African Religious Heritage: The African American Diaspora

When most western people think about Native American or African religions there is a certain stigma that comes with the topic. This is in part because there is a lot of misinformation in the world about Native American and African religions. When most westerners think of African religions they think of voodoo and black magic. Likewise, the view of Native American religions is still looked at through the lens of the pilgrims who wrote about Native Americans as being savages and less than human. These stereotypes were all formed from a lack of accurate information. African and Native American religions are very similar. It is difficult to find a lot of accurate information on African and Native American indigenous religions because of the lack of written history but there is a lot of oral history that has been passed down from generation to generation. From this information, it is clear that Native American and African religions have many more similarities than they do differences. Three of these similarities will be discussed in this paper. The first topic of discussion is the similarity between African and Native American people when it comes to their perception of the spirit world. Following this topic are the similarities between Native American and African views on the afterlife and finally, the diversity of beliefs within African and Native American religions.

For almost eight decades, enslaved African-Americans living in the Antebellum South, achieved their freedom in various ways—one being religion—before the demise of the institution of slavery. It was “freedom, rather than slavery, [that] proved the greatest force for conversion among African Americans in the South” (94). Starting with the Great Awakening and continuing long after the abolition of slavery, after decades of debate, scholars conceptualized the importance of religion for enslaved African-Americans as a means of escaping the brutalities of daily life. Overall, Christianity helped enslaved African American resist the degradation

Like in any religion the people have certain beliefs. In the african religions there is no single religion. Researchers try to identify similarities in world views and ritual processes across the african boundaries. African Religions are polytheistic; which means they believe in more than one god. They believe in one overall god, but also ancestral spirits. Most African religion’s creation story reveal the creation of humans more than

It is because in those times slaves were black, that he wanted to secure equality for them. So he aspired for them to go to school to educate and to have the same freedom, rights of whites. For a Black man to speak publicly at the time was revolutionary and also very dangerous. He appeared as a continent at the crossroads of many religions. The one expect to personality was him spoke commenced to being tradition in the African America, he women wear the traditional, a long dress that covers them from head to toe and only frees a portion of the face the minimum categories for the race are now” Within the religious system and the daily life of African spirits are beings who are central. They make this group the spirits of the good elders who left their offspring. They can also enter this group spirits of righteous men and women who died young because them their religious tradition, because the religion is very important for your life. In Long ago, it has been presented as a continent at the crossroads of many religions, mainly cultural traditions. With the process of colonization, most Africans do not openly accept the spiritual heritage of newcomers with their religion. With the model of Church "universal call it Catholic or Evangelical." Deeply religious and attached to their traditions, Africans were determined to live their relationship with God according to their culture and aspirations. Evangelization was accused

While black power focuses on the political, social, and economic condition of black people, Black Theology sees black identity from a theological context. Much of black liberation theology’s foundation comes from God's deliverance of Israel from oppression under the Egyptians. According to James Cone, “the consistent theme in Israelite prophecy is Yahweh's concern for "the lack of social, economic, and political justice for those who are poor and unwanted in the society."# The dominate view of Black Liberation theologists is “God in action, delivering the oppressed because of His righteousness. He is to be seen, not in the transcendent way of Greek philosophy, but immanent, among His people." God is "immanent”” because he is present in many historical moments that focus on liberation of the poor. Its derives it beliefs from the fact that in the bible, God often enters human affairs and takes the side of the oppressed, that god is heavily worshipped where human beings experience humiliation and suffering. Because of these beliefs, blacks adopted a gospel relevant to the uplifting of blacks and ending black struggle under white oppression.# Black theology places both our past and present actions toward black liberation in a theological context, eliminating all false Gods and creating value structures according to the God of black freedom.

James H. Cone’s God of the Oppressed is his examination of the origin, development, and significance of black theology as it relates to how he and the black Christian community view God. For Cone, in an America seemingly dominated by white theology and the white Christian community’s views of God, it is imperative to acknowledge and attentively listen to the voices of the theologies of other races and what God means to them, especially that of the black community. Cone asserts without hesitation that the God that is referred to in the Bible and black religion is a Deliver of those held captive by the bondage of oppression. Cone not only asserts this viewpoint of God as the Freer of oppressed people, but he validates this assertion through the use of Scripture, the black experience, history, and tradition. Overall, the central theme of this book is that a plethora of factors continually shape and construct a people’s theology and how that theology is significant in regards to how they see God, the world, and themselves.

