Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0284
Kefas Lamak
Abimbola A. Adelakum’s work engages the most recent Christian phenomena in Nigeria, Pentecostalism, through the lens of what she calls “performing power in Nigeria.” In this book, Adelakum uses theories, concepts, and terminologies of theater, performance, and playwriting to discuss the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria. With the growth and expansion of Pentecostalism since Nigeria’s independence, humanities scholars have been interested in knowing more about the historical evolution of the Christian movement and its confluence with military regimes, politics, health and diseases, identity, Islam, indigenous religions, and other Christian groups, among them the Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, and African Independent Churches. Adelakum’s work responds to some of the questions scholars have been raising, emphasizing power performance. Adelakum describes herself as an insider to Pentecostalism, having been part of it while growing up in Nigeria. Perhaps Adelakum’s book title may give the impression that her book examines miracle performances in the Pentecostal movement of Nigeria, but the main argument of the book stems from how power is generated, practiced, and performed or circulated as in theater art. She puts the Nigerian Pentecostal movement alongside play, drama, and movie performances. Adelakum explains that when conducting this research among Pentecostal pastors and their members in Nigeria, most of them rejected her usage of the word “performance” to describe their religious rituals. In their perception, “performance” sounds unrealistic and casual; instead, spiritual phenomena and religious rituals should be taken as sacrosanct. Notably, while Nigeria is one of the leading centers of Pentecostalism globally, it is not the only country permeated by Pentecostalism; many developing countries are becoming more charismatic and Pentecostal in their Christian beliefs and practices.Throughout the book, Adelakum references two examples from a popular 1993 Nigerian Christian TV show presented by Mount Zion Faith Ministries International. Many series from Mount Zion have scenes of the devil and an angel, a pastor, and an African indigenous religion priest. The episodes mostly show some power encounters between the two opposing groups. The pastor is always depicted as the victor who defeats the devil through prayers or converts the African indigenous religious priest. Although this is a performance, it exemplifies what happens and how power is characterized in Nigerian Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism projects many forms of power: spiritual power, political power, and power related to identity struggles. Powers are displayed in how the pastors project themselves through excess wealth accumulation, building cathedrals, seeking political representation, and attending regular Christian meetings.Looking at the history of Pentecostalism in Nigeria, Adelakun opines that the movement became stronger during the period from 1970 to 1980. Like Olufemi Vaughan, she e
Abimbola A. Adelakum的作品通过她所谓的“尼日利亚的表演力量”的镜头，涉及尼日利亚最新的基督教现象——五旬节派。在这本书中，Adelakum使用戏剧、表演和剧本创作的理论、概念和术语来讨论尼日利亚的五旬节派运动。自尼日利亚独立以来，随着五旬节派的发展和扩展，人文学者一直有兴趣了解更多关于基督教运动的历史演变及其与军事政权、政治、健康和疾病、身份、伊斯兰教、土著宗教和其他基督教团体的融合，其中包括英国国教、天主教、卫理公会和非洲独立教会。Adelakum的研究回应了学者们提出的一些问题，强调了权力表现。阿德拉库姆称自己是五旬节派的内部人士，她在尼日利亚长大时就是其中的一员。也许阿德拉库姆的书名给人的印象是，她的书研究了尼日利亚五旬节派运动中的奇迹表演，但这本书的主要论点源于权力如何在戏剧艺术中产生、实践、表演或传播。她把尼日利亚五旬节派运动与戏剧、戏剧和电影表演放在一起。Adelakum解释说，在尼日利亚对五旬节派牧师及其成员进行这项研究时，他们中的大多数人都拒绝使用“表演”这个词来描述他们的宗教仪式。在他们看来，“表演”听起来不切实际、随意;相反，精神现象和宗教仪式应该被视为神圣不可侵犯。值得注意的是，虽然尼日利亚是全球五旬节派的主要中心之一，但它并不是唯一一个被五旬节派渗透的国家;许多发展中国家在他们的基督教信仰和实践中变得越来越有魅力和五旬节派。在这本书中，Adelakum引用了1993年由国际锡安山信仰事工制作的尼日利亚基督教电视节目中的两个例子。许多来自锡安山的电视剧都有魔鬼和天使、牧师和非洲土著宗教牧师的场景。这些剧集主要展示了两个对立群体之间的一些权力较量。牧师通常被描绘成通过祈祷战胜魔鬼或使非洲土著宗教牧师皈依的胜利者。虽然这是一场表演，但它体现了尼日利亚五旬节派信仰中发生的事情和权力的特征。五旬节派投射出多种形式的权力:精神权力、政治权力和与身份斗争有关的权力。权力表现在牧师如何通过过度的财富积累、建造教堂、寻求政治代表和参加定期的基督教会议来展示自己。回顾尼日利亚五旬节派的历史，Adelakun认为该运动在1970年至1980年期间变得更加强大。