CHAPTER 6:African American Religion

& Nationhood 

Slavery

• slave trade, 1600s-1700so West Africa

• importation of slaves outlawed, 1808

By the 19th century, 20% of the national population was

African American.

West African Religious Worldviews

• sense of community

• ancestors

• continuity with spirit world

• high God as creator

• Tricksters (spiders, hares)

West African Religious Practices

• storytelling

• animal sacrifice

• divination

• music & dance

• possession

• magic for healing or harm

New Land, New Religion

• new Tricksterso Brer Rabbit

• conjure & root worko voodoo in New Orleans o elements of Catholicism

Black Christianity

• some became Catholico use of material elements in ritualo Saints as intermediaries

• many became Protestanto Methodist & Baptist

Invisible Institution

• slave revolts o unsupervised meetings banned

• hush harbors

• spirituals

• ring shout

Sources of African American Religion

1) West African background

2) condition of slavery

3) language of European Christianity

The Black Church in Freedom

1) blacks within white denominationso separate seating or churches

2) independent black churches

3) black denominationso A.M.E.o A.M.E. Zion

20th-Century Black Religion

• migration to North

• migration to citieso urbanizationo growing class divisions

• Afro-Caribbean immigrants

Holiness and Pentecostal Religion

• presence of the Spirit

• gospel music

• healing

• sanctified life

• new esteem for blackness

• Charles Mason & COGIC

Religious Combinations

• Peace Mission Movemento Father Divineo prosperity

• Spiritual churches of New Orleans

• Haitian vodou

• Afro-Cuban Santeria

The Religion of Blackness

• Marcus Garvey

• Ethiopianism

• Rastafarianism

• Moorish Science Templeo Wallace D. Fard

Nation of Islam

• Elijah Poole/Elijah Muhammad

• Yakub’s History

• Malcolm X

• Wallace D. (Warith) Muhammad

• Louis Farrakhan

Blackness and Christianity

• Martin Luther King, Jr.o civil rights movement

• James Coneo influence of W.E.B. DuBoiso black liberation theology

• Cornell West

OVERVIEW

• slave trade

• West African traditions

• invisible institution

• growth of the black church

• religion of blackness