20
African Diaspora Religion
Introduction
People of African origin have endured a dispersal perhaps unprecedented in terms of numbers and degree of brutality in modern times. This African dispersal was the direct result of the slave trade; its lasting legacy, the creation of an African diaspora. Though slavery and the traffic in slaves in Africa preceded European involvement in the trade, it was the fabulous profits to be had from European plantation economies of tobacco, sugar and, later, cotton in the New World which dramatically increased the numbers of slaves involved. As a direct result of the slave trade, people of African ancestry are now to be found as far afield as North America, Brazil, the Caribbean and, most recently, Europe. However, this event must be placed in context, as it was just one aspect of the dramatic European expansion which transformed a situation in which Europe was merely a branch of world history to one in which the world was part of European history [29].
The African slave trade displaced substantial numbers of black people to Latin America (principally to Brazil), the Caribbean and North America. It is impossible to be accurate about the numbers, but between the sixteenth and the nineteenth century over 10 million people arrived as slaves in these territories from the Senegambia, what was called the ‘Gold Coast’ and East Africa [7]. The statistics speak for themselves, and table 20.1 showing the numbers of slaves who arrived at various destinations in the New World and Europe during this period is just a guide to the human scale of the trade. When considering these figures it should be remembered that there was a 30 per cent mortality rate among those forced to make the passage.
The impact of this trade upon the West African societies is probably incalculable. However, it is known that the movement of so many people transformed the cultures of North America, the British and French Caribbean and Brazil. Indeed, this social transformation in both Africa and the New World was accompanied by a similar religious one. Regardless of whether the slave-importing religious culture was Catholic or Protestant, the transmission of African culture, especially African religions, shaped the religion of former slaves and their descendants, first in the New World and subsequently wherever people of African origin are to be found in the West.
| Table 20.1 Numbers of slaves taken from Africa to the New World and Europe, sixteenth to nineteenth centuries | |
| Destination | No. (millions) |
| Spanish Americas | 1.5 |
| British Caribbean | 1.5 |
| French Americas | 1.5 |
| Brazil | 3.5 |
| Dutch Americas | 0.5 |
| United States and British North America | 1.0 |
| Europe | 0.5 |
Source: P. Curtin, S. Freierman, L. Thompson and J. Vansina, African History, London, Longman, 1978.
Throughout the New World religion played an essential role among African slaves and their descendants. This is because it was a reminder of the Africa whence they came; it provided the medium through which to tell subsequent generations that their origin was a different place. Religion, whether African folk or Christianity, is the only universal language of aspiration throughout the New World. It was the only permitted language in which Africans could formulate the dream of becoming free subjects. This allows us to talk about an African diaspora, black people who share a common cultural affinity and, equally important, patterns of oppression.
Beginning with Africa, this section of the chapter will explore the characteristics which enable us to draw links between the numerous Christian and non-Christian African-influenced religions found in the Caribbean and Brazil, North America and the United Kingdom, as a European country with a significant black population. The syncretic links between Christianity and African religious are the principal characteristic of the new black religious inside and outside Africa. In predominantly Catholic countries some integration between African religious and the cult of saints has taken place. In Protestant countries, on the other hand, the devotion of saints is disapproved of, limiting the opportunity for similar developments. Nevertheless, even in Protestant countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, the characteristics of African diaspora religion can be found. Whether in Protestant or Catholic countries, these include spirit-possession, song and dance, folklore and myth, healing and charismatic worship.
Following on from the section on Africa is a study of diaspora religion in the United States. This section emphasizes the political and social roles which are also a characteristic of African diaspora religion. In this case Africa has benefited, and continues to benefit, from ideas formulated in the New World. Africa's liberation struggles, not to mention the overthrow of the apartheid South African state, were motivated by ideas which originated among African Americans and their response to the racism they experienced in the United States [l6]. The continued dynamism of African diaspora religion, both in Africa and in the New World, can be partially accounted for by discrimination. However, as will become apparent in the subsequent sections on the Caribbean and Britain, this is not a complete explanation. The creation of new religions will be explored with an emphasis upon the important roles played by social status, community identity, gender and social class. African religion is characterized by its great diversity within the African diaspora. This diversity disguises the common features shared by black religions across the world, a commonality which enables us to talk about an African diaspora religion.
African Religions
Christianity is the major modern religion practised today throughout Africa south of the Sahara. This can be accounted for by contact with European nations, which began in the fifteenth century. The original European intervention remained on the periphery of the continent until the nineteenth century, when the interior of Africa, called the ‘dark continent’, was explored and then colonized. By the early twentieth century nearly all of Africa had been subjected to European rule and Christianity was established as the predominant religion [7].
Any description of African religion must begin with Christianity. The other important religions in Africa – Islam, classical religion and the syncretic new religious movements – have been deeply affected by the rise of Christianity on the continent. Islam is largely absent south of the Sahara, except in West Africa, where marabouts and Sufi orders were the agents of conversion. Likewise, in East Africa Swahili culture – the language reflecting the mix of Afro-Arab shared heritage – along with the various slave trade routes helped to establish Islam in a number of centres along the East African coast as far south as Tanzania; but further expansion was checked by the presence of European missionaries [7]. For this reason, Islam does not feature prominently in this section.
Non-Christian and syncretic African religions, however, do figure prominently in this section. In response to Western Christianity. African theologians have embraced a new single African identity which relies heavily upon a celebration of African traditional culture. New religious movements and the reassertion of African classical religion are important pans of this theology. The relationship between the African theologies and both African culture and the colonial legacy will also be explored in this section.
Christianity
European expansion and Christianity At the beginning of the nineteenth century the interior of Africa was still untouched by the Europeans who had penetrated at various points along the shoreline. Portuguese trading posts on the east and west coasts and Dutch settlers around the Cape shared a presence in Africa with those European nations involved in the slave trade. Black Africa was still in the hands of people who wielded traditional powers and maintained a social structure which would be unrecognizable 100 years later. Yet the slave trade had left its mark upon African society. An estimated ten million people were enslaved and sent to the New World as a vital component in the economies of the Caribbean, Brazil and North America [7].
The slave trade and the Dutch and British settlement in the Cape were precursors of the ‘scramble for Africa’. Intense British and French rivalry in Europe initiated the partition of Africa, with a literal race across the continent which drew in both Belgium and Germany. By the beginning of the twentieth century the majority of Africa was controlled by European nations. In the following years those parts of Africa left unmolested by the initial partition were consumed by Italy, France and Spain, with the sole exception of Ethiopia, which resisted Italian attempts to colonize it at the end of the nineteenth century. An Africa was created with national boundaries which bore little relation to the linguistic and cultural divisions which existed at that time. This legacy was confirmed when African nations, created by colonial fiat, achieved independence during the 1950s and 1960s and declared these boundaries to be inviolable. This decree has meant that each and every former colonial state has had to invent itself and to imagine its identity. Classical African religion has played a key role in this construction.
European Christian missionaries came to Africa in advance of the main partition of the continent. In the west, on the slave coast, Christian anti-slavery activists established a Christian community of freed slaves in Sierra Leone. This was to become a centre of learning and the propagation of Christianity across the region using, initially, black catechists (untrained converts) and, later, trained African priests. Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone was one of the first colleges founded to train an African clergy [7]. David Livingstone, a missionary and explorer, was celebrated by his contemporaries for his ‘discoveries’ rather than his success as a missionary. However, his life did capture the imagination of the British public, underwriting support for British participation in the ‘scramble for Africa’.
Missionaries from France, Germany and Britain, both Catholic and Protestant, began to translate the Bible into vernacular languages and establish schools. These, with the aid of African catechists, became powerful tools of conversion. Catechists aided missionares in a number of crucial ways, teaching them the local languages, assisting in translation of the Bible and aiding the missionaries in the establishment and running of the missions. The pace of Christian expansion in Uganda, for example, was dictated by the role of the catechists and was far more rapid than originally envisaged by the missionaries [7]. The missions were attractive to the local populations because of the education they offered. Quite simply, African communities, confronted with the impact of the European expansion, perceived education to be the route to modernization. At the height of the colonial period conversion and access to education provided an opportunity to learn a European language and to obtain a skilled job. Unlike classical African religion, Christianity was able to provide a sense of stability at a time of traumatic and dramatic change.
The Christian message missionaries brought to Africa was both radical and potent because the Bible spoke about the African condition in a way that related directly to its people. The Bible addressed themes with which black Africans could easily identify, such as circumcision, the prophecy of healing, Mount Carmel and the rainmaking contest, and the suffering of the people of Israel. The explicit message that all were equal before God took on a particular meaning within the context of oppression represented by both colonialism and slavery [16].