像奥卢费米·沃恩一样，她解释说，大多数五旬节派教会都是非洲独立教会的一个分支，比如阿拉杜拉教会和基督使徒教会。Adelakum指出，尼日利亚的五旬节派有非洲土著宗教使用权力、产生权力和强调权力的残余。然而，她说，大多数五旬节派信徒不喜欢与他们所说的“异教”联系在一起。在她书的最后一章，她谈到了五旬节派运动中的名字和命名，她比较了约鲁巴人的非洲土著宗教和五旬节派运动中的命名方式。阿德拉库姆观察到许多独立和五旬节派教会名称的延续和重叠。Adelakum还指出，尼日利亚五旬节派运动起源于20世纪80年代尼日利亚基督徒的经济和政治斗争，当时腐败在尼日利亚军事政权中变得普遍和深入，普通民众的痛苦变得无法忍受。尼日利亚的基督徒开始转向一种宗教活动，这种活动让他们在现在的生活中充满希望，而不是等待来生。五旬节派强调祈祷和灵恩灵性，以提供一种充满基督徒力量的感觉。Adelakum还指出，从20世纪70年代末到1999年，尼日利亚的大多数军事国家元首都是尼日利亚北部的穆斯林，包括穆罕默杜·布哈里、易卜拉欣·巴班吉达、萨尼·阿巴查和阿布杜萨拉米·阿布巴卡尔。由于尼日利亚是一个多宗教国家，这引起了尼日利亚基督徒的不满。在尼日利亚在阿巴查死后恢复民主统治之后，基督徒动员起来支持奥卢塞贡·奥巴桑乔将军的候选人资格。当奥巴桑乔成为尼日利亚总统时，他与五旬节派基督教结盟;阿德拉库姆称他是一名成员。奥巴桑乔还任命了许多五旬节派教徒进入他的内阁。 通过他们在政府中的代表，五旬节派牧师继续在政治中产生、传播和展示他们的权力，有时还带有反穆斯林的情绪。其中一些预言了尼日利亚的选举和未来的政治事件。阿德拉库姆描述了他们在2015年通过政治表现权力的巨大反弹，当时尼日利亚现任总统古德勒克·乔纳森(Goodluck Jonathan)在民意调查中被北方穆斯林候选人穆罕默杜·布哈里(Muhammadu Buhari)击败。作为总统，乔纳森受到五旬节派教会的喜爱，因为他花时间参观他们的教堂。当时尼日利亚基督教协会的主席也是来自五旬节派。许多牧师祈祷并预言他会在2015年大选中获胜，但令他们沮丧的是，他输了。据阿德拉库姆说，这种失望使许多五旬节派信徒把目光投向了美国政治，因为他们认为美国是全世界基督教的据点之一。到2019年，许多五旬节派信徒成为唐纳德·特朗普的热心支持者。他们认为他是世界范围内的基督教代表，将与尼日利亚这样的国家的反基督教运动和团体作斗争。因此，特朗普在尼日利亚有很多支持者，尽管他可能没有意识到他们。阿德拉库姆还讨论了尼日利亚五旬节派教会在2020年新冠肺炎疫情中面临的另一个挫折。Covid-19令许多五旬节派牧师感到惊讶，他们对此无能为力，尽管他们声称自己能行神迹奇事。许多尼日利亚基督徒仍然感到惊讶，为什么这样的全球性流行病发生时，上帝却没有向那些自称是先知的五旬节派牧师们表明。在疫情最严重的时候，与世界上许多人一样，许多尼日利亚人感到害怕，特别是考虑到2019冠状病毒病将导致非洲许多人死亡。有一段时间，他们中的大多数人关闭了教堂，只在网上见面。他们都没有预言Covid会如何结束。五旬节派牧师的沉默引起了信徒们的质疑，就像古德勒克·乔纳森和唐纳德·特朗普在选举中失利一样。Adelakum的书值得一读，以了解五旬节派牧师在尼日利亚的权力产生、流通和表现，因为它体现在他们的基督徒身份、国家和全球政治、技术和社交媒体上。阿德拉库姆的作品与许多早期作品不同，因为她能够对2019冠状病毒病、2020年美国大选以及尼日利亚最近的社会政治问题发表评论。她的工作也很突出，因为大约一半的文本是由采访材料和民族志研究组成的。我希望她能像奥卢费米·沃恩、托因·法罗拉和马修·希顿那样，更多地讨论1970年之前尼日利亚五旬节派运动的历史性。
{"title":"Performing Power in Nigeria: Identity, Politics, and Pentecostalism","authors":"Kefas Lamak","doi":"10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0284","url":null,"abstract":"Abimbola A. Adelakum’s work engages the most recent Christian phenomena in Nigeria, Pentecostalism, through the lens of what she calls “performing power in Nigeria.” In this book, Adelakum uses theories, concepts, and terminologies of theater, performance, and playwriting to discuss the Pentecostal movement in Nigeria. With the growth and expansion of Pentecostalism since Nigeria’s independence, humanities scholars have been interested in knowing more about the historical evolution of the Christian movement and its confluence with military regimes, politics, health and diseases, identity, Islam, indigenous religions, and other Christian groups, among them the Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, and African Independent Churches. Adelakum’s work responds to some of the questions scholars have been raising, emphasizing power performance. Adelakum describes herself as an insider to Pentecostalism, having been part of it while growing up in Nigeria. Perhaps Adelakum’s book title may give the impression that her book examines miracle performances in the Pentecostal movement of Nigeria, but the main argument of the book stems from how power is generated, practiced, and performed or circulated as in theater art. She puts the Nigerian Pentecostal movement alongside play, drama, and movie performances. Adelakum explains that when conducting this research among Pentecostal pastors and their members in Nigeria, most of them rejected her usage of the word “performance” to describe their religious rituals. In their perception, “performance” sounds unrealistic and casual; instead, spiritual phenomena and religious rituals should be taken as sacrosanct. Notably, while Nigeria is one of the leading centers of Pentecostalism globally, it is not the only country permeated by Pentecostalism; many developing countries are becoming more charismatic and Pentecostal in their Christian beliefs and practices.Throughout the book, Adelakum references two examples from a popular 1993 Nigerian Christian TV show presented by Mount Zion Faith Ministries International. Many series from Mount Zion have scenes of the devil and an angel, a pastor, and an African indigenous religion priest. The episodes mostly show some power encounters between the two opposing