The African American Experience on Religion

The conjurer had skills of the priest, doctor, and diviner.

             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. .

             In North America, the primary religion was Protestantism. Before the people from West Africa were brought to North America "they were seasoned" in the West Indies because raw Africans were hard to control. This process involved doing away with as much as possible of the traditional West African religion of the newly imported slaves. Once imported to North America they were washed, shaven to disguise gray hair oiled up and were baptized by the priest into Christianity. "Like all aspects of West African culture brought by the slaves to the Americas it was profoundly modified both by their ordeal and the encounter with European culture" (Small, pp. 29). After this process, the priest taught the slaves about the mission of the church and how they were to go out and spread the word of Christianity. However, in North America it was common action of a slave to practice religion and his or her slave owner not to practice any form of religion. In this case, the slaves knew nothing about religion after the auction block because the slave master did not allow it. Furthermore, early practicing Protestants did not believe that West Africans had souls and were able to be saved.

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