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.
Chicago: Chicago School of Professional Psychology
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
107 p, This research attempts to understand the way Jamaican immigrants conceptualize psycho-spiritual illness in the socio-cultural context of Obeah, a West African religious tradition sharing an affinity with Vodou. In particular, this research will examine Jamaican immigrants' knowledge of, or experience with Obeah and how they construe psycho-spiritual illness in light of indigenous beliefs.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
This chapter concentrates on rhythm in danced, sung, and drummed practices of Cuban Santería. Musicians and dancers sing, drum, and dance the sequenced rhythms of the ancestors and provide opportunities for others to experience and learn. Many versions of ritual prose and poetry have been conserved, first by the continuous input of arriving Africans in the trans-Atlantic slave trade from the 16th to the late 19th century. Codified gestures and movements display specific patterns in accelerating and intensifying tempi. In predetermined rhythmic, tonal, and intervallic relationships, ritual musicians display the buried mathematics of a dance and music liturgy. In order to facilitate human dancing and suprahuman transformation, worshipers have relied and continue to rely on rhythmic remembrances.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
316 p., An ethnography of Afro-Brazilian religious traditions including Candomble shows that the lines separating one tradition from another are much less fixed than anthropologists and Afro-Brazilian religious elites have maintained.
117 p., Literary scholars frequently analyze the allusions to Western Christianity apparent in Toni Morrison's novels, but these studies overlook the ways in which some of her novels are informed by a Caribbean presence. This study argues that Rastafari themes, symbols, and ideologies are recurrent in Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, Beloved, and Song of Solomon. Rastafari is a social movement primarily concerned with restoring the image of Africa to a holy place. A Rastafari analysis of these texts broadens the literary spectrum to suggest that these novels highlight Morrison's attempt to write about the multifaceted element of the black community, which remains deeply connected to its American, African, and Caribbean roots.
The article discusses the oral histories of the Arará people in Perico and Agramonte, Cuba, and their roots in African cultural practices. The spiritual Arará religion is discussed. Emphasis is placed on similarities between African and Arará dances, social memory, and communication with the dead. Various Arará deities and religious objects are discussed. Many practitioners of the religion believe such objects came from Africa. Many of the oral stories revolve around the experiences of both African slaves and freed people at the España sugar refinery. It is believed the Arará people are descended from the African Ewe and Fon people, and therefore are strongly influenced by their religious customs.
