Religion and the African American Experience
Various factors contribute to religion practices and preferences. These factors can be demographic, economical, social or even lack thereof. It can be found that traditional West African religion has undergone much subtraction and addition in its making of a religion. It can also be found that it went through this process as it assembled in Latin and North America. Traditional West African religion was an essential part of life to every person from West Africa. Religion was a way of life. In other words life revolved around religion. It tied into every aspect of their lives. "West African religion permeates every aspect of human existence..." (Small, pp.20) Nothing was coincidental. West African people believed that nothing is left up to chance, everything happens for a reason. So if a child becomes sick West African people want to know why that child out of all the children living is sick. Religion is a way to find that reason. When a traditional West African religion is taken apart by order of their Gods, etc., the Creator is first, which is another name for God. Second in line are the Demi-Gods, which control the affairs of human beings and things that humans come in contact with. Third on the list are the ancestors, that ha
1. Raboteau, Albert J. Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum 3. Wilmore, Gayraud S. Black Religion and Black Radicalism. 2nd.ed. Orbis Books, In Latin America, the primary religion was Catholicism. "African Gods were syncretized with Catholic saints..." (Raboteau, pp. 77). This syncretization was called voodoo. The Gods of both Catholicism and traditional West African religion were parallel. The creator in traditional West African religion was like God in Catholicism. Demi-Gods from traditional West African religion was like Jesus Christ to the Catholics. In the sense that they had the same role, which was interaction with the living. The ancestors possess the same role as the saints. They both were living at some point and their memories are preserved in oral narration. Lastly, the living were the living in every sense in both religions. 4. Mbiti, John S. African Religions & Philosophy. Heinemann International, Oxford South. Oxford University Press NY, 1978. ve the ability to intervene in human life. Each God plays an important part within traditional West African Religion, either in the past or present. The living also had special parts in traditional West African religion. The priests kept the lines of communication open between the spirit world and human beings. The doctors or witch doctors acted as physicians that not only healed your illness but also told you where it came from. They brought healing both physically and psychologically. The wizards and witches had powers for social purposes that could be used for bad or good. The individuals called diviners had the job of being sin detectives. Lastly, the conjurer that was usually a woman held a combination of the jobs possesses by the others. The conjurer had skills of the priest, doctor, and diviner. Demographically, Latin American slave owners did not stress reproduction thus the slave population did not increase much. "In Brazil and the West Indies the mortality rate of slaves for long periods of slavery exceeded the birth rate by wide margins." (Raboteau, pp. 90) The reason for this was that planters found it more economical to supply their demand for slaves by importation rather th
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1482
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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