In spite of the strong implications in Christian doctrine concerning equality, most missionaries in the early twentieth century were deeply influenced by pseudo-scientific racism. They preached spiritual equality but were reluctant to train African clergy to replace themselves. Though some Africans were ordained and trained by both Catholic and Protestant churches, overt discrimination against the African clergy in the actual administration of the churches lasted until the end of colonialism. This discriminatory double standard on the part of European missionaries both galvanized Africans and aroused their resentment from the beginning of the colonial period, especially within the Protestant churches. The result was that whole congregations broke away from parent missionary churches and created independent churches. These new Africanized churches, of which more will be said later, are a potent phenomenon right across Africa and an indication of the continuing importance of Christianity to many African communities, outside the mainstream church. These independent churches also preceded the general Africanization of Christianity which took place once colonialism was overcome [18].
The mainstream churches in black Africa Christianity has expanded dramatically in Africa: today, the Christian churches claim a membership of some 140 million Africans: Catholicism is the dominant religion in Africa, even in many of the territories not colonized by either France or Portugal [30]. However, the Africanization of the clergy, whether Catholic or Protestant, has not resolved the problem of a shortage of trained priests. As a result, the catechists continue to play a vital role in the churches across Africa [7]. In consequence the church hierarchy remains fluid and the laity are encouraged to play a central role in the day-to-day running of the more remote church congregations. Nevertheless, the leadership of the Christian churches in Africa is now in the hands of Africans [16]. Today, African Catholics are represented by six Cardinals. South Africa has a legacy of gross discrimination based upon racial difference; nevertheless, white South African Anglicans, of whom there are a substantial number, are also headed by a black African leadership. The new leadership in Africa has begun to influence church policy at the both the regional and the global level; at ecumenical and other global Christian meetings African Christian views and perspectives are heard and upheld [16].
African and black theologies African theology places African culture and religion at the centre of Christian worship, directly challenging the assumption that Christian salvation can only be achieved by a rejection of African traditional culture. A unified Africa and a sense of a common African or black experience was created by colonization. The universal contempt in which Africans were held throughout the colonial period was shared by peoples right across the continent. The early Christian church in Africa also contributed to this shared experience. Indeed, white missionaries assumed that Western civilization and Christianity were the same thing and essential for the salvation of the African people [16; 18]. Racism still persists today, despite the overthrow of European rule in Africa since the 1960s. As a result, the modern African identity is shaped by the perception that theirs is a backward and inferior cultural identity and by the experience of racism. African theology seeks to place African culture at the centre of Christian worship on the continent.
There is evidence of differing strands of theological thought across the numerous African churches. The clearest distinction, however, is that between black theology, as articulated in South Africa, and African theology, adhered to by independent countries further to the north. Much of both African and black theology is based upon the common experience of oppression all Africans share. Nevertheless, it is important to explore the distinctiveness of ‘black’ and ‘African’ theology, while accepting the shared context from which each is derived.
African theology The roots of an African theology began with the nineteenth-century North American African-American activists, such as W. E. B. Dubois and E. W. Blynden [16]. Though primari1y concerned with politics, these African Americans were early pan-Africanists and linked the promotion of black peoples with a reaffirmation of African culture and religion. This approach was taken up by Africans in the early yeas of the twentieth century within the context of resistance to colonialism and the imposition of a Christianity interpreted from a solely European perspective. It was in this context that African religious thinkers began to rebel against the assumption that adoption of Christianity necessarily involved a rejection of the African personality and traditional culture, and that there was no continuity between African traditional religion and the Christian message [16].
Young Africans educated in seminaries and schools in both Europe and Africa began to question the assumptions behind colonialism and Christianity in Africa. The Négritude Movement, a literary grouping that began in the 1930s in Paris, led by Léopold Senghor and Aimé Césaire, was an affirmation of black cultural identity in history, literature and art. Placide Tempels wrote a seminal work which affirmed the existence among the African peoples of a coherent system of thought and a positive philosophy of existence, of life, death and life after death. Subsequent writers have disputed his analysis as being too Eurocentric, yet they too accepted his basic notion that the African way of life has a valid philosophy. The following years saw the creation of an Africanized Christian doctrine, cult, pastoral practice and art, based upon African culture and religious traditions. The Zairean T. Tshibangu made the most significant contribution to this development. He reasoned that it was possible to have a ‘theology with an African colour’. While acknowledging that divine revelation and principles of human reasoning are shared universally, he argued that there are special African characteristics which allow for a theology done in an African way [16].
African theology challenges and refutes the notion that traditional cultures and religions are inferior and to be abandoned. In contrast, African theology raises the question of what unity of Christian faith means, as opposed to uniformiry, and how the universality of the one Christian faith is to manifest itself in concrete forms. The main themes of African theology are those aspects of Christian faith which Africans especially value, but which Western culture has neglected or failed to emphasize [20; 23; 8; 14]. These include the important of community and communion; the value of solidarity and human relationships, both among the living and with the deceased (especially the ancestors); and the constant interaction with the invisible (God, minor deities and spirits). Life is considered holistically, a view which is closely associated with traditional African conceptions about health and sickness, good and evil. African theologians find the Old Testament, with its disposition towards symbolism and ritual, to be most representative of African lives. Ultimately, because Africa is a continent of the oral tradition rather than the written word, the most dynamic elaboration of African theology is articulated by the congregation rather than by theologians. This means that African theology is the authentic and original expression of the celebration, song, dance, prophecy, dreams, sermon and healing ritual within the Independent African churches. It is also elaborated in small Christian communities or the revival groups within mainstream churches [17; 21].
This process was supported by the Second Vatican Council between 1962 and 1965 and became standard thinking among progressive Catholic thinkers during the following decade. Protestant thinkers were also influenced by the radical departure in thinking of African theology. The All Africa Council of Churches was formed in 1963 and provided a vehicle through which new African religious leaden could share ideas and encourage the Protestant churches to respond to African theology. Since the establishment of the Ecumenical Association of African Theologians in 1977 in Accra, this body has become the major forum in which African theology is being developed [29].
South African black theology Dramatic changes have taken place in South Africa in the early 1990s, culminating in universal elections which swept the African National Congress into power with Nelson Mandela as President. These events have placed a question mark against the future form of South African black theology, based as it was on the lone tradition of protest against racial discrimination, appropriation of land and economic exploitation to which communities not of European origin have been subjected. The Calvinist perspective of the early Dutch settlers in the Cape, from whom the Afrikaner communities are descended, was at the heart of white justification for the occupation of this region and the confrontation with the people they found there. This was a view which assumed that God chose white people as his own possession and ordained them to subject the heathens (black people), making them the hewers of wood and the drawers of water. With the construction of the apartheid system in 1948, the state formalized the organization of people on the basis of colour and race. These became powerful symbols of distinction and the apportioning of power and privilege [16].
The reaction to this institutionalized racism among black people and other peoples of non-European descent was both similar to that of African peoples throughout the continent south of the Sahara and also quite distinct. The rapid development of African Independent churches in the first decades of the twentieth century was just as prolific in South Africa as it was across the rest of the continent. Dissatisfied with the levels of autonomy given to both catechists and trained African priests, African leaders broke with mainstream missions to establish Independent churches. However, the particular South African context in which African people lived also evoked a specific political response, in which the churches also participated. The religious form this response took has at its core South African black theology.
The apartheid system not only classified people on the basis of race, it also had art economic logic. Its purpose was to sustain a cheap and disenfranchized labour force for the mines and industries. The consequence was the impoverishment of the vast majority of South Africa's population. Africans were confined to huge urban townships, such as Soweto, which did not enjoy even the most basic of facilities; or they were isolated in ‘Bantustans’, territories under nominal black control which were nothing more than dormitories for the unemployed and the families of migrant labourers. The response of the African National Congress to this extreme form of exploitation was to abandon its originally non-violent methods and instead to adopt more forceful methods to challenge the apartheid state. Likewise, black theology began to take shape during the 1970s, a time of extreme oppression against African leaden such as Mandela and Steve Biko [22; 18; 16]. This decade was a rime when Africans were seeking to establish black consciousness, rejecting the apartheid system which defined Africans as foreigners in their own land and, instead, beginning to assert their own identity [22]. For African church leaden, who were closely associated with this new consciousness, black theology was of central importance. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bishop Mana Buthelezi and the Reverend Allan Boesak were able to articulate the suffering of both their congregations and the wider black community [31]. Indeed, the strength of black theology was its ability to create a sense of shared experience between religious leaders and the people. In the face of a system of extreme oppression based upon the colour of an individual's skin, the central theological question became one concerning the necessity of condoning more extreme methods than mere reform to overthrow an unjust system: Can the support of violence be reconciled with Christianity? [15]
This question lay at the heart of South African black theology, a liberation theology which has been at variance with African theology and its project to revalorize African traditional culture. This is very understandable, as black South Africans were confronted by an apartheid ideology which had given great prominence to the ascribed national characteristics of communities to divide and keep separate non-European communities. Today, however, South Africa has entered a new era, one in which the apartheid system has been dismantled and the differences within society are no longer underwritten by the state. This means that, for all its success in challenging apartheid, the main tenets of South African black theology have, like apartheid, been consigned to history.