groups. The pastor is always depicted as the victor who defeats the devil through prayers or converts the African indigenous religious priest. Although this is a performance, it exemplifies what happens and how power is characterized in Nigerian Pentecostalism. Pentecostalism projects many forms of power: spiritual power, political power, and power related to identity struggles. Powers are displayed in how the pastors project themselves through excess wealth accumulation, building cathedrals, seeking political representation, and attending regular Christian meetings.Looking at the history of Pentecostalism in Nigeria, Adelakun opines that the movement became stronger during the period from 1970 to 1980. Like Olufemi Vaughan, she e","PeriodicalId":41877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Africana Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135806676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0287
Emma Wild-Wood
The notion of “entanglement” has become a productive analytical tool for social historians. “Entanglement” recognizes that categories used to delineate sets of things frequently create artificial boundaries that require interrogation. It acknowledges that human agency is a condition of interdependency, one which operates within and between social groups possessing different sorts of power. David Maxwell, following Tony Ballantyne’s Entanglements of Empire (2014), deftly deploys the notion to examine the “plural interaction, recursion, transcultural and cross-cultural engagement, interaction with science and social border crossing” (12) in colonial Katanga, amongst Luba, colonial officials, and missionaries of various nationalities and confessions. In doing so, he shows how the Luba people were intertwined in religious revival, in the establishment of Pentecostal churches, and in the formation of knowledge—and its international exchange—of themselves as a people. The span of topics is impressive and necessary in order to examine the extent and nature of entanglement. It is the Luba Katanga, both people and the place they inhabit, that provides the point of focus.Eight main chapters introduce us to the actors and their interdependent projects. The first chapter places the Congo Evangelistic Mission and its main protagonist William Burton in a transnational history of early twentieth-century Pentecostal revival that, in chapter 4, is shown to challenge the orthodoxies of Catholic missions and the Belgian colonial state. The second chapter provides a precolonial history of the powerful Luba Kingdom and its demise through the slave trades operating on both sides of the continent. This provides the background for explaining the development of a Luba Christian movement in chapter 3 in which expectations of gender and generation were revised in the formation of new identities and communities. An extended discussion of knowledge production is provided in chapters 5 to 7, showing the ways in which knowledge was co-created and how it both challenged and complied with anthropological and colonial knowledge production. The scientific endeavor had social and cultural effects in creating a more defined modern Luba identity, as Luba themselves worked at their morals and their language. Men like Shalumbo, Kangoi, and Ngoloma led emerging churches, by teaching, healing, and exorcising, and created “pathways” to knowledge through Bible translation and proverb collection. Yet the adoption of modernizing tendencies was selective and contested: for example, early convert Abraham rejected Christianity and became a charm-maker. The final chapter demonstrates how entangled social, religious, and scientific projects converted missionaries to new ways of understanding the world. The study of the scholarship of Burton and Placide Tempels, Burton’s better-known Franciscan counterpart and author of Bantu Philosophy (1946), reveals an evolution in their understanding of and re
