African Diaspora Religions

What if the study of religion started with the African American experience? Instead of privileging a specific tradition, this course examines the history of a people who came to a new world compelled to quickly learn the significance of “religion” itself. Students will follow along by plumbing the depths of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, listening to songs born of the hush harbors, visiting the black gods of American metropolises, and witnessing the diversity of black church culture. By charting the development of this worldview, course participants will better understand religion’s role in the human condition.

Guiding Texts

Paul O. Myhre, ed. Introduction to Religious Studies (Anselm Academic, 2009).

An anthology of essays from scholars across the discipline. The volume introduces students to the various ways religion is studied by academicians.

Charles H. Long, “Perspectives for the Study of Afro-American Religion in the United States,” History of Religions 11:1 (August 1971), 54-66.

A foundational article outlining a way to consider the concept “religion” in light of the experience of African Americans

Interactive Notebook Assignments

Below you’ll find the guided notes to help you with select course readings. These should be seen as resources to help you (1) hone in on priorities for further discussion and (2) launchpads for your own curiosity.

Lab–Dropping (Moorish) Science

You may have heard the phrase In Hip Hop, “dropping knowledge” or “dropping science.” This phrase is used to describe an understanding or perspective this is our of or even beyond the ordinary. It has origins in the late 19th and 20th century Black Muslim traditions associated with the Nation of Islam, the Five Pecerent…

Lab–Afrocentrism and the Qur’an & Sunnah

In our reading this week, we looked at Islam’s entrance and development in the African continent. For our lab this week, I’d like to further develop our understanding of Islam by tying together what we’ve examined thus far. First, I’d like you to watch a video about Omar Ibn Said and his famous autobiography. I…

Lab–African Traditional Religions

One of the biggest debates in the study of the African Diaspora (in general) and African Traditional Religions in the Diaspora (in particular) is the question of African retention. It refers to the extent to which one can find signs of Africa present in diasporic cultural formations. In fact if you do a web search…

Lab–Myth: Africa in Antiquity

For our lab today, we will continue our look at myth as one way people have historically signified “religion.” Our study will provide us an opportunity to consider the complexities of myth with a few examples from the African Diaspora. I’d like you to begin by looking at your notes related to signification. If you…

Read more Lab–Myth: Africa in Antiquity

Lab–Vodun, Santeria, Candomblé–African Traditional Religions in Diaspora

For our lab this week, we are going to think about the formation of African Traditional Religions in diaspora. To begin our examination, I want us to recall the types of discourses we have named to critically signify religion thus far. If you have trouble, refer to the Table of Contents in our Myhre book.…

Lab–The Bible in Africa and “Africa” in the Bible

As scholars of religion, we have been thinking about the category “scriptures” as one way to surface examples of a particular kind of signification. While there are many ways for us to consider this, we have adopted an anthropological approach–focusing on the cultural dynamics, productions, and exchanges that shape group identity. Scriptures for us is…

A Letter Handwritten by Phyllis Wheatley

Lab–The Ethics of the Literate and Literacy in the Diaspora

Our readings for this unit have provided us with a fascinating juxtaposition. On the one hand, we have been thinking through models of ethics–that is ways to redescribed how human beings signify their actions in relation to an idealized understanding of “the good” or “the optimal.” On the other hand, we have been reading about…

2 cartoon people holding hands against the skyline of Berlin with images of the world religions in the sky.

What is Religion?

We are going to launch our course with the first chapter of Paul Myhre’s textbook, written by Myhre himself. It will not establish a single definition of religion. Instead, it will introduce why defining religion is difficult and why religion should be a subject of academic investigation. As you read the chapter, please define and…

How is Religion Studied?

The editor of our textbook, Paul O. Myhre, has made the case for why we should study religion at the college level. Now we turn to the question of how. How do we study religion in a manner befitting of higher education? As in all disciplines, the answer to the question includes issues of consensus…

Origin Stories and Religion: How are Religions Formed?

This chapter has a lot of thought-provoking information about myths, origin stories, and religion. The sequence of the ideas is somewhat difficult for students less familiar with the specific myths that David C. Ratke cites. We will work through this chapter during our class time. To prepare for class, I would like you to read…

a pyramidal neuron from the hippocampus, stained for green fluorescent protein.

Studying Science and Religion

This chapter by S. Brian Stratton is one of the most difficult chapters in our textbook. Per the syllabus, I’ve noted how I’d like you to approach tackling the reading (Read pp. 176-177; Skim 180-184; Skim 184-190; Read 191). The difficulty of this chapter has to do with the amount of technical vocabulary as well…

Sacred Words, Stories, Writings, and Books

Karl N. Jacobson and Rolf A. Jacobson offer a broad look at the phenomenon that we frequently refer to as “scriptures.” As you read, I want you to focus particularly on the “Introduction” and “Sacred Writings and Books” sections of their essay (pages 54-55). After this, I want you to skim through the remainder of…

Religion as “Truth-Claims”

Dianne L. Oliver leads us through the messy terrain of “truth-claims.” The framework she provides will help us consider how people prioritize certain understandings. In class we will take this to the next level to see the ways people prioritize certain people who share their beliefs. Please define the following terms. Try to make sense…

Read more Religion as “Truth-Claims”

From left to right: flower arrangement, pulpit, U.S. flag, and the Christian flag on flag poles with eagle and cross finials respectively, in Covenant Presbyterian Church, Long Beach, California, United States.