Over recent years there has been a move to reconcile the differences between African theology and South African black theology. Theologians representing both traditions realized that they had much to learn from each other. South Africans have come to accept that Africans will not be able to liberate themselves unless they first regain their culture and human identity. In return, theologians further north were obliged to give more attention to the present-day problems confronting modern Africa. Whether they agree or not, it is the congregations rather than the theologians who will determine the shape and pace of theological change in South Africa. This is nowhere more apparent than in Africa's Independent churches, which are pan of the trend towards new religious movements in modern Africa [16].
New religious movements in modern Africa The most dynamic phenomenon in modern Africa has been the growth of Independent churches or new religious movements across the continent south of the Sahara. They are examples of how Christianity has been adapted to the African condition, rejecting foreign structures, especially those proffered by Western missionaries. There are thought to be over 10,000 of these new movements across Africa, in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zaire, South Africa and elsewhere. Fifteen per cent of all Christians in Africa, between ten and twelve million people, belong to such groups [29].
The origins of these movements can be traced back to colonialism and the problems Africans had with European traditional religion. The paternalistic mission churches and the perception held by missionaries that ancestor cults and polygamy, for example, were idolatrous, as well as Africans' reluctance to accept Western medicine unconditionally, were all sites of conflict between Africans and European missionaries. The new religious movements have dealt with these issues with varying degrees of success, some by splitting from mainstream churches, others by replacing the European missionary with a black leadership. The worship of a black prophet or Messiah in place of the white symbolism usually accompanies such splits. These new churches incorporated features of African society and religious practice, including, for example, methods of faith healing, traditional medicine and polygamy – which, with the Bible now at their disposal, Africans could see was part of ancient Israelite religion [18; 29].
It is very difficult to classify these new religious movements, with few religions falling into any neat system. There are, however, three widely recognized general types of movement. The most numerous and the fastest-growing consists of the Zionist Independent churches, the prophet-healing or spiritual churches. These churches are described as being broadly Pentecostalist in character and with an emphasis upon charismatic leadership and healing. They derive their name from the close relationship between these churches and American missions in South Africa, especially the Evangelical Christian Catholic Church of Zion City, Illinois. These churches are found both in South Africa and in the rest of the continent [18]. One of the most influential Zionist Independent churches is the Aladura church in Nigeria and other countries in West Africa [7]. ‘Aladura’ is Yoruba for ‘owners of prayer’. This prayer and healing movement is represented by societies such as the Celestial Church of Christ and the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, as well as numerous Cherubim and Seraphim societies all over West Africa. These churches were first founded in 1918, but saw considerable expansion throughout the middle decades of the twentieth century under Joseph Babalalo's mass healing movement. Since Nigeria's independence in 1960 this movement has received official recognition and continues to make converts among the Muslim population in Nigeria's north. The Aladura churches still draw most of their members from former mission churches, providing opportunities for women, in particular, to achieve positions of leadership. Though no formal union has been established between these West African churches, most have relationship with Western Pentecostal churches. For example, the Church of the Lord, Aladura is affiliated to the World Council of Churches [29].
The similar Ethiopian churches, known also as Separatist or Orthodox churches, form the second group of new religious movements. Ethiopian churches, in contrast to the Zionist churches, are African Independent churches which have largely maintained the patterns of worship and doctrine of the European churches from which they have broken off. Not to be confused with the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church, these churches were founded during the first decades of the twentieth century in reaction against the paternalism and discrimination within the European-run mission churches [18]. Again, these churches are closely associated with South Africa, but can be found right across the African continent. The Jamaa Movement in Zaire, Maria Legio in Kenya and the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart in Zambia originated in Roman Catholic missions [7]. The Providence Industrial Mission in Malawi and the Cameroon Baptist Convention originated in Protestant missions [29].
The third group of movements are eschatological, such as Alice Lenshina's Zambian Lumpa Church. Christian in ethos, this movement predicted the ending of the world, emphasized the role of music and perceived witchcraft as a danger. Other movements revived classical religion through the mission structure. All these movements adopted traditional functions but altered their content. Healing, for example, though prominent, is stripped of its traditional methods and theories. The syncretic nature of these movements is also a major characteristic, as is visionary experience [7; 29]. Yet without doctrinal underpinnings these movements rarely survive the death of their charismatic leadership. They wane, become a distinctive African Christian church or create a new syncretic movement based upon Christian and classical religious concepts combined.
African Classical Religions
African classical or ‘traditional’ religions are an important aspect of Africa's past. The very term ‘traditional’ reinforces the sense of authenticity enjoyed by these religions. As a consequence, religion continues to play a significant role in the creation of contemporary African identity. This ironic, because this identity emphasizes the common experience shared by Africans, and yet the concept of a unified African identity did not exist prior to colonialism, when African traditional religions were at their height. Successful resistance to colonialism and the construction of a new independent Africa relied upon resistance to oppression and the assertion of a new African culture, in which traditional religion played a key part. A discussion of African classical religions, therefore, far from being a discussion of a dead past, is a description of modern African cultural identity.
The evidence for African classical religions is derived from the period of dramatic transformation during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This was a time of the West, Southern and East Africa empires. These included, in the west, the interior empire of Ghana and its fourteenth-century successor, Mali, the state of Songhay, the Hausa trading cities, and the forest kingdoms of Oyo, Benin and Akan. In the east, the Funji empire spread over what is now Sudan and Ethiopia. In southern Africa there were the Zimbabwe kingdom, the Kongo state and a similar empire in what is now Zaire. These states were agricultural and trading empires and, as a result, were influenced by circumstances beyond their border. The West African states, for example, owed their strength to contacts with the trans-Saharan trade routes and, later, with Europeans and the slave trade on the coast [7].
The absence of written evidence makes it impossible to construct accurate historical accounts of these kingdoms. However, it is with these empires that African classical religions are closely associated. Far from being fixed and stable religions, they were evolving at a time of considerable transformation in the regions in question. As the empires asserted themselves, what is today recognized as traditional African religion superseded the previous local cults. European intervention at this point had a profound impact upon these ritual-based religions. The purpose of a discussion of African classical religion here is accordingly to emphasize its contemporary role in Africa, not to subscribe to a notional ancient authenticity.
Until recently some Western scholars were reluctant to accept that religion existed among people who relied upon an oral, rather than a written, tradition. It is now accepted that what ‘religion’ is has been circumscribed by its having been understood hitherto from a solely Western cultural perspective [16]. Scholar now accept that African ‘religiosity’ exists in many forms and, unlike Western religion, is based upon a cosmology in which the entire world can be viewed as a source of power to be held in balance and controlled. This is in contrast with Western notions which distinguish between sacred and secular [18].
It is not clear whether it is possible to talk about a single African traditional religion, or of a multitude of different religions on the African continent. Scholars, especially anthropologists, have taken the latter view; African theologians, in contrast, have taken the former view and have sought to map out common ground between these African religions. The question of an artificially constructed African past culture and the absence of a definition of culture remains [16]. The great diversity in geography, history and language across Africa, not to mention the varying social forces, has resulted in many distinct forms of religious custom on the continent. Nevertheless, underlying assumptions about the role and nature of the human's place in the world represent common characteristics which these religions share. Rather than address individual religions, it seems therefore more appropriate to provide a brief summary of some of the common features shared by African classical religions.
Common to all these religions is the belief in a supreme being; they are therefore described as theisms. Usually beneficent, such a being can be appealed to in times of crisis, most often through intermediaries such as lesser divinities and ancestors; yet the supreme being plays little part in the cults or mystic imagination of the people. The intermediaries, who may take the form of deities, spirits or ancestors, relate closely to the dally concerns of people. They may act as the agents of the One, but they also have their own independence and power inherent in the world, as expressed through their actions [29].
Myths within African classical religion convey a sense of an original order which became disturbed during the creative process, as a result of which death and disorder entered the world. As cosmology, these religions are explanatory: they describe the human condition, including the world as it is experienced, morality and regeneration, rather than apportioning blame and suggesting a means of salvation, or the hope of restoring the primordial state. The world as it is experienced is thus the starting-point for ritual and worship [29].
The period in which African classical religion established itself was an era of political and economic centralization in African states. The development of religious authority in West Africa, Sudan and Zimbabwe supported the notion of divine kingship and served to accommodate the older and more diffuse forms of authority. Among the West African religions, for example, modem rituals reenact the struggles between local cults and centralized imperial religion. Within agriculturally based imperial states the ritual of sacrifice was performed by the king, who was closely associated with the fertility of the land. Southern African states, such as the Zulu, associated the fertility of the land with a female deity. These patri-lineal societies have elaborate female initiation ceremonies and women form the links between clans through marriage. As a result, women play an important role in these societies as healers and ritual specialists, mediating between human society and the spirits [29]. On the other hand, the more decentralized societies such as the Nuer or the Dinka in southern Sudan, or the Mbuti of Zaire, do not acknowledge central spiritual authority or create shrines with religious specialists to support them [7].