{"title":"Religious Entanglements: Central African Pentecostalism and the Creation of Cultural Knowledge and the Making of the Luba Katanga","authors":"Emma Wild-Wood","doi":"10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0287","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0287","url":null,"abstract":"The notion of “entanglement” has become a productive analytical tool for social historians. “Entanglement” recognizes that categories used to delineate sets of things frequently create artificial boundaries that require interrogation. It acknowledges that human agency is a condition of interdependency, one which operates within and between social groups possessing different sorts of power. David Maxwell, following Tony Ballantyne’s Entanglements of Empire (2014), deftly deploys the notion to examine the “plural interaction, recursion, transcultural and cross-cultural engagement, interaction with science and social border crossing” (12) in colonial Katanga, amongst Luba, colonial officials, and missionaries of various nationalities and confessions. In doing so, he shows how the Luba people were intertwined in religious revival, in the establishment of Pentecostal churches, and in the formation of knowledge—and its international exchange—of themselves as a people. The span of topics is impressive and necessary in order to examine the extent and nature of entanglement. It is the Luba Katanga, both people and the place they inhabit, that provides the point of focus.Eight main chapters introduce us to the actors and their interdependent projects. The first chapter places the Congo Evangelistic Mission and its main protagonist William Burton in a transnational history of early twentieth-century Pentecostal revival that, in chapter 4, is shown to challenge the orthodoxies of Catholic missions and the Belgian colonial state. The second chapter provides a precolonial history of the powerful Luba Kingdom and its demise through the slave trades operating on both sides of the continent. This provides the background for explaining the development of a Luba Christian movement in chapter 3 in which expectations of gender and generation were revised in the formation of new identities and communities. An extended discussion of knowledge production is provided in chapters 5 to 7, showing the ways in which knowledge was co-created and how it both challenged and complied with anthropological and colonial knowledge production. The scientific endeavor had social and cultural effects in creating a more defined modern Luba identity, as Luba themselves worked at their morals and their language. Men like Shalumbo, Kangoi, and Ngoloma led emerging churches, by teaching, healing, and exorcising, and created “pathways” to knowledge through Bible translation and proverb collection. Yet the adoption of modernizing tendencies was selective and contested: for example, early convert Abraham rejected Christianity and became a charm-maker. The final chapter demonstrates how entangled social, religious, and scientific projects converted missionaries to new ways of understanding the world. The study of the scholarship of Burton and Placide Tempels, Burton’s better-known Franciscan counterpart and author of Bantu Philosophy (1946), reveals an evolution in their understanding of and re","PeriodicalId":41877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Africana Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135806867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0228
Solomon Molla Ademe
