African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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432 p., Religion is one of the most important elements of Afro-Caribbean culture linking its people to their African past, from Haitian Vodou and Cuban Santeria—popular religions that have often been demonized in popular culture—to Rastafari in Jamaica and Orisha-Shango of Trinidad and Tobago. In Afro-Caribbean Religions, Nathaniel Samuel Murrell provides a comprehensive study that respectfully traces the social, historical, and political contexts of these religions.
251 p., Analysis of characteristic traits of Afrodescendants in the Atabaque and the Conférence Haïtienne des Religieux et Religieuses research work. These publications are used to bring to light the Afro-Brazilian and Haitian theological reflection as an expression of their commitment to multicultural and mestizo Brazil as well as black Haiti. Based on the comparative study of the content of these theologies developed in Brazil and in Haiti, highlights two separate currents from 1986 to 2004 in theological databases. This delimitation corresponds to the phase of publication of results of three consultations about black theologies in Brazil in 1986, in 1995 and 2004. The CHR's works date from 1991 to 1999. This study aims to trace their practice of the Christian faith, as well as their development and their evolution.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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369 p., This title includes discussions of Ernest Hemingway's life and works. Includes Philip Melling's "Cultural imperialism, Afro-Cuban religion, and Santiago's failure in Hemingway's The old man and the sea."
An exploration into the social networks of the Anglo-Caribbean African population from the mid 18th to early 19th centuries. Details are given describing the unique identity and culture of an international Black Protestant community established during the period. The transition from White evangelism of slaves to the self-sustained and promoted religious community of the African population is noted. Individual leaders such as William Hammet, William Meredith, and Denmark Vesey are also profiled.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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201 p, Contents: Cultural history and the arts -- Festivals and Carnival -- Music of the French-speaking Caribbean and its diaspora. General works; Canada; Cuba; Dominica; Dominican Republic; France; French Guiana (Guyane); Guadeloupe; Haiti; Martinique; Puerto Rico; St. Lucia; United States -- Biographical and critical studies.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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251 p., Explores how Juan Francisco Manzano and Gabriel de la Concepcion Valdés (also known as Plácido) appropriated Hispanic literature to inscribe an African descendant subjectivity in 19th century proto-nationalist Cuban discourse. Revises Mary Louise Pratt's notion of "intercultural texts" and Angel Rama's "literary transculturation", proposing "transculturated colonial literature" to trace the contradictions, re-significations, silences and shifts in the aesthetic and ideological function of Manzano and Plácido's texts. As such, 19th century Afro-Cuban literature is analyzed as an active space of negotiation and exchange disputing racial and religious hierarchies to inscribe an Afro-Cuban religio-cultural subject. The author concludes that both Manzano and Plácido disrupted the aesthetic and ideological norms of the colonial status quo by producing the first instance of literary transculturation in Cuba.
178 p., This dissertation is about the role that conservative religious notions of racial ideology played in the historical origins of black nationalism and pan-Africanism. Focuses on the writings of an African Caribbean, Edward Blyden, as the centerpiece of the study. Blyden, a native of Saint Thomas (Virgin Islands) and considered one of the "fathers" of both pan-Africanism and African nationalism, was a particularly complex diasporic intellectual. Traveling first to the United States in the pre-Civil War period, then to Africa and Britain at the height of the European imperial venture - and Christian missionary efforts - Blyden served as a conduit between the West (the United States and Britain) and both a traditional and a Muslim Africa. He saw his role as one of mediating (critiquing/translating) these divergent voices and ideologies with the object of constituting a "modern," pan-African subject.
A special thanks goes out to evangelist Pat Robertson for illustrating the point of this series with his ignorant-@$$ed commentary on the Haiti earthquake. Notice that Pat is selective about which disasters just happen and which constitute the "judgment of God." Iowa and Florida faced terrible natural disasters with no such pronouncements. When bad things happen to people and areas that reflect Pat's values it's probably the devil. Haiti is supposedly guilty of 'making a pact with Satan' and using the Afrikan-based Voodun spiritual system to gain freedom from enslavement. Interestingly, Pat's god was not offended at all by the Christians who brutally oppressed these people. His god never is offended, especially when the victims are Black.
186 p., Preacher's Cave, an archaeological site in North Eleuthera, Bahamas, is arguably one of the most important historical places in that country. This large cave, isolated in a natural setting, has long been associated in the popular imagination with the first English colonists who shipwrecked in the Bahamas in 1648 and laid the foundation for the modern nation. Before the present work, no systematic scientific archaeological work had ever been conducted at this site. These excavations, in conjunction with the written record, also suggest that the area surrounding the site is the location of the first free black community in the country.