Ancestors also play the important role of maintaining the continuity between life and death. Recently deceased ancestors (described as ‘shades’) have power to intervene in the affairs of the society. Also common is the belief in multiple ‘selves’ within an individual. Thus part of a person can represent continuity with a family or a clan, or can be the reincarnation of a dead individual who continues to retain their position as an ancestor. Witchcraft is important in manifesting previously known or unknown ‘selves’ within an individual. Witchcraft can be used positively to support an individual or community, or for anti-social ends. The notoriety associated with witchcraft is the result of the attention paid to the anti-social activities associated with this practice, including sorcery, shape-changing, cannibalism and ‘beasts of the forest’.
In recent years the witch-curing cults which counteract the activities of sorcerers have gained in popularity. This development has coincided with increased interest in healing and divination cults in general. Sickness and il1 health are perceived as resulting from a diminution of personal power as a consequence of possession by a deity or ancestor, or the effects of witchcraft. Healers, using oracles and other forms of divination, determine the source of the illness and proffer remedies. The holistic approach to the body, which is a characteristic of African religion, means that divination has a prominent position in these religions. Divination in Yoruba society has developed considerably in recent years; in particular, deities are perceived to make themselves known through sickness [29].
Music and art are central in African classical religions. Music plays many roles. It can have an important pan in ritual and worship; the spirit world is thought to be amenable to music, especially that derived from divine sources. There is a distinction between sacred and other forms of music, in particular between the repertoire of hymns and songs associated with the gods and ancestors and those used for healing, fertility and celebration. In contrast, much of African religious art is symbolic rather than representative. The locations of shrines found in regions where classical religion is practised are either places thought to be charged with power by, perhaps, the presence of spirits, or sites where sacrificial offerings might be made. Carved bronzes, as among the Edo in West Africa, are symbolic of individual kings; likewise, masks and body paint display temporary spirit-possession. Sculpture of the human form can reflect the devotees themselves, symbolizing the human response to divine power [29].
To conclude, single-tradition religion in Africa, whether modern classical religion, Christianity or Islam, serves to bring together the disparate cultures on the continent. Yet we know that the era of single-tradition religion in Africa south of the Sahara only began with, first, the arrival of Europeans, and then the imposition of colonialism. The survival of African classical religions into the modern age betokens more than merely a revival of interest in ancient tradition: it is a reassertion of a new African identity, one which has deeply affected all the single-tradition religions south of the Sahara. One sign of this is the emergence of an African Christian theology, which seeks to spell out Africa's distinctive contribution to the world's cultural heritage, ideas and institutions, both in the past and in the future. Another sign is, of course, the impact of African culture overseas. Within the African diaspora in North America, the Caribbean, South America and Europe, African culture lives on.
African Diaspora Religion and the United States of America
Introduction
The United States and Brazil share a legacy of African slavery, yet religion among the former slaves and their descendants differs markedly between the two countries. The United States is a plural society in which the division of church and state was a novelty at the time of its inclusion in the American constitution, with no European states having such legislation. Slavery and Protestantism form the contest within which we can understand the distinct development of African diaspora religion in the United States. Black religion in the United States is a strongly emotional faith, based upon evangelical Protestantism. In recent years, and in a further departure from their Brazilian neighbours, many African Americans have embraced Islam. Yet, despite the overtly anti-white rhetoric of the early Islamist organizations, the character of African-American Islam originally resembled that of fundamentalist Protestantism rather than that of mainstream Islam. To understand the unique and influential development of African-American diaspora religion it is necessary to begin with a description of the wider development of Christianity in North America. As the freed slaves streamed north after the Civil War and emancipation they encountered a Protestant European religious and ethical environment which was to have a lasting impact. Into this environment the descendants of slaves and former slaves brought their distinct African identity.
Protestantism comes to North America
The fall to the British in 1664 of New Amsterdam, renamed New York, influenced the nature of Christian religion during America's early European history. By this date the eastern seaboard was settled principally by members of the Church of England and others whose allegiance was to organizations of a dissenting character. For example, the southern colonies of Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas were Church of England, while the northern colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and New Jersey were associated with the dissenting tradition [1]. Baptists, inspired by Roger Williams, were predominant on Rhode Island. Quakers were to be found in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but were in the majority in these colonies only for a short period. The New England Puritans were, in the main, Congregationalists. Rejecting the more bureaucratic Presbyterian organization, they governed themselves through independent congregations, as their name implies. As a great pioneer of separatism, Roger Williams made his mark on the American constitution with the enactment of the First Amendment, separating church from state. Nevertheless, the hostility of the northern colonists to slavery, their pacifism and their simplification of worship have had a major influence upon modern North American puritan thinking. The ‘Great Awakening’ of the eighteenth century added new vigour to this strand of thought, as Jonathan Edwards and, later, George Whitefield introduced a passionate and charismatic intensity which was well received by all the Protestant organizations. Indeed, this made their doctrines and practices more relevant to their lives as they began to move away from the east coast into America's hinterland. It was at this time that Methodism, named for the idea tat one should live according to a ‘method’ laid down in the Bible, also gained in popularity [9].
The nineteenth century, a period characterized by the European expansion westwards, saw a second ‘Great Awakening’ among the temporary camps of the new settlers. These pioneers, confronted with huge, open tracts of land, were susceptible to evangelical fervour, from which the Baptists, Methodists and Congregationalists drew most benefit. It was during this period, too, that the first original North American religion, Mormonism, was created in Upper New York State. Its cohesiveness, puritanism and emphasis upon family values attracted many followers to the Mormon church. Once it had abandoned its more bizarre practices, Monson became another conforming evangelical Protestantism [1; 9].
The importance of the Protestant religious movement across North America lies in its impact upon general North American values and outlook. Separatism, pacifism, egalitarianism, tolerance, independence, thrift and the importance of the family are all conspicuous puritan values; they are all found in strands of American thinking. These values would be tested during the days of mass immigration from Catholic Europe during the earlier decades of the twentieth century. Of more importance in the present context, however, is the impact of puritanical beliefs upon the many hundreds of thousands of former slaves as they began to move north out of the former slave colonies into the industries of central and eastern America in the nineteenth century. The adoption of Protestantism by African Americans has had a significant influence upon their identity.
African Americans and Slavery
The slave trade was the sole reason for the presence of Africans and their descendants on the American on the American continent. As can be seen from table 20.2, African Americans have been a significant minority of the total population of the United States since the end of the eighteenth century.
| Table 20.2 African American population of the United States, 1790–1994 | ||||
| Year | Slave | Free | Total | % of US population |
| 1790 | 697,681 | 59,527 | 757,208 | 19.3 |
| 1800 | 893,602 | 108,435 | 1,002,037 | 18.9 |
| 1810 | 1,191,362 | 186,466 | 1,377,828 | 19.0 |
| 1820 | 1,538,022 | 233,634 | 1,771,656 | 18.4 |
| 1840 | 2,487,355 | 386,293 | 2,873,648 | 16.1 |
| 1860 | 3,953,760 | 488,070 | 4,441,830 | 14.1 |
| 1880 | 6,580,793 | 13.1 | ||
| 1900 | 8,833,994 | 11.6 | ||
| 1920 | 10,463,131 | 9.9 | ||
| 1940 | 12,866,000 | 9.8 | ||
| 1960 | 18,871,831 | 10.5 | ||
| 1970 | 22,672,570 | 11.0 | ||
| 1980 | 26,488,219 | 11.7 | ||
| 1991 | 29,986,060 | 12.1 | ||
| 1994 | 33,000,000 | 12.9 | ||
Source: United States Commerce Department, Census Bureau.
Though the original slaves brought with them their customs, language and, most importantly, their religions, force of necessity meant that the majority of these importations were quickly abandoned. As commodities in an extremely brutal trade, African slaves were open to widespread and pervasive exploitation and abuse and were not accorded the dignity of being considered human beings. Slavery helped to manufacture the myth of the inferiority of black people in comparison to whites. It was in this context that Africans, forbidden to practise their own religions, were introduced to Protestantism. Slaves were taught a version of Christianity designed to legitimize their the situation and to promise escape from this enslaved misery into eternal life. Yet the use of religion as a form of social control was only partially successful, for the Christian message also offered the hope of freedom and equality. Furthermore, in secret societies and meetings on slave compounds across the American South, the scriptures were reinterpreted and synthesized with African expression in stories, song and dance, bringing new meaning and energy to the Christian way [19].