Abstract The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) has a long and glorious history in the Ethiopian polity. It was an institution deeply engaged in Ethiopian politics and has long served as a unifying political force. For example, when foreign enemies invaded Ethiopia, the EOTC was tasked with uniting Ethiopians to fight against aggressors. However, in times of internal political crisis, particularly in contemporary Ethiopia, the EOTC’s role is relatively insignificant. Previous studies have not focused on this issue. Through a qualitative research approach, this study takes the post-2020 conflict between Tigrian forces and the federal government as a litmus test for showing the EOTC’s insignificant role in cases of internal political crisis. It shows that, as an institution, the EOTC played an insignificant role in reconciling, condemning, or trying to manage the conflict. Indeed, two challenges prevented the EOTC from doing what it was supposed to do in this conflict: ethnic politics and the EOTC’s top authorities’ submissiveness to the ruling regimes. This article recommends further studies aimed at assessing the invisible role of the EOTC in the Ethiopian polity and its counter-relationships. Conducting additional studies is significant for policymakers in general and the EOTC in particular.
{"title":"Uncovering the Role of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church in the War between the Tigrian Forces and the Federal Government","authors":"Solomon Molla Ademe","doi":"10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0228","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) has a long and glorious history in the Ethiopian polity. It was an institution deeply engaged in Ethiopian politics and has long served as a unifying political force. For example, when foreign enemies invaded Ethiopia, the EOTC was tasked with uniting Ethiopians to fight against aggressors. However, in times of internal political crisis, particularly in contemporary Ethiopia, the EOTC’s role is relatively insignificant. Previous studies have not focused on this issue. Through a qualitative research approach, this study takes the post-2020 conflict between Tigrian forces and the federal government as a litmus test for showing the EOTC’s insignificant role in cases of internal political crisis. It shows that, as an institution, the EOTC played an insignificant role in reconciling, condemning, or trying to manage the conflict. Indeed, two challenges prevented the EOTC from doing what it was supposed to do in this conflict: ethnic politics and the EOTC’s top authorities’ submissiveness to the ruling regimes. This article recommends further studies aimed at assessing the invisible role of the EOTC in the Ethiopian polity and its counter-relationships. Conducting additional studies is significant for policymakers in general and the EOTC in particular.","PeriodicalId":41877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Africana Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136260480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0251
DeAnna Monique Daniels
Abstract Since its publication in 1987, Beloved has achieved critical acclaim, popularity, and status as one of Toni Morrison’s most iconic and accomplished novels. Based on the true story of Margret Garner, Beloved engages questions of being, agency, hauntings, and monstrosity while providing a visualization of the lasting aftereffects of slavery. As such, it has been the center of critical scholarship across many disciplines, including religion. However, the treatment in religious discourse has largely ignored the importance of the novel as representative of and engaged with the horror genre. This article argues that when read as a text of horror, Beloved aids in understanding Black religion as what Anthony Pinn has called a quest for complex subjectivity. Pinn’s theory understands terror as a dimension of life that shapes the look of Black religion. Here, I offer a conceptual shift—exemplified through an exploration of Beloved, particularly the character Denver—where terror is clarified as a vital component of horror. This article cautions against the conflation of terror and horror as equivalent terms. After reviewing their distinguishing characteristics, I ultimately situate horror as the more useful analytic descriptor for understanding the impetus and development of Black religion. By examining Denver’s complex subjectivity in Beloved, horror’s capaciousness as a genre, emotive response, and cultural phenomenon will unearth new dimensions of how we perceive Black religion.