Social Activism and Engagement

Some equate religion with good deeds, what our book calls social activism and engagement. This is political work in the sense that there are power dynamics involved in how people engage with one another. Swasti Bhattacharyya uses ethnography to help us think through ways that this has been done. Before you begin, I’d like you…

A word cloud discussing violence--particularly domestic partner violence

Violence and Religion

Darlene Fozard Weaver’s entry in our textbook will help us think through the tricky issue of violence as it pertains to the study of religion. She draws upon a number of important frameworks that can be applied to other issues that we have and will study. The first is Bruce Lincoln’s Four Domains of Religion.…

Religious Ethics, Moral Values, and Standards for Human Conduct

Jack A. Hill points out some of the key elements in Western ethics, a conversation about the pursuit of the good. In thinking about the social drama embodied in our case studies, thinking about why various parties understand themselves as pursuing some good is useful for considering the ways various discourses play out. This chapter…

Introduction and Antiquity-Reversing Sail

This book is about people of African descent who found (and find) themselves living either outside of the African continent or in parts of Africa that were territorially quite distant from their lands of birth.

Wooden bowl found on board the 16th century carrack Mary Rose.

Ascetically and Mystically Removed and Engaged

We now turn to two related terms that people often associate with religion–asceticism and mysticism. You many not be familiar with these technical terms, but once you read about what Bernadette McNary-Zak has to say about them, I imagine that their meanings will be familiar to you. We’ll take a look at some basic vocabulary…

A picture that includes eye, ear, tongue, nose and hand, representing the sensory organs for the five classical senses: vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch.

An Aesthetic Approach to Religion

S. Brent Plate takes an “aesthetic” approach to the study of religion. He is interested in the way that the senses shape, inform, and comprise our experience of the human condition. The life of the mind plays a part in this as does the various ecologies in which that life plays out. His work is…

Africans and the Bible–Reversing Sail

The Bible has affected the lives of Africans and their descendants in the Diaspora possibly more than any other document in human history. This phenomenon can be divided into at least two spheres: The first features the roles and experiences of Africans in the Bible, while the second concerns the ways in which these roles and experiences have influenced Africans living in post-Biblical times. Because the Biblical account is seen by many as prescriptive, the interpretation of African roles in the narrative is critical, as it has often determined how post-Biblical Africans were treated. In particular, the Bible has been crucial to slavery, with both benefactors and detractors of the institution taking solace in its pages.

Africans and the Islamic World–Reversing Sail

We tend to know more about Africans in the Americas than elsewhere in the Diaspora. However, as this chapter makes clear, millions of Africans entered Islamic lands, where they made important contributions to extraordinary civilizations, from the heartlands of the faith to Muslim Spain. An extended discussion of this major component of the African Diaspora is warranted, as the juxtaposition of the similarities and differences between this experience and that of Africans in the Americas yields far greater insight into the condition of displacement than does a lone hemispheric focus.

Enslavement–Reversing Sail

Africans experienced a most painful introduction to the New World. The forced march to the sea and the subsequent horrific sea voyage represent the birth of not only the modern African Diaspora but also modernity itself. Europe’s rise and expansion were undergirded by slavery; its economic prosperity was fundamentally related to the exploitation of Africans (an argument championed by Trinidadian scholar Eric Williams). The vast wealth, considerable privilege, and seemingly limitless opportunities associated with American elites were all achieved on the backs of impoverished Africans and subjugated Native Americans. To be sure, a peasantry and working class from all points of the globe would eventually find themselves in the Americas, where they would also make contributions under exploitative conditions. Even so, it was enslaved African labor that paved the way for all to come.

Transatlantic Moment and the Dawn of Modernity–Reversing Sail

Like the inner workings of a clock, the interconnectedness of several global developments gave rise to the transatlantic slave trade. Christian–Muslim conflict, international commerce, sugar, and New World incursions were foremost in creating circumstances whereby the African emerged as principal source of servile labor, laying the foundations of the modern world.

Asserting the Right to Be–Reversing Sail

The achievement of freedom throughout the Americas, however qualified, was very much a consequence of the myriad struggles of those of African descent. Their efforts would be supported by well-meaning whites and some indigenous groups. The American War of Independence and the French Revolution would contribute concepts and language to the struggle, but the enslaved did not need theoretical principles, developed to facilitate a breakaway republic in North America or to resolve class conflict in Europe, to know much more definitively than any enunciation of Enlightenment rationality could ever approximate, the depth of their anguish and yearning for deliverance.

Reconnecting–Reversing Sail

While reconnecting to Africa, those of African descent were also redefining themselves as a series of communities related yet distinct from each other, a consequence of differing local circumstances and histories. Reconnections and redefinitions took place during periods of rapid industrialization, organization and theorization of labor, emerging struggles against empire, world war, women’s rights movements, the rise of allegedly scientific racism, and the division of the world into eastern and western camps. Members of the African Diaspora played significant roles in all of these developments.

Movement People–Reversing Sail

Movement has long been a principal characteristic of the African Diaspora. The period from 1945 to 1968 was an important era of “movement,” a term that, in contrast to involuntary transatlantic transfers and reluctant labor migrations, came to signify organized campaigns to reverse the legacies of slavery and discrimination. Black people were indeed on the move, fighting racism and colonialism globally. In concert with each other and the aspirations of the similarly downtrodden, the period witnessed the persistence of a defiance made manifest with the first slave revolt, the continuing quest for the full free.

Global Africa in the Era of Mandela and Obama–Reversing Sail

The last quarter of the twentieth and first two decades of the twenty-first centuries have witnessed extraordinary global change, all of which have directly impacted Africa and its diaspora. The second half of the diaspora’s third wave saw ever greater numbers of African-born persons coming into contact with the African-descended by way of accelerated migration to North America and Europe.

African Diaspora Religions

Guiding Texts

Interactive Notebook Assignments

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