African American Protestantism
The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution on 18 December 1865 guaranteed the emancipation of slaves originally promised by President Lincoln's 1863 Proclamation. Former slaves were free to move out of the southern slave states and north into the industrial heart of the United States, and to follow white settlers west over the Alleghenies. As they did so they encountered new Protestant denominations. African Americans in slavery from the mid-eighteenth century onwards had found the Baptists to have the greatest appeal for them of all the puritan groups, because of their-warm and charismatic nature and the emphasis upon the conversion experience. The advocating of adult baptism, though not unique among Protestant groups, helped the Baptists to become the most popular form of Christianity among Africans in the South [19]. However, emancipation brought new opportunities and a growing dissatisfaction with white-led churches [31]. Though they preached liberation and egalitarianism, these churches largely failed to extend these values to their black members. As a consequence, African Americans established their own independent churches. Methodism, with its emphasis upon devotional worship and music, enjoyed a significant black following and it was from this religion that the most important schism took place. As early as 1787, Richard Allen formed the first black Methodist congregation, the Free African Society. In 1793 this society became Bethel Church, an independent Methodist church. In 1816 representatives of a number of black Methodist churches met in Philadelphia and organized the African Methodist Episcopal Church as the first national black denomination, choosing Allen as their bishop [19]. Emancipation heralded a similar break with other white-led churches. Outside the South, blacks established separate churches and, eventually, denominations within Protestantism, including many black Baptist churches.
Black Protestantism is evangelical. In the Nosh American context, this means a belief in the authority of the Bible, salvation only through close personal faith in Christ, experience of conversion and emphasis on a moral life, with abstention from smoking, drinking and promiscuity. This orientation can be described as leaning towards fundamentalist rather than liberal Protestantism, but it suited black communities under siege from extremes of poverty and racism. Black Protestantism became the cornerstone of African-American identity. The Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles headed by the black preacher William J. Seymour in 1906, which inaugurated the new evangelical Pentecostalism, is a case in point. Black Protestantism also played a central role in the political struggle against discrimination [32].
Evangelicalism remained a potent force within black Protestantism throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Out of this period came Martin Luther King, Jr, a Baptist minister and one of the most important Christian leaders in the United States during the twentieth century. Educated at Boston University, King studied the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and further developed the Indian leader's doctrine of satyagraha (‘holding to the truth’) and non-violent civil disobedience [32]. The bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, began a political career of campaigning for civil rights and for better education for Southern blacks which ended only with his assassination in 1968. The death of Dr King coincided with attacks by white extremists upon black churches. Four black children were murdered in the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963; dozens of black churches throughout the South were burned or bombed. The death of Dr King and the attacks upon black churches were indications of the important political role black Protestantism played at this time [32].
Today African-American Christians are found in most of the major Christian denominations in the United States, with the number of members of the Roman Catholic Church reaching 855,000 in 1978; the United Methodist Church had 500,000. However, the majority of African-American Christians are members of over 140 denominations which have split either from white or white-controlled denominations or from other black groups during the past two centuries [2]. These can be roughly divided into three separate Christian traditions: Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal.
The majority of black Americans are Baptists. Indeed, many prominent African Americans in the United States have been Baptist ministers. As well as Martin Luther King, these include Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ralph David Abernathy. Abernathy was a Baptist clergyman who helped establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and served as its president from 1968 to 1977. The largest black-led Baptist denomination is the National Baptist Convention, USA, which emerged out of a schism with the National Baptist Convention of America in 1915. In 1978 it had 30,000 congregations and 6,426,000 affiliated members. The second largest is the National Baptist Convention of America, which in 1978 had 15,200 congregations and 3,300,000 affiliated members. The other significant Baptist churches are the Progressive National Baptist Convention, formed in 1961, which had 655 congregations and 636,000 members, and the 1865 National Primitive Baptist Convention, which had 2,198 congregations and 207,000 affiliated members at the end of the 1970s [2].
The second largest church tradition which has substantial black allegiance is Methodism. Like the Baptist tradition, African-American Methodism was one of the major churches slaves and former slaves joined. The largest denominations are the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Zion. The former had 6,000 congregations with 1,529,000 members in 1978; the latter, 4,500 congregations and 1,307,000 members. The other large African-American Methodist church is Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; in 1978 it had 2,598 congregations and 600,000 affiliated members [2].
The third major black tradition is the Pentecostal movement. The black Pentecostal community, which has little to do with the white Pentecostals or Neo-Pentecostal (charismatic) movement among whites, numbered over 2.7 million adherents in 1970. The largest body is the Church of God in Christ, with 7,000 congregations and 1,600,000 affiliated members. A schism within this organization in 1969 produced the Church of God in Christ International. This is now the second largest Pentecostal denomination, with 1,041 congregations and 501,000 members in 1978. Other major denominations are the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, with 550 congregations and 60,000 members, and the United Holy Church of America, which had 470 congregations and 70,000 members in 1978. The former was formed in 1914, the latter in 1886 [2].
North American Black Theology
The development of a distinct black theology was influenced by a number of factors. The most important were the civil rights movement, the rise of the Black Power movement in response to the perceived failings of Martin Luther King's non-violent struggle, and, finally, the continuing absence from mainstream North American Christianity of the black experience and the theological content it might have contributed. These influences challenged black religious leaders to examine the relationship between black religion and the struggle for power and identity among the people. A distinct black theology was the principal outcome of their response [16].
The works of D. J. Roberts and J. H. Cone were central to the creation of a black theology during the 1970s. This theology has at its core the social and historical context which defines not only the questions black people address to God but also the answers to those questions. Though black theology is based upon biblical revelation, the study of the scriptures is determined by the social contest within which people live, in order, as Roberts described, to ‘contribute to a faith beyond discursive reason, and one which is based upon “reasons of the heart” ’ [26]. This is why, according to Cone, ‘white’ theology interprets the divine Word differently from black religious thought. The emphasis upon the black experience means that North American black theology, with its roots. in slavery, promotes the distinction between black and white. Political struggle, which might condone violence, and a preoccupation with social and political issues, might be criticized as negative and narrow. Indeed, Cone's works have been criticized as being too combative, making it difficult to imagine an eventual reconciliation between black and white Christians. Roberts addressed this issue head-on, reasoning that, for Christians, separation must eventually give way to reconciliation [25]. Yet it is important not to assume a weakness in the black Christian position. Reconciliation can only be achieved through liberation.
James Cone has the reputation of a radical black theologian. Of white liberal Protestantism, he said, ‘American theology is racist! It identifies theology as dispassionate analysis of the “tradition”, unrelated to the suffering of the oppressed’ [5]. Roberts was equally critical, but Cone's language was the more combative. Cone supported and advocated Black Power, by which he meant freedom, self-determination and the restoration of dignity among African Americans [6]. His words challenged the ecclesiastical establishment in the United States. More importantly, both Roberts and Cone, as well as other black theologians, helped black theology to emerge as an important dimension of North American theology.
Islam and African Americans
During the mid-1960s, a time when black American Christianity was extremely powerful at the forefront of the civil rights movement, African Americans were being attracted to an alternative religion, Islam. Yet this was not the orthodox Islam which many slaves had brought with them from Africa. Instead, until the 1970s an unorthodox grouping, the Nation of Islam, won most adherents among African Americans. The history of the Nation of Islam consists of its transformation from the unorthodox to the orthodox and its continuing political importance as a radical African-American organization.
Like most of the black Protestant groupings, the Nation of Islam owes its roots to the perceived injustices within North American society during the middle years of the twentieth century. Established by Wallace D. Fard in Detroit in 1930, the organization was taken over by Elijah Poole, later known as Elijah Muhammad, in 1934. Elijah Muhammad, declaring Fard to be Allah, took the title of Allah's messenger and taught an extremely unorthodox doctrine. This was that blacks had been usurped by the evil race of whites who were allowed to rule for thousands of years, at the end of which chaos would follow, from which would emerge a kingdom ruled by black people. Segregation of blacks from whites was advocated, as was abstinence from drink, pork, smoking and even cosmetics [12].
This radical doctrine was challenged by one of the organization's most charismatic representatives, Malcolm X. On his return from a hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, during which he discovered the incompatibility of the teachings of Elijah Muhammad with those of orthodox Islam, Malcolm X split with the Messenger of the Nation of Islam. It was an act for which he would pay with he life, but the momentum for change had been started. In 1975, ten years after the murder of Malcolm X, Wraithudden Muhammad, son of Elijah, took over the movement and eventually brought it into line with orthodox Islam. Changing its name to the American Muslim Mission, Wraithudden Muhammad, now an orthodox Muslim, opened up the membership to whites and renounced any separatist pretensions. However, many members of the Nation, of Islam remained loyal to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and, under the militant leadership of Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam lives on. It remains a significant black radical religious group and, like its former organization, continues to attract African-American adherents who live in a society with a legacy of slavery and continuing racism [12].
