Graduate Programs
Our master's degrees invite deeper specialization and critical inquiry. Students are not only cultural interpreters, creative practitioners, and community architects—they are preparing to engage in ministries shaped by the lived experience of diasporic communities.
Coastal Educational Ministry
Advanced preparation for educational leadership in coastal contexts, emphasizing curriculum development, pedagogical innovation, and culturally responsive teaching strategies.
Community Leadership Ministry
Deepening leadership capacities for community organizing, cultural preservation, and transformative ministry in African diasporic contexts.
Doctoral Programs
At the doctoral level, Bahari offers a rare academic space for rigorous, culturally specific research and advanced leadership in ministry.
African Diaspora History and Cultural Ministry
Prepares leaders to interpret and apply historical knowledge, strengthen cultural continuity, and uplift traditions of faith, community life, and creative expression. AI is used to synthesize historical and community research, design meaningful collaborative projects, and build digital archives that preserve and celebrate diasporic history and culture.
Coastal Community Leadership
Trains students to preserve, reinterpret, and apply ancient coastal lifeways in new and relevant ways—from ecological knowledge systems to maritime arts and intergenerational memory work. Students harness AI to document visual and performing arts, digitize oral traditions, and create cross-cultural repositories.
Our Empowerment-Based Educational Model
- Culturally Responsive, Place-Based Education: Grounding learners in their communities' real and often untold histories
- Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Connecting historical awareness with civic and economic tools
- Afrocentric Curriculum Design: Affirming African American identity in a global legacy of creativity
- Community-Engaged Learning: Validating lived experience and community-held knowledge
- Arts-Integrated Learning: Encouraging artistic expression as identity, memory, and vision
- Policy-Oriented Learning: Empowering learners to shape equitable futures
- Faith and Ethics-Based Framework: Grounding service in sacred purpose
Academic Calendar
Our Classes Begin Every Four Weeks!
Join a community of learners dedicated to cultural preservation, spiritual growth, and transformative leadership.