Old Ship of Zion: The Afro-Baptist Ritual in the African Diaspora

216 Pages·1993·10.79 MB·English

by  Walter F. Pitts

Old Ship of Zion
Religion in America Series
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The Afro-Baptist Ritual
The Muslims of America in the African Diaspora
edited by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad Walter F. Pitts
Old Ship
of Zion
The Afro-Baptist Ritual
in the African Diaspora
WALTER F. PITTS
With a Foreword by Vincent L. Wimbush
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1993 by Leroy Davis
First published in 1993 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1996.
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pitts, Walter F, 1947-1991.
Old ship of Zion : the Afro-Baptist ritual
in the African diaspora / Walter F. Pitts.
p. cm. — (Religion in America series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-507509-9
ISBN 0-19-511145-1 (Pbk.)
1. Afro-American Baptists. 2. Blacks—Africa—Religion.
3. Public worship—Baptists—History.
I. Title. II. Series:
Religion in America series (Oxford University Press)
BX6443.P58 1993
264'.06'0089960730764—dc20
92-15256
Portions of chapters 5 and 6 were adapted from previously published
articles and are acknowledged on pages 154 and 175, respectively.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To the memory of Walter, Sr.,
who used to tell me:
"Don't play it if you don't mean it."
and
To Leroy,
A signpost,
A leaning post.
A bright and shining star.
"Throw the ball Retha!"
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the numerous churches in central Texas that
willingly let me tape record and play for their worship services, thereby
encouraging my study as well as teaching me how to play gospel music.
Above all, I acknowledge the congregation of St. John Progressive
Baptist Church in Austin, whose doors were always open for my
research. I also acknowledge the congregation of Good Hope Baptist
Church in Round Rock, Texas, who were equally supportive of my
efforts to write about the Afro-Baptist experience. I am indebted to
Lucien Johnson for taking me to his church, Paradise Baptist. This visit
began my involvement with the Afro-Baptist ritual, its sound, and its
followers.
I would like to thank John Bordie of the University of Texas at Austin
for strongly encouraging me to publish my research when I was in doubt;
and Jane Atkinson at Lewis and Clark College for reading an earlier
draft of the manuscript and offering helpful comments and encourage-
ment. In 1987, while I was studying as a President's Fellow at the Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley, my mentor Alan Dundes gave
invaluable assistance by meticulously reviewing the theoretical issues
that I argue. In the Department of Geography and Anthropology at
Louisiana State University, my colleague Miles Richardson made
insightful literary suggestions for Chapter 1, while Jill Brody and Joyce
Jackson were supportive listeners. I would like to thank Mervyn Wil-
liams of the Ministry of Culture of Trinidad and Tobago for taking me
during the summer of 1989 to several rituals in Trinidad, which were
important to my fieldwork.
I owe much to Bradley Phillips, the painter, for his unyielding insis-
tence that I begin writing. I am also indebted to the congregation of
Israelite Divine Spiritual Church in New Orleans for allowing me to
participate in their rituals. I feel a special indebtedness to Israelite's
Bishop E. J. Johnson, Deacon Carlos Washington, organist Hillary
Dozier, and Sister Wilma Brooks, who welcomed me warmly into their
midst.
viii Acknowledgments
I am thankful for the support my sister Jeanne and my mother Inez
have always given me, whether I was right or wrong, or whether they
knew what I was doing or not. I am also thankful for the warmth of
the family of C. T. and Mattie Davis of Giddings, Texas. Each of their
children—Nancy, Wallace, Lena Ann, Kathryn, Leroy, Alma, Vera,
Cynthia, and Clyde—is like a refraction of Olodumare, God, in that
from each I learned something valuable and different about life. I thank
Leroy for helping me type the manuscript and for proofreading it, as
well as for his constant comments about its subject matter. I finally
thank Rufina, the spirit of an old Cuban slavewoman, who told me
through possession trance fourteen years ago that I had a book to write.
I take it, Rufina, that this is the book. I only regret that many of my
friends, whom I took for granted as a "support system," will not read
it. Their lives have ended prematurely as a result of AIDS, other illnesses,
and random violence. I miss them for themselves and for their reac-
tions, had they been able to read Old Ship ofZion.
W. F. P.
CONTENTS
Foreword by Vincent L. Wimbush, xi
Introduction, 3
1 "Magnificence, Beauty, Poetry, and Color": The Afro-Baptist Church,
Its Ritual and Frames, 11
2 "We Free!" History of the Afro-Baptist Church, 34
3 "I Want to Be at the Meeting": A History of Afro-Baptist
Speech and Hymnody, 59
4 "Kabiesile Shango!" A Cross-Cultural Comparison
of Ritual Frames, 91
5 "Nothing New under the Sun": The Variation of Speech
and Song in the Afro-Baptist Ritual, 132
6 "Like a Ship": Afro-Baptist Ritual Process, 155
References, 177
Audiography, 189
Index, 191