African Diaspora Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean
African Diaspora Religions in the Caribbean
Introduction In contrast to the United States, African diaspora religions in the Caribbean and Latin America serve to express aspects of the Africanness of the descendants of former slaves. Unlike North America, Latin America and the Caribbean were colonized by predominantly Catholic countries. This provided the opportunity for African rituals and ideas to mingle with Catholic practices. Indeed, the conquest of the New World was a Catholic crusade within the context of the sixteenth-century Counter-Reformation which firmly established this religion in the major countries of Latin America and the Caribban, such as Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The former Dutch and British colonies in the region are predominantly Protestant countries, yet the refusal to convert slaves to mainstream Christianity has enabled nonconformist and syncretist traditions to fill the void in these islands too. Nonconformist churches, such as the Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal, are found in the former British colonies such as Jamaica and Barbados. These are the most important Christian churches among blacks in the Caribbean. Like the other nonconformist churches, Pentecostalism is a popular, charismatic grouping with a distinctive style of worship. Worship through songs, conversion, faith-healing, speaking in tongues and ecstatic experiences of the Spirit are all part of the evangelical spirit which was derived from the United States, fired by fundamentalist missionaries. However, other, non-Christian, religions are also of significance in the Caribbean. These religions are derived from the African slave legacy and express those aspects of African culture which remain throughout the Caribbean. The religions described below are the most influential in the region, but they are by no means the only such religions.
Santeria Of the many religions in the Caribbean to make direct reference to African culture, Cuban Santeria is perhaps the most significant. Many aspects of Yoruba rites feature in this religion, which is a syncretic mix of Catholicism and Yoruba: Deities and holy figures from each are identified with one another, integrating the two religious traditions. Thus, for example, the Shango god of thunder becomes St Barbara; Orunmila, of divination, becomes St Francis; Obatala is Our Lady of Mercy; Elegba is St Peter. The life and power of the gods reside in stones secured beneath the altar. Animal sacrifice and spirit-possession are also elements of Santeria. Fidel Castro's repression of religion makes it difficult to assess the number of adherents to Santeria [27].
Voodoo Voodoo is burdened with an extremely sinister reputation as a religion replete with heathen, supernatural and evil practices. It is perceived by many to be the very antithesis of Christianity. Indeed, reference to this religion is rarely made without emphasis upon its darker side. This means that the central role Voodoo, and similar African folk religions, plays in the lives of the people of the Caribbean is generally overlooked [28]. The traditional view of Voodoo is that it is a syncretic mix of African and Catholic religion which is predominantly found in Haiti. Voodoo has indeed been exploited by most of Haiti's leaders. François Duvalier, who was president of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971, used the religion both to stifle dissent and to win the support of poor Haitians. Duvalier was able to use Voodoo in this way because it is so deeply embedded in the ordinary everyday religious life of the people as a whole. The positive role Voodoo plays in the lives of Haitians must, however, be understood alongside its more negative aspects.
Voodoo owes its origins to the Benin religion, from which it derived its name. Brought over with slaves to the Caribbean, the religion can be found throughout the region. Its predominance in Haiti is accounted for by the brutal plantation colony run by the French. In this extremely oppressive environment 25,000 slaves died every year. This high mortality meant that more slaves went to Haiti than anywhere else; 300,000 in the last twenty years of the colony's existence. Voodoo sustained many through this extreme oppression and became the organizing principle of the eighteenth-century slave rebellions. The defeat of the French and the creation of the first independent black state in the New World in 1804 was an extraordinary achievement. However, the centrality of Voodoo to this success has firmed its notoriety in Western minds.
Like many African religions, Voodoo emphasizes human relationships, both between the living and the deceased (especially the ancestors), and with invisible deities and spirits, with whom humans are in constant interaction. Life is considered holistically, and the religion is closely associated with traditional African conceptions of health and sickness, good and evil. As a consequence, in ritual worship spirit-possession, animal sacrifice and music and dance feature prominently. The holistic approach to life is reflected in the importance attached to the natural cycle of life and death. The fear of Zombies is evidence of this importance. People who have had their souls stolen by sorcery are described as Zombies in Voodoo tradition. Those so affected have committed crimes against society and are placed in a state of perpetual purgatory, where they cannot complete the natural cycle of life and death, as a form of retribution. The fear is not of Zombies, but of becoming one. Its power as a social sanction depends not on how often it has occurred, but that it can occur and has done.
To dwell upon Voodoo's sanctions is to misunderstand its positive role in Caribbean society, The real power of Voodoo lies in its capacity for good, in particular for healing. Traditional Voodoo cures remove bad spirits (called the ‘spirits of death’) which cause sickness and death. Traditional healing is claimed to be as effective as modern medicine, and is especially important in an impoverished society such as Haiti where access to good modem medicine is denied to many. Traditional healers and priests remain accessible to even the poorest in Haitian society. In a society where there is a massive discrepancy in wealth between the poor majority and the tiny, rich, ruling elite, Voodoo is one of the few common languages, expressing the sense of shared Haitian identity [28].
The Rastafarian movement The Rastafarian movement is one of the most important religious movements among people of African descent, both in the Caribbean and wherever black communities are to be found. It has also had a dramatic impact upon the wider societies and cultures with which it has come into contact. In Britain during the 1970s, for example, the Rastafarian movement became a key symbol of black youth identity and had both a negative and a positive effect upon British society as a whole. The perception of the Rastafarian movement includes that of a deviant phenomenon, Rasta adherents being closely associated with drug-taking and trafficking. By the 1970s, nevertheless, it was a hugely popular religion among both black and white youth, with reggae music at the centre of British popular culture. Yet the world-wide adoption of Rastafari belies its Caribbean context.
The Rastafarian movement is a millenarian movement; its adherents believe that a process of transformation is to be engineered and executed by a supernatural agency. Its origins stems from the work of the Jamaican Marcus Garvey, who established the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914. This organization was the vehicle for Garvey's aim to return blacks to Africa. His organization was active in both the United States and Jamaica for two decades, spreading his message that the evil system of colonialism had scattered blacks all over the world where they were unable to express themselves fully, intellectually and culturally. The restoration of their lost pride was to be brought about, in Garvey's opinion, by a complete rupture with the white world and the return of blacks to Africa, which for Garvey was synonymous with Ethiopia. Nevertheless he failed in his stated aim, with neither black Americans nor Jamaicans taking up his invitation to return to Africa [4].
Crucially, Garvey's doctrine depicted evil as not only the white race which continued to subordinate black people, but also blacks themselves who accepted this inferiority. Evil lay bot inside and outside black people. Garvey argued that blacks had to recognize their potential. To achieve this, people had to awake from a slumber of centuries to a life revealed trough God. Garvey's conviction that this ‘awakening’ was to occur in the near future and would result in asocial transformation in which all blacks would gravitate to a great African homeland survived the decline of his organization and his death in 1940. Despite Garvey's failure, by the early 1930s groups of Jamaicans had been inspired by his doctrine, none more so than early Rastafarian leaders. A great deal of mythology surrounds Garvey and his alleged words, ‘Look to Africa when a Black king shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is near.’ Nevertheless, this phrase served to create a new belief-system [4]. In November 1930 the Prince Regent, Ras (‘Prince’) Tafari, was crowned as Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. This event coincided with Garvey's attempts to generate interest in the Ethiopian royalty and at the same time it was perceived as portending a transformation in which colonial rule would be overthrown and blacks returned to Ethiopia. These ideas coincided with a world economic depression, which helped to create the powerful idea of a symbolic millennial return to the paradise of Ethiopia. The symbolic importance of Ethiopia stemmed from its being the only black-ruled state in existence at a time of universal European colonization of African territories and subjection of black peoples. In the early 1930s Rastafarians took on Garvey's blueprint. Though the Rastafarian movement is considered to be at variance with Garvey's own set of beliefs, his teaching remains the key influence upon this black religion [4].
By the time Haile Selassie was overthrown in 1974 the beliefs and symbolism of the Rastafarian movement had been more or less established, as had its anti-establishment reputation. The modern characteristics of the Rastafarian movement include a loosely defined belief-system due to its lack of a single authoritative voice. This is in contrast to its early years, with Leopold Howells, Archibald Dunkley and Nathaniel Hibbert active before the Second World War and Claudius Henry after it. During this later period the Rastafarian movement became strongly associated with intrigue, violence and revolution in Jamaica. Ironically, these events helped to create great interest in the movement and to imbue it with a political dimension: it became the voice of the oppressed Jamaican. It is this perspective which served to propagate Rastafarian beliefs, symbols, motifs and emblems across the world. In Jamaica, the use of Rastafarian symbols by the Premier Michael Manley in his 1972 and 1976 election campaigns, during which the reggae artist. Bob Marley played concerts on his behalf, indicated both the incorporation of the Rastafarian movement into Jamaican identity and its wider popularity within the majority black population [4]. Since then the Rastafarian movement has become a universal language of aspiration in Jamaica and the wider New World alike.
The number of Rastafarians in Jamaica is estimated to be about 100,000 [29]. Within Rastafarian belief God is both a deity and inherent in all people. The acceptance of Ras Tafari as a living manifestation of God is a central aspect of adherents’ belief Lacking in central authority, Rastafarians are unable to organize themselves on sectarian models; indeed, the membership is more appropriately described as a loose aggregation. Yet the Rastafarian movement has a shared and clear conception of evil as embodied in the white colonial system, described as ‘Babylon’. The shared focus on the source of evil and on the perceived ways of alleviating it is universal throughout the movement. Rastafarians regard themselves as a very exclusive and elite body of people, admittance being restricted to those who accept the divinity of Haile Selassie. This emphasis upon the individual has made the Rastafarian movement appear extremely enigmatic to observers, but is perhaps the reason for the success of its world-wide propagation and its continuing survival [4].