{"title":"Denver’s Quest: Exploring Horror and Complex Subjectivity in <i>Beloved</i>","authors":"DeAnna Monique Daniels","doi":"10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0251","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0251","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Since its publication in 1987, Beloved has achieved critical acclaim, popularity, and status as one of Toni Morrison’s most iconic and accomplished novels. Based on the true story of Margret Garner, Beloved engages questions of being, agency, hauntings, and monstrosity while providing a visualization of the lasting aftereffects of slavery. As such, it has been the center of critical scholarship across many disciplines, including religion. However, the treatment in religious discourse has largely ignored the importance of the novel as representative of and engaged with the horror genre. This article argues that when read as a text of horror, Beloved aids in understanding Black religion as what Anthony Pinn has called a quest for complex subjectivity. Pinn’s theory understands terror as a dimension of life that shapes the look of Black religion. Here, I offer a conceptual shift—exemplified through an exploration of Beloved, particularly the character Denver—where terror is clarified as a vital component of horror. This article cautions against the conflation of terror and horror as equivalent terms. After reviewing their distinguishing characteristics, I ultimately situate horror as the more useful analytic descriptor for understanding the impetus and development of Black religion. By examining Denver’s complex subjectivity in Beloved, horror’s capaciousness as a genre, emotive response, and cultural phenomenon will unearth new dimensions of how we perceive Black religion.","PeriodicalId":41877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Africana Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135806671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0153
Benjamin Baker
Abstract Blacks employed myriad means to survive the harrowing and protracted ordeal of American slavery. Arguably, the most important means were ideological, and one idea ubiquitous among Black captives was the catastrophic apocalypse: God physically coming to earth to destroy the planet and “wicked” people, while preserving “righteous” people. This article explores the origin, reception, and conception of this idea among enslaved Blacks in the United States. To do this, I first explore West and Central African cosmology during the era of the transatlantic slave trade to determine if there were philosophical antecedents that may have predisposed Africans to such a belief. I then examine how and why many displaced Africans in America embraced the apocalypse. I argue that Blacks received and conceived of the catastrophic apocalypse in a manner consistent with traditional African ways of knowing and ordering the world in order to survive and combat a novel and brutal system of oppression.
{"title":"“There’s A Day Coming”: The Origin, Reception, and Conception of the Catastrophic Apocalypse among Black Captives","authors":"Benjamin Baker","doi":"10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0153","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Blacks employed myriad means to survive the harrowing and protracted ordeal of American slavery. Arguably, the most important means were ideological, and one idea ubiquitous among Black captives was the catastrophic apocalypse: God physically coming to earth to destroy the planet and “wicked” people, while preserving “righteous” people. This article explores the origin, reception, and conception of this idea among enslaved Blacks in the United States. To do this, I first explore West and Central African cosmology during the era of the transatlantic slave trade to determine if there were philosophical antecedents that may have predisposed Africans to such a belief. I then examine how and why many displaced Africans in America embraced the apocalypse. I argue that Blacks received and conceived of the catastrophic apocalypse in a manner consistent with traditional African ways of knowing and ordering the world in order to survive and combat a novel and brutal system of oppression.","PeriodicalId":41877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Africana Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135806672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0198
Lisa Louise Earl-Castillo
Abstract Afro-Brazilian religions play a vital role in the history of northeastern Brazil, home to an enormous Black population. An especially well-known case is Candomblé, which arose in the state of Bahia, where a number of large temples dating back to the time of the slave trade have long attracted scholarly attention. Less well-known, however, is the parallel existence of shrines belonging to individual families. One, dedicated to Ogun, in the city of Salvador, recently gained government recognition as a site of memory. According to oral tradition, it was created by a freed African couple on the farm where they lived and worked. Drawing on oral traditions, ethnographic data, and archival sources, this article reconstructs the family’s history over the course of nearly two centuries, tracing the presence of cross-cultural exchanges over time, initially from Dahomean and Hausa religion and more recently from Yoruba and Catholic cosmologies.
