When slavery came to America, the slave owners main goal was to dehumanize the enslaved person to get them easily under their control. The African people were stolen from their homes and forced into spaces with people from different cultures and who had different religions and rituals. Even though they had different beliefs, the enslaved people were able to find many similarities with in their own religions to bond together and continues those rituals. Most tribes had a common belief that the “God” figure was a far off and distant one and had control over smaller gods who inhabited earth in different places.

One of the parts I found most interesting about the reading was what they believed about the afterlife.  The common belief was that after you died, you became a spirit and you continued to interact with humans and human life (pg.14). Most religions I have knowledge about in the afterlife you go to a separate area, like heaven, and those who have passed watch over the living but do not get involved with it themselves. There is something comforting with the idea that your ancestors are still with you and looking out for you and your other relatives. Especially when you are put in a situation where you are stripped away from your family and dehumanized. That balancing of the spirit world could work as a reminder of hope for the people that the spirits are trying to work in their favor.

The resilience with the enslaved people was amazing. They lived in a place where they were designed to be oppressed and dehumanized but yet they still found ways to continue their traditions. Even with owners trying to force the enslaved into following their religions because they found a way to use it to support slavery, African Americans found a way to follow their beliefs while making it their own and something they could actually believe in. A good example of this is in the African American History and Culture Museum in Washington D.C. where on display they have a bible that is translated into Gullah-Geechee which was the language used by descendants  of Africans in the south.

African Diaspora was an interesting excerpt to read and I learned a few things from this reading. There were times where I struggled to understand the concepts of certain parts of the reading. Sometimes I would have to go back over sections and analyze the text to make sure that I was grasping the ideas that the author was trying to express. One section that really stood out to me was the African Religious Traditions. I was both intrigued and confused by this particular section. Reading about the  Portuguese-African children who were the very few Africans that were “converted” from Islam to Christianity was interesting. One thing that confused me was the time line of the next portion of this section. The author talks about the small success Portuguese missionaries had with converting West Africans during 1682. Then the author states that Christianity became widespread among Africans more so enslaved Africans around the nineteenth century. However I thought that the Atlantic slave trade began around the 1600’s so I did some research and found this website. It was a very detailed website that offered a lot of information about the Atlantic slave trade.

Traditional beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse and include various ethnic religions. They were largely Orisha religions. Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural, include belief in a supreme creator, belief in spirits, and the veneration of the dead. They also include the use of traditional medicine.The role of humanity is generally seen as one of harmonising nature with the supernatural.

One particular section of this week’s reading that I found especially interesting was Chapter One of Sernett’s “African American Religious History”. In this chapter, Olaudah Equiano discusses the Ibo religion. He often makes references to Judaism, pointing out similarities between these two religions. He mentions that they both practice circumcision and had similar feasts and offerings. They also choose names for their children in the same way. They have  washing and purification ceremonies on the same occasions. He states that the Ibo government is similar to the government of primitive Israelites in that they are both run by the society’s chiefs, judges, and elders.  He even cites a man who traced African lineage back to Afer and Afra, who were descendants of Abraham and his wife. One possible reason Equiano does this could be that he wishes to point out similarities between two religions that are not usually thought about as being compatible. When thinking about African American religions, one does not immediately associate a religion such as Ibo with Judaism. By drawing these parallels, Equiano de-alienates these religions that the reader may be less familiar with. He also subtly points out that every religion has some sort of connection with every other religion, whether it be Christianity and Judaism celebrating the same God, or Judaism and Ibo holding some of the same religious practices.

While both readings were very interesting I really wanted to talk on some points of “The African Diaspora.” One thing I wish “The African Diaspora” had gone more in depth on was slaves from the Islamic faith. The chapter went into detail about interactions between Christianity and African traditions in America but aside from a few mentions didn’t give much information on the interactions between white Christians and black Muslims. One thing I found very interesting was the fact that escaped slaves continued to practice Catholicism even when they found black communities. I would have expected that once they escaped they would have wanted to be rid of the religion of the people who had oppressed them though I suppose Catholicism may have been so ingrained in these communities by this point it may have been hard to separate from it.

Dr. Francis Le Jau’s account of the conversion of the African-American slaves of Goose Creek parish might, to some modern white Christians, ring as evidence of Christianity’s tendency towards good. Clearly Le Jau does argue that there are “sensible and honest Negroe Slaves”(Sernett 27). Indiana University’s summary of The Carolina Chronicle of Dr. Francis LeJau, 1706–1717 even calls Le Jau a “keen and fair-minded man”. Furthermore, he even advocates for better treatment of slaves, saying that “[slaveowners’] Neglect is an habitual state of sin” (Sernett 31). Are these not the words of a man resentful of the treatment of his fellow man? Is white Puritanism independent of the sins of racism propagated by Euro-Americans at the time? Hardly.