African Diaspora Religions in Latin America
Latin American, like Caribbean, religion is influenced by both Christianity and African classical religions. Brazil reflects this mix clearly, with large numbers of the poorer parts of the population, who are predominantly of African slave origin, adopting non-Christian religions. As in the Caribbean, the non-Christian religions described below are probably the most important in Brazil, but do not constitute an exhaustive list.
Winti Winti, also known as Alfodré, is a folk religion practised by the Creole population in Surinam. Some do not describe this as a syncretic religion, but instead see Christianity and Winti as juxtaposed, with adherents of Winti behaving in certain contexts as sincere Christians. This might be explained by the predominance of Protestantism in Surinam as a consequence of the work by Moravian missionaries.
Winti is of African origin, however, and is a spirit-possession cult which deals with everyday concerns including illness and misfortune. Winti conceives the world as being replete with various spirits and forces in the classical African way. These wintis – deities – and also spirits of the dead need to be honoured and placated, and their help can be sought. The intervention of these deities in human affairs is frequent; they communicate with the participants in the rite by means of the possession of male and female mediums. The rites are usually overseen by the bonoeman, a religious mediator, who has a supervisory role and is skilled in traditional medicine. Winti is also practised within Surinamese communities in the Netherlands. A religion akin to Winti, but with a more systematic African expression, is practised by the descendants of African slaves who are isolated in the interior of Surinam [3].
Candomblé Candomblé is the name of a religion which, like Voodoo, came to Brazil with African slaves. Recognized as a religion during the nineteenth century in the states of Bahía, Maranhão and Pernambuco, it too has come to represent a universal language among African Brazilians who are largely from the most underprivileged groups in Brazil's society. It is known as Shango, the Yoruba god of thunder, in Pernambuco; Macumba in Rio, in the south-east of Brazil; Tambor de Mina in Maranhão; Nagõ in Pajelança; and Catimbí or Batuque in the central regions of Brazil. These diverse names reflect the local specificity of this African folk religion. Far from tending towards cohesion, the different congregations have remained independent of each other. This reflects Candomblé's origins as the continuation in Brazil of African traditional religions, centred upon worship and the rites of spirit-possession.
Candomblé is syncretic in that it mires (some would say juxtaposes) African and Roman Catholic beliefs, such as African deities with Catholic saints. Amerindian beliefs have also been incorporated, though to a lesser extent. As with other African folk religions, the relationship with the deceased (especially the ancestors) and the constant interaction with invisible deities and spirits, are central features of Candomblé. In Bahía women hold an important role as mediums of the Yoruba gods. These cults endured considerable persecution in both the late nineteenth and the mid-twentieth centuries. Today they have a significant following; now legal, participation in them is fully recognized [3].
Umbanda Umbanda is often described as an African Brazilian folk religion. However, unlike Candomblé, it is not confined to the poorest groups in north-east Brazil. Found in the south of Brazil, its members are more affluent and many are from Euro-Brazilian communities. Established in the early twentieth century, Umbanda is a much more cohesive and better-organized movement than Candomblé, producing publications to promote its cause. The 200,000 adherents also have significant political influence, with members in local and central government. At election time the support of this religion is seen as an important electoral prize. However, although attempts have been made to create a federation out of the various congregations throughout the country, as with Candomblé this has been largely unsuccessful, and Umbanda congregations remain independent of each other.
Umbanda is described as a syncretic religion which incorporates African, Amerindian and Catholic features. In terms of both content and membership, less emphasis is placed on African traditional religion than in Candomblé. However, spirit-worship forms an important element of this religion. Ritual includes placating harmful spirits through sacrifice to numerous deities. The belief in reincarnation is also a salient pan of Umbanda. Reincarnation, in either a higher or a lower economic position, is one of the major forms of social sanction. Favourable or unfavourable rebirth is thought to give reward or punishment for conduct in this life. Belief in reincarnation is closely associated with the spiritualism of Allan Kardec and Kardecismo [3].
Conclusion With, perhaps, the exception of Umbanda, the adherents of the non-Christian Caribbean and Latin American African-derived cults summarized above come from the poorest sections of their country's population. As is the case in the United States, the United Kingdom and even Africa, poverty and racism are strong catalysts for the growth of these alternative religious groupings. It would be a mistake, however, to focus on this negative image to account for the popularity of these African diaspora religions. They also play a very important role in creating a sense of cohesion, of belonging and identity in communities which, in many cases, consist merely of the dispossessed. They also help to create a sense of status and purpose for sections of the population, for example women, who would not otherwise receive equivalent opportunities. To view these diaspora religions as bizarre or even dangerous, as many observers do, particularly in the case of Santeria, Rastafari and Voodoo, is to misunderstand their vital role as a central feature of the identity of the countries in which they are found. That they evoke the past should not mislead one to think that they are not part of the future of both the Caribbean and Latin America.
African Diaspora Religion in Britain
Background
People of African origin have been resident in Britain for more than four centuries. However, for the majority of this period they were few in number. Nevertheless, these early ‘black Britons’ were active Christians as members of mainstream and nonconformist churches. There has been a black Pentecostal independent church in London since 1908 [10]. However, significant black congregations were only formed with mass immigration, mainly from the British Caribbean, which began in 1948. Britain was facing a labour shortage in its service industries, such as health and transport, at this time and encouraged West Indians to migrate to Britain with the promise of work in these industries, which were less popular with white workers, in the major industrial conurbations of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Birstol [24].
The proliferation of independent organizations within the British black church movement can be partly accounted for by the Caribbean Christian experience which the migrants brought with them and the rejection of migrant Christians by the white established churches. The prevalent racism within the established church, combined with a method of worship perceived as sober and boring, drove migrant Christians away from white-led churches. The consequence was the phenomenal growth of black-led churches in Britain. According to Roswith Gerloff [11], by 1990 there were approximately 1,000 assemblies and initiatives in 300 organizations in Britain. These assemblies are thought to have 70,000 members and an estimated 120,000 adherents. The growth rate of black churches in Britain is thought to be 103 per cent from 1970 to 1985, or 113 per cent from 1970 to 1990: approximately 5 per cent annually since 1970. This phenomenal growth far exceeds that for other denominations, and is attributable to a number of factors. In the 1970s continuing immigration helped to build congregations. Once immigration had been curtailed by legislation, these churches continued to grow as a result of natural growth among the under-12 and over-35 age groups. Finally, the churches also received ‘converts’ from established churches. The vast majority of people who have joined these churches are of African descent [11].
The Caribbean and African Diaspora in Britain
Today Britain, like other European nations that had a colonial empire, has an ethnically diverse population. The rich cultural traditions brought to Britain with migrants from the former colonies are now a feature of British identity. You will find people from white, African Caribbean and African Christian traditions on the same street in London and in Britain's other major cities. Black and minority ethnic communions make up 20 per cent of London's population. Similar proportions apply to Britain's other major conurbations. Furthermore, while white church-goers number a mere 1 or 2 per cent of the total white population, the dynamism among African Caribbean Christians is such that 20 per cent of their communities are churchgoers [11]. A significant proportion of these are adherents of the black independent churches.
| Table 20.3 London's population by racial group, 1991 | |
| Racial group | No. |
| White | 5,490,000 |
| Indian | 362,000 |
| African Caribbean | 304,000 |
| Black African | 170,000 |
| Other | 128,000 |
| Other Asian | 118,000 |
| Pakistani | 88,000 |
| Black Other | 85,000 |
| Bangladeshi | 85,000 |
| Chinese | 59,000 |
| Total | 6,889,000 |
Source: London Research Centre.
One vital role played by the independent churches is the affirmation of the cultural identity of their congregations. These churches are representative of the diverse theological traditions which have come to the United Kingdom with people of African, African-Caribbean and North American descent. It is important to remember tat no black Christian church in modern Britain is directly the result of white Christian mission It is true that white American headquarters or white American mission agencies were active in the Caribbean; yet the Caribbean churches established an indigenous black leadership of their own long before their arrival in the United Kingdom. Free from the subservience of being ‘overseen’ by a white authority, these churches have grown in a climate in which the established churches rejected members from. the Caribbean purely on the grounds of race. In an environment where the black communities have felt the full force of poverty and deprivation, these independent churches have proved especially appealing. Consequently the Native, Revival, Holiness, Adventist or Pentecostal traditions, in being transplanted to Britain, have themselves been transformed by coming into contact with people whose needs are influenced by their experience as British citizens. Meeting those needs has meant that these Christian traditions have been made anew and become an important pan of the British Christian tradition [13].
Black Theologies in Britain
It is not possible to talk about the black church movement in Britain as if it were a single entity. The diversity of denominational and national backgrounds of migrants and the contexts in which they now find themselves is mirrored by the variety of theological expression in the United Kingdom. Gerloff has identified eleven different independent black traditions, some of tem further subdivided, some intermingling and creating new families [11]. Each has had to come to terms with British society and, as a consequence, develop a new theology. These new theologies both transform British society and are themselves transformed in turn.
