85 p., This thesis examines the practice of Obeah--an Afro-Caribbean system of healing, harming, and divination through the use of spiritual powers--within two slave communities in Berbice and Demerara (British Guiana). This study is based primarily on legal documents--including testimony from more than a dozen slaves--generated during the criminal trials of two men accused of practicing Obeah in 1819 and 1821-22. In contrast to most previous studies of Obeah, which have been based largely on descriptions provided by British observers, this project takes advantage of this complex, overlapping body of evidence to explore the social dynamics of Obeah as experienced by enslaved men and women themselves, including Obeah practitioners, their clients, and other witnesses. This study reveals that Obeah rituals could be extremely violent, that Obeah practitioners were feared as well as respected among their contemporaries, that the authority of Obeah practitioners was based on demonstrable success, and that slave communities in general were complex social worlds characterized by conflict and division as well as by support and unity--conclusions that combine to produce a fresh, humane vision of Afro-diasporan culture and community under slavery.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Originally published by Paria Publishing Company Limited, 1955., 43 p, Documents Carr’s research and findings, during time spent with the Antoine family, at their Belmont Valley compound. The material Carr collected in the early 1950s remains the most detailed source of information about the beginnings of the Belmont group. Carr interviewed diverse Belmont inhabitants, but most important, he spoke at length with Henry Antoine, the son of Robert, the founder. Henry provided Carr with details about his father's life in Africa prior to his coming to Trinidad and about his establishment as a Rada leader at Belmont.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Based on papers delivered at sessions held during 1969-1970 at Western College, Oxford, Ohio, United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio, and Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio., 390 p., Includes Leonard E Barrett's "African religion in the Americas : the islands in between" and Fred Gillette Sturm's "Afro-Brazilian cults."
The article focuses on the interactions between anglophone blacks, black Caribbeans, and indigenous southern Mesoamericans during the second half of the 18th century. The author discusses the history of race relations between Europeans, Africans, and Indians within the British and Spanish empires, examines the relationship between Mayas and Spanish colonists, and analyzes the role of religious differences within their encounters.
Kingston Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
A collection of essays on the history of Christianity and the role of the Church in the processes of colonization and decolonization in the Caribbean. The work is a cross-cultural study of the Church and society in the Dutch, Spanish, French and English Caribbean. It looks at the relationships that existed among slavery, colonialism and Catholicism, Christianity and decolonization, and the church and military dictatorships. Contents: The beginnings of the Catholic Church in the Caribbean / Johannes Meier -- Protestantism and slavery in the British Caribbean / Keith Hunte -- Christianity and slavery in the Dutch Caribbean / Armando Lampe -- The Catholic Church and the state in Haiti, 1804-1915 / Laënnec Hurbon -- The Catholic Church and the state in the Dominican Republic, 1930-1960 / William Wipfler -- Protestantism in Cuba, 1868-1968 / Theo Tschuy