The fact of the matter is that Le Jau does not see these slaves as humans. He even confides that he “[has] thought it most convenient not to urge too far that Indians and Negroes shou’d be indifferently admitted to learn to read” (Sernett 28). His sympathy toward the African-Americans in his parish is only that- pity. His benign neglect of the slaves’ plight of slavery, as Ralph Ellison says in the introduction to Invisible Man, “[translates] ‘Keep those Negroes running- but in their same old place’”. He feigns interest, concern. But in the end, Le Jau’s concerns are about as useful as the neglect shown by the slaveowners- misplaced and misleading. Sure, he will give the slaves hope of personhood- but in the end they must remember that they are still slaves.

The reading that interested me the most this week was “African Religions in Colonial Jamaica” and more specifically, the author’s take on Obei and how it affected the people who believed in it. Edwards makes it extremely obvious that he believes that Obi-men/women were just very good at spooking people, to the point of murder. “The oldest and most crafty are those who usually attract the greatest devotion and confidence; those whose hoary heads, and somewhat peculiarly harsh and forbidding in their aspect, together with a skill in plants of the medicinal and poisonous species, have qualified them for the exercise of this art” (pg 21). The idea seems to be that every black person in Jamaica was so thoroughly convinced of the skill of the Obi-men that their own minds caused them to fall ill in some sort of horrific placebo effect, mostly because of a combination of “they look creepy,” “they’re good at plants,” and extremely firm religious belief.

What interests me about this is that I believe you could make the same argument for just about any religion/spirituality. Christians believe in miracles because of their firm religious beliefs, and from an outsiders perspective, miracles might generally occur due to chance, coincidence, or placebo effect. Wiccan magic can very clearly be seen to be placebo from an outsider’s perspective, although since most magic tends to be of the “trying to gain self-confidence” variety, this isn’t really a problem, as they can still say that the magic worked, much like obi.

To me, what it boils down to is that any religion that believes in a supernatural ability to change ordinary circumstances could easily be perceived as placebo– but it could just as easily be real and interconnected with the same ideals of the other religions that do the same. This doesn’t really have a moral, I just think it’s cool.

I found things interesting in this reading. When I think about religion in African American society, I automatically think of Christianity. It intrigued me to see how before Africans were brought to America through slavery, their religions were so diverse and full of things that are not found in traditional Christianity, such as speaking to the ancestors and believing in reincarnation. The reading also changed my idea of cults from being completed negative to indifferent. Santeria is actually making a pretty big comeback in Cuba. It has even been named “Cuba’s New Favorite Religion,” even though it is not new. Here is a link to an article about how Santeria has emerged from Cuba’s shadows: https://news.vice.com/article/santeria-is-cubas-new-favorite-religion

While reading the three articles I enjoyed the two books because of stories behind each chapter. In the book Through the Storm, Through the Night by Paul Harvey, I love how it explains the story behind the people of Africa and their religious backgrounds. When reading the chapter is angered me to read about how the Europeans treated the Africans and how they were seen as barbaric. Just because people do not practice their faith in the same way as you does not mean you could strip them from their culture. While the white people would take the Africans off their country I felt as if they were entitled to have these human beings. These people have souls, feelings, culture, and history. By taking them off their homeland showed they had no care in the world about how the Africans were being affected. I was very upset on how white people took them and treated them like dirt. No being should be treated in such a disgusting way like of my ancestors were treated.

It was upsetting to read the stories in African American Religious History by Milton C. Sernett because people had cultures, religions, and spirits were strong when they were in their homeland. It was difficult for the Africans to adjust to the New World because they did not know where they were. The story that disgusted me the most was how the next generations would use their Christian faith to help them get out of slavery. The now African Americans would use scriptures as evidence on why there should be free but the white people did not want to hear it. African and African Americans were tired of being treated terribly that some would try to kill their owners in order to be free. It is sickening to read about what my ancestors had to go through and I am sorry. I am sorry that you could not stay in African like you wanted. I am sorry that there were people too lazy to do their own work. I am sorry that you were tortured, hung, raped, burned, and had your spirits broken. I am sorry for all that you went through but, I also thank you. Thank you for fighting back, standing up for what you knew was right in your hearts. I thank you for being strong and for giving the next generations after you a better future. It is because of you that my family and I are here today free like you dreamt about. Thank you for all that has been done. I am proud to say that because of you, we are all better off. Thank you for everything if it wasn’t for you America would not be as it is today. Thank you for starting the fight; we will use your strength and spirits to guide us as we fight ours.

While reading this week, the following quote from Raboteau’s “The African Diaspora” (1978) stood out to me.

“Adaptability, based upon respect for spiritual power wherever it originated, accounted for openness of African religions to syncretism with other religious traditions and for the continuity of a distinctly African religious consciousness” (Raboteau 4-5).

I believe this quote will hold considerable weight throughout the semester as our class examines and analyzes the various African American religions. What struck me as most important was the description of respect for spiritual power as a common thread among African religions. The presented concept of religious acceptance, and adaptable respect to power, demonstrates a higher level of civilization despite European claims to white racial superiority (and therefore, authority over races deemed inferior).