{"title":"Ogun in the Black Atlantic: Family History and Cross-Cultural Religious Exchange in Bahia, c. 1813–1970","authors":"Lisa Louise Earl-Castillo","doi":"10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.11.2.0198","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Afro-Brazilian religions play a vital role in the history of northeastern Brazil, home to an enormous Black population. An especially well-known case is Candomblé, which arose in the state of Bahia, where a number of large temples dating back to the time of the slave trade have long attracted scholarly attention. Less well-known, however, is the parallel existence of shrines belonging to individual families. One, dedicated to Ogun, in the city of Salvador, recently gained government recognition as a site of memory. According to oral tradition, it was created by a freed African couple on the farm where they lived and worked. Drawing on oral traditions, ethnographic data, and archival sources, this article reconstructs the family’s history over the course of nearly two centuries, tracing the presence of cross-cultural exchanges over time, initially from Dahomean and Hausa religion and more recently from Yoruba and Catholic cosmologies.","PeriodicalId":41877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Africana Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135806866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0027
Charlotte Walker-Said, Nadeige Laure Ngo Nlend
Abstract:This article investigates the work of Christian churches in Cameroon, Nigeria, and Angola among refugee, migrant, and displaced persons communities and their support of two principal undertakings that allow these groups to reconceptualize belonging and reconstitute communal identities: (1) transnational family building and (2) therapeutic forms of emotional expression and communion. This article also demonstrates how the governments of Cameroon, Nigeria, and Angola perceive such noncitizen groups' innovative communal practices as inherently destabilizing to fragile national identities, and how state security forces work to dismantle ties of affinity and restrain or apprehend religious authorities in order to preserve social and political boundaries among increasingly diverse and composite societies.
{"title":"Policing Christianity in Cameroon, Nigeria, and Angola: Spiritual Incorporation as Therapy and Threat in Africa","authors":"Charlotte Walker-Said, Nadeige Laure Ngo Nlend","doi":"10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0027","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article investigates the work of Christian churches in Cameroon, Nigeria, and Angola among refugee, migrant, and displaced persons communities and their support of two principal undertakings that allow these groups to reconceptualize belonging and reconstitute communal identities: (1) transnational family building and (2) therapeutic forms of emotional expression and communion. This article also demonstrates how the governments of Cameroon, Nigeria, and Angola perceive such noncitizen groups' innovative communal practices as inherently destabilizing to fragile national identities, and how state security forces work to dismantle ties of affinity and restrain or apprehend religious authorities in order to preserve social and political boundaries among increasingly diverse and composite societies.","PeriodicalId":41877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Africana Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45557405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0098
Itohan Mercy Idumwonyi
Abstract:The impact of the Christian message on the family's existential foundation underpins this article. The quest/ion of polygamy has been in public discourse as extramarital affairs where husbands in monogamous unions increasingly "cheat" on wives with mistresses, referred to in modern parlance as "side chicks." Historically, polygamy assumed a new turn when Western culture became Christian virtue, thus a civilizing "norm." The demonization of polygamy stirred converted-husbands to divorce all wives except one. This article uses multidisciplinary approaches to theologize and interrogate the impact of Christian encounters on the culture of Benin City, Nigeria. I argue that the family disruption pointedly impacted mothers and created a "new social order" with the commodification of sex and a surge in sex work, workers, traffickers, and trafficking in Benin, and thus it is a form of religious violence. I conclude that the value of African polygamy reasonably exceeds the alternative establishment and proliferation of divorce or serial relationships situated within the "civilizing" Western culture.
