The African Diaspora and the Study of Religion (Religion Culture Critique)

289 Pages·2007·1.45 MB·English

by  Theodore Louis Trost

The African Diaspora and
the Study of Religion
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Religion/Culture/Critique
Series editor: Elizabeth A. Castelli
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American Protestants and TV in the 1950s: Responses to a New Medium
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The African Diaspora and the Study of Religion
Edited by Theodore Louis Trost
(2007)
9781403977861ts01.indd ii 10/22/2007 10:08:27 PM
The African Diaspora and
the Study of Religion
Edited by
THEODORE LOUIS TROST
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THE AFRICAN DIASPORA AND THE STUDY OF RELIGION
Copyright © Theodore Louis Trost, 2007.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom
and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European
Union and other countries.
ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–7786–1
ISBN-10: 1–4039–7786–0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The African diaspora and the study of religion / edited by Theodore
Louis Trost.
p. cm.
ISBN 1–4039–7786–0 (alk. paper)
1. Africa—Religion—Study and teaching. 2. African diaspora.
I. Trost, Theodore Louis, 1954–
BL2400.A417 2007
200.89996 —dc22 2007019674
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: December 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Series Editor’s Preface ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
List of Abbreviations xix
Introduction: Alexander Crummell and the Destined
Superiority of African People 1
Wilson Jeremiah Moses
Part 1 Africa in Diaspora
1 R aising Champions, Taking Territories: African Churches
and the Mapping of New Religious Landscapes in Diaspora 17
Afe Adogame
2 Christianity on Trial: The Nation of Islam and
the Rastafari, 1930–1950 35
Maboula Soumahoro
3 Ahmadi, Beboppers, Veterans, and Migrants:
African American Islam in Boston, 1948–1963 49
Fatimah Fanusie
Part 2 Diaspora in Literature and Culture
4 Robert Nathaniel Dett and African America’s
Christian Kingdom of Culture, 1926–1932 73
Regennia N. Williams
5 S lain in the Spirit: Sexuality and Afro-Caribbean Religious
Expression in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand 93
Merinda Simmons
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vi Contents
6 Candomblé, Christianity, and Gnosticism in Toni
Morrison’s Paradise 111
Maha Marouan
Part 3 Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean
7 The African Diaspora in Mexico: Santería, Tourism, and
Representations of the State 131
Angela N. Castañeda
8 Writing Out Africa? Racial Politics and the
Cuban regla de ocha 151
Christine Ayorinde
9 Macumba Has Invaded All Spheres: Africanity,
Black Magic, and the Study of Afro-Brazilian Religions 167
Kelly E. Hayes
Part 4 Diaspora in Theory
10 Early American Pentecostalism: Race, Religion, and
the Politics of Anticipation 193
Matthew Waggoner
11 T oward a Tradition of African American Pragmatic
Religious Naturalism 213
Jonathon S. Kahn
12 Africa on Our Minds 229
Russell T. McCutcheon
Conclusion: “Africa” in the Study of African
American Religion 239
Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
Notes on the Contributors 251
Index 255
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Illustrations
7.1 Santería ritual at 1996 IVEC festival 137
7.2 Santería sacrificial offering in 1996 IVEC festival 139
7.3 Public altar for Santería worship in 1996 IVEC festival 140
7.4 Poster for 2002 IVEC festival 141
7.5 Before and after picture of Santo Niño de Atocha or Elegua 145
10.1 Seymour surrounded by four white colleagues
associated with the Azusa Mission 202
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Series Editor’s Preface
Religion/Culture/Critique is a series devoted to publishing work that
addresses religion’s centrality to a wide range of settings and debates, both
contemporary and historical, and that critically engages the category of
“religion” itself. This series is conceived as a place where readers will be
invited to explore how “religion”—whether embedded in texts, practices,
communities, or ideologies—intersects with social and political interests,
institutions, and identities.
The African Diaspora and the Study of Religion brings together the work of
scholars from a range of disciplines—history, religion, cultural anthropology,
literature, and cultural studies—to focus attention on the richness and intri-
cacy of the African diaspora and its engagements with and stagings of religion.
The contributors to this volume invite readers to explore the religious cultures
and worlds that have emerged out of the complex legacies of enslavement and
colonial subjugation. What comes into view is the very transformation of
received traditions—whether Christianity, Islam, or indigenous religions—
into distinctive iterations of themselves and of religiosity itself. This book
explores religion as both a social fact and a mode of representation and signi-
fication, as a way of thinking, and as a way of being and doing in the world.
Each chapter in the volume stays closely focused on the object of analysis,
whether the life of a community lived out ritually or the figurations of diasporic
Africa in a literary text or, indeed, the theoretical questions that “diaspora”
and “Africa” as organizing terms themselves raise. At the same time, each
chapter also challenges its readers to reconsider the boundaries of “religion” as
a category of social and cultural analysis and to rethink the work that “reli-
gion” does in lives characterized by loss, displacement, and dispersion. The
African Diaspora and the Study of Religion is a welcome addition to the
Religion/Culture/Critique series for its contributions to religious studies,
Africana studies, and the places where the two fields so fruitfully intersect.
Elizabeth A. Castelli
Religion/Culture/Critique Series Editor
New York City
May 2007
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