In a heterogeneous repertoire the African spiritual beliefs have undergone a religious reconstruction. This is so, because Africans were forced into slavery and submission and at the same time forced to leave behind any tangibles and religious traditions. They were remold and inhibited by diverse perspectives such as the Taino, Celtic, Enlightenment of France, Jesuits and the Masons, and among other new world influences and ideals.

As communities began to develop a sense of tradition it had become integrated with religion and culture that was brought by Jews and Islamic from other larger societies.

A question that is commonly returned to in African American diaspora studies is how much should African roots be considered in the study of African American culture, and how much influence should African heritage have on black individuals. For Columbia professor Saidiya Hartman, this question could only be answered by returning to the motherland. Through her journey to Ghana, Hartman is able to redefine her identity as an African American woman and better understand her relationship to the country her ancestors were torn from.

Walking down Duane Street in Downtown, Manhattan and passing by the African Burial Ground National Monument is one the greatest experiences possible. The street is very busy with enormous buildings and the busy street corner bodega. However, one you step inside the burial is like you entered another realm of hope and peace. This burial shows the great capacitates of the African Diaspora to touch onto even in one of the busiest streets in the world. It’s a monument which recalls all of the wonderful things that the African Diaspora brought to the West such as their faith, ideas, figures, symbols, etc. and in the middle the resemblance of the Black Atlantic with the names of those who buried there, although just their body characteristics because

“Know Thyself” is an ancient Kemtic (Egyptian) saying that most black people throughout the African continent and diaspora have seem to forgotten its true meaning. Africa’s rich metaphysical, spiritual and physical history has been tainted and contaminated with negative agendas for the past five centuries. We as in black people have been stripped of our ancestral history only to have it replaced by an artificial compilation of our failures. Which is taught in public schools across the United States. I had a life changing experience in late 2015 and I believe because of that particular event I am able

While Latin American theology wanted to set itself apart, African theology wanted to prove its theology coincided within the Bible. In some instances African theology was viewed as different and inadequate from the ideas of Western theology. One of the documents I reflected on was by John Mbiti. He expressed, “The Bible is very much an African book, in which African Christians and theologians see themselves and their people reflected and in which they find a personal place of dignity and acceptance before God.” Unlike Latin America, theology was a deep connection in the lives of individuals in Africa. It was a personal reflection of life and a worldview they felt enhanced the Bible.

Black theology refers to theologies derived from North American blacks of South Africa where both sections of theology portray the current situation of oppression and discrimination by looking at the issues both in political and in the justice arena (p. 30). The difference between black theology and African theology is that the northern countries focus more on issues of culture and concentrate on the past than the present. The predicament of being black has carried with it firm and painful repercussions in human relationship whereby this experience is shared in varying degrees across the continent. It follows that any meaningful theology must be derived from such common experience.

In The Way of the Earth, T.C. McLuhan draws attention to the insightful writings of Amadou Hampate Ba. Known as “the Sage of Marcory,”1 Ba endeavors to present the oral religious traditions of Africa in writing. Through the lens of African religious tradition, Ba asserts that, “It can be seen that there is little or no room for the profane life, in the modern sense of the word: there is no such thing as the sacred on one side and the profane on the other.”2 This recognition is embraced by Ba 's conclusion that, “Everything is connected, everything brings the forces of life into play.”3 Ba recognizes these ideas as, “manifold aspects of Se, the sacred primordial force, which is itself an aspect of God.”4

In The Way of the Earth, T.C. McLuhan draws attention to the insightful writings of Amadou Hampate Ba. Known as “the Sage of Marcory,” Ba endeavors to represent the oral religious traditions of Africa in writing. Through the lens of African religious tradition, Ba asserts that, “It can be seen that there is little or no room for the profane life, in the modern sense of the word: there is no such thing as the sacred on one side and the profane on the other.” This recognition is embraced by Ba 's conclusion that, “Everything is connected, everything brings the forces of life into play.” Ba comprehends these concepts as, “manifold aspects of Se, the sacred primordial force, which is