{"title":"Polygamy Re-Imagined and Re-Negotiated: A Postcolonial Reflection on Gender, Sexuality, and Narrative Theology in Africa Christianity","authors":"Itohan Mercy Idumwonyi","doi":"10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0098","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The impact of the Christian message on the family's existential foundation underpins this article. The quest/ion of polygamy has been in public discourse as extramarital affairs where husbands in monogamous unions increasingly \"cheat\" on wives with mistresses, referred to in modern parlance as \"side chicks.\" Historically, polygamy assumed a new turn when Western culture became Christian virtue, thus a civilizing \"norm.\" The demonization of polygamy stirred converted-husbands to divorce all wives except one. This article uses multidisciplinary approaches to theologize and interrogate the impact of Christian encounters on the culture of Benin City, Nigeria. I argue that the family disruption pointedly impacted mothers and created a \"new social order\" with the commodification of sex and a surge in sex work, workers, traffickers, and trafficking in Benin, and thus it is a form of religious violence. I conclude that the value of African polygamy reasonably exceeds the alternative establishment and proliferation of divorce or serial relationships situated within the \"civilizing\" Western culture.","PeriodicalId":41877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Africana Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41683749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0119
Patrícia Rodrigues de Souza, Justin Sands
Abstract:This article is a combined effort of an author from Brazil and an author in South Africa to identify and comprehend the trajectories African wooden sculptures go through in their material cultural biographies. Wooden sculpting has always been part of African traditions. Africa's many artisans and markets provided and still provide a great number of wooden sculptures, which are now in several parts of the world, especially among former colonizers and in the diaspora. During their "lives," such wooden sculptures acquired different statuses, such as commodities like souvenirs or valued art works, but also as priceless historical documents, objets d'art, and religiously consecrated entities. The value and meaning of wooden sculptures are always set in resonance with historical periods and local cultural moralities. Therefore, the study of such cultural biographies reveals aspects not only about the pieces themselves but also about their environment.
{"title":"The Cultural Biographies of West African Wooden Sculptures in Sao Paulo, Brazil","authors":"Patrícia Rodrigues de Souza, Justin Sands","doi":"10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0119","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article is a combined effort of an author from Brazil and an author in South Africa to identify and comprehend the trajectories African wooden sculptures go through in their material cultural biographies. Wooden sculpting has always been part of African traditions. Africa's many artisans and markets provided and still provide a great number of wooden sculptures, which are now in several parts of the world, especially among former colonizers and in the diaspora. During their \"lives,\" such wooden sculptures acquired different statuses, such as commodities like souvenirs or valued art works, but also as priceless historical documents, objets d'art, and religiously consecrated entities. The value and meaning of wooden sculptures are always set in resonance with historical periods and local cultural moralities. Therefore, the study of such cultural biographies reveals aspects not only about the pieces themselves but also about their environment.","PeriodicalId":41877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Africana Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43044781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-01DOI: 10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0077
F. Apaah
Abstract:This article provides an ethnographic reading into Catholic liturgical music rooted in African indigenous concepts. It analyzes some selected lyrics of the compositions of Pius Agyemang, SVD, who was a versatile Ghanaian Catholic composer and historian with vast knowledge in Ghanaian culture, to explore the nexus between Christian religiosity and being an African. These songs are not just literary texts but indigenous theology in action that expresses the religious understanding and reflections of a people within the context of Ghanaian indigenous knowledge system's philosophy. The article shows how Pius Agyemang's works provide a paradigm of indigenous theology that combines the Asante thought-form and culture with indigenous expressions of the Christian faith. It argues that there is complementarity between Christianity and the indigenous knowledge system's philosophy that situates Christian belief in a stronger way in the Ghanaian traditional setting and serves as a relevant source of African Christian epistemology.
{"title":"Tete wↄ bi ka, tete wↄ bi kyerɛ: Pius Agyemang's Sacred Music and Ghana's Catholic Liturgical Inculturation felicity apaah","authors":"F. Apaah","doi":"10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5325/jafrireli.11.1.0077","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article provides an ethnographic reading into Catholic liturgical music rooted in African indigenous concepts. It analyzes some selected lyrics of the compositions of Pius Agyemang, SVD, who was a versatile Ghanaian Catholic composer and historian with vast knowledge in Ghanaian culture, to explore the nexus between Christian religiosity and being an African. These songs are not just literary texts but indigenous theology in action that expresses the religious understanding and reflections of a people within the context of Ghanaian indigenous knowledge system's philosophy. The article shows how Pius Agyemang's works provide a paradigm of indigenous theology that combines the Asante thought-form and culture with indigenous expressions of the Christian faith. It argues that there is complementarity between Christianity and the indigenous knowledge system's philosophy that situates Christian belief in a stronger way in the Ghanaian traditional setting and serves as a relevant source of African Christian epistemology.","PeriodicalId":41877,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Africana Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46998387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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