The Pentecostal movement The Pentecostal movement, by far the largest group of African-Caribbean Christians, directly related to the Azusa Street Revival under the leadership of William J. Seymour in Los Angeles from 1906. This reasserted African elements in African American Christianity, of which two characteristics are ‘speaking in tongues’, believed to include actual languages given to improve communication between God and people, and divine healing, understood as redemption of the individual and the community [11]. Today several groups belong to the National Association of Evangelicals in the United States and to the World Council of Churches. The largest multi-congregational Pentecostal body in the United States is the Assembles of God, with an inclusive membership of about 2.1 million in 1988. Today the Pentecostal movement is spread over the world; it is particularly strong in South America and has an estimated 500,000 adherents in Russia and states formerly within the USSR.
Gerloff has identified three different families of the black Pentecostal movement in Britain. The family with the largest number of adherents is the Trinitarian Pentecostals. This organization is subdivided into those who teach a ‘two-stage-crisis experience’, in the Assemblies of God tradition, and those who teach a ‘three-stagecrisis experience’, in the Church of God tradition. The former group is small in Britain because of the racist policies of the white American Assemblies of God movement; it had little impact in the Caribbean, only reaching Britain via the indigenous movement called Pentecostal Assemblies of the West Indies. The latter group has the largest percentage of African-Caribbean Christian adherents in Britain. Their teaching is represented by two sister organizations, the New Testament Church of God, a name adopted in Jamaica from the Church of God, Cleveland, and the Church of God of Prophecy. Both these organizations have their headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee [11; 13]. Today the leadership of the New Testament Church of God in Britain is younger and more radical. As a result, these organizations have become more concerned with current political, social and racial issues, in contrast to the policies by their white American headquarters. Many smaller splinter organizations are connected with the indigenous black headquarters in Jamaica, such as the New Testament Assemblies and the Assembles of the First Born. The oldest and largest, the Calvary Church of God Christ in Nottingham, has long had links with the oldest black Pentecostal tradition in African America. Members of the Church of God in Britain have replaced earlier usage with an evangelical language of their own which better reflects their social and political needs. Trinitarian Pentecostal churches have been members of the Afro-West Indian Council of Churches since 1977 [11].
The second family of black Pentecostals in Britain is the Oneness (Apostolic) Pentecostals. This organization also has connections with the Azusa Street Revival, and was popular among the black and urban poor in the United States. It was adopted by the rural poor in the Caribbean, especially in Jamaica, and is also popular in Latin America [11]. In the United Kingdom approximately one-third of all Pentecostals are members of this movement. The movement's outreach work, ecumenical relations and community projects mean that it is still attracting adherents. The largest member churches are the First United Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic), the Bibleway Church of Our Lord Jesus World-wide, and the Shiloh United Church of Christ Apostolic (World-wide).
The third black Pentecostal family is the Revival (Healing) Pentecostals. This movement is influenced by American healing evangelists such as A. A. Allen, Oral Roberts, Morris Cerullo and others. It may also have been influenced by the Latter Rain Movement, which teaches a new kind of revivalism different from the Caribbean indigenous religion. In Britain congregations in London, Nottingham and Ireland worship at churches such as Latter Rain Outpouring and Miracle Revival Fellowship. Gerloff has found that healing campaigns unite black and white interracially more easily than other activities [11].
The African Methodist Episcopal The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) are the parent organizations of numerous African-American independent churches. They were formed as the first Christian protest movement against inequality and racial discrimination within North American Methodism at the beginning of the nineteenth century. While both the AME and the AMEZ can be described as ‘African’ in leadership and outreach, they retain the original Methodist doctrine and liturgy. Though they had a considerable impact in South America and South Africa, in comparison to Pentecostalism they have not had a similar effect in the United Kingdom. Of the two, the AMEZ has the larger presence in Britain. Its relative success is thought to derive from its tolerance of charismatic features [11].
Revivalist and Spiritual Baptists The Great Jamaican Revival of 1861–2 created the first synthesis between African cultural symbols, including expressions such as shouting, dancing, dreams and visions, with the Christian message of deliverance. The British congregations are historically and theologically linked with the Native Baptist tradition led by figures such as George Liele and Moses Baker. Revivalist features were apparent in the 1970s in Britain within AMEZ and Church of God congregations in the West Midlands and London. Today Pentecostalism has absorbed this heritage by emphasis on the one Holy Spirit in the matter of spirit-possession. Spiritual Baptists are still flourishing, however. Originating in Trinidad, several Spiritual Baptist churches have joined the London-based United Council of Spiritual Baptist Churches [11].
Sabbatarians Three streams, the Seventh-day Baptists, the Seventh-day Adventists and the Church of God (Seventh Day) are represented in Sabbatarianism. The Seventh-day Baptists are one of the oldest nonconformist groups in England, beginning in the seventeenth century. With its proud history of religious liberty, Seventh-day Baptism was revived by Jamaican immigrants in Britain in the 1950s. However, the Seventh-day Baptists have a small presence in Britain in comparison with the Seventh-day Adventists, who form, alongside the Pentecostals, the largest African-Caribbean Christian group. The Adventists, with a history of opposition to racism in the United States in the nineteenth century, are followers of ‘Third World’ Adventism and form half the membership of the British Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The African-Caribbean Seventh-day Adventist congregations have a community-orientated and socially innovative lay membership. This is in contrast to the British white bureaucratic administration, a difference which creates tension among the Seventh-day Adventists in Britain [11].
The Holiness Movement The Holiness Movement's history precedes that of Pentecostalism. The movement was formed when the Wesleyan Holiness Church split from the American Methodists in 1843 over the issues of the abolition of slavery, emancipation of women, poverty and non-hierarchical church structures. These ideas made this movement attractive to adherents in the Caribbean, and also to British congregations. In the 1970s the Wesleyan Holiness Church merged with Pilgrims. While still important in the West Indies, the movement's significance in Britain has waned [11].
African indigenous churches So far we have only described the main Caribbean-influenced Christian movements within the African diaspora in Britain. However, in Britain there is also a sizeable presence of African indigenous churches. These churches are divided into Nigerian and Ghanaian congregations and are found mainly in London. There are a few multi-cultural congregations such as the London Aladura International Church, Musama Disco Christo Church in Waterloo and the Church of Cherubim and Seraphim in Birmingham. The Ghanaian, Nigerian and multi-cultural congregations emphasize African cultural symbols such as dreams and visions, prayer for healing, dancing and water symbolism, alongside a straightforward social and ecumenical consciousness. These congregations are derived from the Nigerian Aladura and the Ghanaian Prophetic groups, each of which began as problem-solving and healing churches, similar to the African Caribbean Revivalist and Spiritual Baptist churches. The largest churches are Cherubim and Seraphim, the Divine Prayer Society, the Church of Universal Prayer Fellowship and numerous Ghanaian assemblies.
In recent years the composition of the African population in Britain has changed. Refugees from East Africa, for example Somalia and Ethiopia, now make up a significant proportion of the African community. The African population in London is projected to double to nearly 400,000 by 2000. This will have an important impact upon black British religion. Alongside African indigenous churches and the Pentecostalist groups, an ‘African’ Islam will also become more common in the large cities of the United Kingdom. It remains to be seen whether the style of worship at African mosques – for example, oral liturgy, narrativity of theology, a high degree of participation in worship and decision-making and an urge for the salvation of the lives of individuals and communities – indicates that they are derived from a similar cultural and religious tradition as other African religions in Britain.
The British Rastafarian movement Much of what has been said about the Rastafarian movement in the Caribbean also applies to the United Kingdom. In Britain the movement, which merges religious/spiritual, artistic/cultural and radical political aspects, influenced African Caribbean youths in particular during the 1970s [4]. The association of black spiritual renewal with the politics of race and discrimination attracted many black British adherents who felt alienated by British society. Today, the popularity of the Rastafarian movement is long past its peak. It is impossible to assess the current number of adherents in Britain, but members of the Rastafarian movement can be found in all the major conurbations, such as Manchester, London and Birmingham. This religion, perhaps more than any other, served to create a universal language through which disparate populations of African-Caribbean descent could share beliefs and experiences and forge a common black British identity.
Conclusion
There are similarities between black religion in the United States and Britain. The Act of Toleration in 1689, after the ‘Glorious Revolution’ in Britain, guaranteed a Protestant religious tradition in much the same way as the First Amendment to the American Constitution, separating church from state, enabled a nonconformist tradition to develop in the United States. Both countries have dynamic black-led independent churches among their poorest regions. Along with their straightforward social and ecumenical consciousness, these churches play an important social and political role. However, in contrast to developments in the United States, a black British theology has yet to evolve. Indeed, despite there being a long history of an ‘African’ presence in Britain, the black experience has yet to emerge as an important dimension of British theology.
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