- 22/02/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
2. Religion in Slavery
One of the main elements of the old African culture were revealed through Voodoo beliefs of slaves, the general name of religious beliefs that emerged among the descendants of black slaves exported from Africa to the American continent. The followers of voodoo believed in a God-creator (Bondieu – Good God) who was not involved in the lives of His creatures and spirits (Loa), who were the children of God-creator and who were prayed to and worshiped to as the senior family members. According to Voodooists, several souls lived in one person: before the birth and after the death a person was a Guinean angel; in addition, a person contained a God’s Ambassador, i.e. conscience. African slaves believed that cleaning sacrifices and amulets could save them from evil, together with special music and dances which were the key part of Voodoo rituals (Chireau 86-92).
Voodooists typically used a usual house as the sanctuary (hunfor), where mitan (the road of the gods) and black candles were the major attributes. Three drummers, each tapping own certain rhythm, were heralding the opening ceremony. Further the pleading song was sung addressed to the Loa Legba and asking him to open the gates and let people pass.
Dancing around the pole, a mambo (Voudoun priestess) together with her assistant la Place (sabre-bearer in Voudoun ceremonies), with the help water from a pitcher created a magic circle around a pole in honor of Papa Legba and Ogou Fer (protector of the house) in order to drive away the present evil spirits. The ceremony was followed by the obligatory ecstatic dance to the sound of drums, with women in white dresses and men in suits. When the public was sufficiently warmed, Bokor presented a cock which was beheaded. The participants of the ceremony fell into a trance and greeted the grace of spirits (Loa). This cleaned the body shell and the soul of sinners, making the soul free (Chireau 34-37).
Surprising combinations of objects, proving that ancient African customs and rituals for a long time had been actively practiced among the slaves who lived on the American plantations, were found by archaeologists at one of the largest sugar plantations in Texas. At first glance, a brick found by archaeologists in the territory of the former plantation in the district Brazoria (Texas, USA) was absolutely nothing special. However, according to anthropologist Kenneth Brown from the University of Houston, such a brick made by slaves cost much more than if it was completely made of gold. Its value was in the fact that on a rough brick surface a sign “X” was clearly visible, which is typically associated with the symbol of the intersection. In West Africa, the Yoruba people crossroads were the places where the worlds of living people and the world of spirits touched.
Since the appearance of another religious belief, La Santeria or Regla de Ocha religion, among the first African slaves, horrified by the Catholic liturgy which did not fit their minds, this cult became deeply personal and family. African slaves had difficulties in adapting to living far from their homeland, especially in conditions of severe exploitation. Many of them originating from esthetically developed tribes were infatuated with singing and dancing rituals and transferred their knowledge to descendants. The sounds of drums and ritual dancing were an inherent accompaniment of Santeria and the most common way to express religious feelings, based on the mixture of African beliefs and Roman Catholic dogma.
In the first half of the 18th century, African slaves united in the so-called cabildos or peculiar local councils of slaves originating from the same region of Africa, and worshiped a certain deity, being the patron of their tribe in their homeland. For example, the tribe Osun worshiped Chango, the god of thunder and lightning, the god of War, the keeper of beauty and bata drums. It should be mentioned that first of all, religious syncretism expressed in the fact that almost every African deity had its analog of the Catholic religion. For instance, the Spanish counterpart of Chango was a Catholic saint Santa Barbara. Tribes of Egba, Nupe, Tapa, Abeocuta, Ibadan worshiped Yemaya, the Mother of the Universe, a deity who represented the sea as the source of life. Its analogue in the Catholic religion was La Virgen de Regla, the keeper of the Bay of Havana and the patroness of seafarers. Tribes of Ekiti, Osogbo, Iyesa, Ijebu worshiped Ochun, the god of love, femininity and sexuality, irony and symbol of coquetry, Landlady of Rivers and wealth; her Catholic equivalent was Virgen de la Caridad de Cobre. All African gods had their own distinctive characteristics and areas of activity, but all of them combined the following symbols: stone and shells.
Having turned to Christianity, many slaves established their own parallel, or clandestine church. In them, Christianity was often combined with elements of old cultures and beliefs of African slaves. Thus, the service included characteristic cries, dances, and communication in the form of questions and answers, which later occupied a prominent place in the famous sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King and other leading black preachers. The Black Church often emphasized different aspects of the Christian tradition, than South churches for the Whites. While the latter could interpret the biblical curse of Ham (“Servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren”) as justification for slavery, African-American services instead focused on the story of how Moses led the Israelites from bondage (Haynes 137-43).
Most of these sects and churches has pronounced national features and does not go beyond the ethnic group of its origin. The African Christian religions include several thousands of dogmatically diverse churches and sects, united by the idea of Black Christianity, opposing the colonialist White Christianity. They proclaim the Black race as the chosen by God and accuse the Whites of misrepresentation of Christianity. All the prophets and Jesus Christ were declared Blacks, while the devil and demons are often drawn as Whites. The Holy Spirit is often revered above others of the Holy Trinity. Most of these sects and churches have derived from different areas of Protestantism. The desire of Protestants to Europeanize their flock in the absence of strict church discipline led to numerous splits in their flows (Duitsman-Cornelius 48-50).
Conditionally African Christian religions can be divided into 5 main groups: the adapted-Christian, Messianic, pagan-Christian, Old Testament and Ethiopic (Black Churches); some can be attributed to several groups at once.
Other major Methodist denominations in the United States were the African Methodist Episcopal Church (1816), the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (1820), as well as the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (1870), with total more than 2.5 million members (McClain 134-35).
Methodists are a Protestant denomination guided by the doctrinal and organizational principles stated by John Wesley in the 18th century. Methodism doctrinal provisions are set forth in the form of 25 statements, which represent a shortened version of 39 articles of the Anglican creed. Methodists believe in the Triune God and consider the Bible the supreme authority in matters of faith and practical life. They recognize the reality of sin and the possibility of forgiveness and redemption. Methodists rejected the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, and believe that all the people can be saved. Methodists also believe in sanctification, the lifetime process of growing in grace striving for Christian perfection through faith, repentance and holiness (Campbell 67-85).
The Methodist Church is open to any person who has reached the “age of decision” confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and obeying the church order. The vows given to other churches are recognized legally competent. The church law clearly states the possibility of entering the church for people of all races and nationalities.
Methodist services were first held in the colonies before 1766. Preachers R. Stowbridge in Maryland and F. Humbert in New York were the first to organize such a society. In 1812 there were 190 thousand American Methodists. Groups of African-Americans of the Northern states, protesting against discrimination, came out of their communities and set up independent congregations. In 1816 in Philadelphia, they founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1822 in New York – the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Dissatisfaction with the church leadership led to the emergence of the Methodist Protestant Church in 1830, bringing together 26 thousand believers (Campbell 105-113).
In 1843, a group of abolitionists founded the Wesley Methodist Church. Shortly thereafter, a new division of the Methodist Episcopal Church occurred after the stormy debate on the issue of slavery; the problem caused the tragic collapse in the church, and later – in the entire country. The General Conference in New York, which lasted 36 days, voted for the separation plan, under which the Methodist Episcopal Church included the Northern and Western conference; in the Southern states South Methodist Episcopal Church appeared (McClain 45-57).
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