Considering the story of humanity
being one of conquest, submission, and at times a manufactured scarcity to
create a struggle for resources, one must also acknowledge the tremendous
ingenuity of our species since branching off from other primate ancestors. We
can see what kind of intellectual games our species has evolved to get what we
want, to function on the planet and to cope with the human condition. Because
of our consciousness and highly evolved use of symbolism, we take stories to
heart and sometimes we model our lives after the characters in these stories depending
on how they resonate with us and how we view ourselves. We tend to put ourselves
in the seat of the hero. This is a natural tendency in our species to project
ourselves to a higher social stratification.
The story of Christianity interwoven
in the lifestyles of the African American is an example of not only the
assimilation and programming from slave masters but also one of syncretism,
coping mechanisms and the evolution of meaning in the human psyche. To
understand this metamorphosis we need to take an unbiased and objective
approach to the beliefs of religions as well as taking an unbiased look at ALL
people, with more or less melanin. We
need to look at these elements the same way as we would look at any organism in
a habitat on earth. Living organisms that cannot function in the current
environment or cannot adapt to changes will be naturally selected out of the
ecosystem therefore adaptation is crucial in survival. We will first briefly look at Christianity in
Africa[1]
then its evolution throughout Europe and its use among peoples as a means of
conquest through to its evolution in the black community in the Americas. That
is a good starting point to observe the long term toxicity of certain
ideologies and transition from what Christianity was and what it has become in
the mind of the African man. We will see that the story of religious faith,
conquest, assimilation and syncretism are really a story of gold and economic
competition.
There is a
romanticized concept that evil white European Christians came, kidnapped
peaceful Africans, forced them into bondage and whipped them until they
assimilated. In some instances this may be part of the truth but realistically
it is much more complex than that and accounts like this work to demonize
another demographic of people. Christianity expanded into Africa in the 1st
century CE. [2] It
was already an established religion in parts of North Africa as far down as
Ethiopia well before any Europeans set foot on the continent but as we see in
all ever evolving societies, the Africans incorporated their own nature-worship
traditions into the other faiths to make their religions “stronger.” This
blending for strength was a characteristic of many native ancient religions as
we also saw this with some Native American tribes. With many African people’s and smaller bands
of tribes following traditional African religions, the dominating early empires
of African King’s sometimes consumed these smaller groups and either enslaved
them, made them convert to the current state religion, or simply left them alone
as we see with the African King Tunka-Manin who respected the states
sovereignty and traditions. [3]
Islam made its appearance and
dominated Africa by the 7th century CE dating back to the prophet
Muhammad sending some of his cohorts to Africa for refuge. [4]
This created a strong African Muslim Arabic economy complete with a Muslim
slave trade for hundreds of years. Many African rulers brought many useful
tools for governance and education from the Middle East to Africa when
returning from their pilgrimage to Mecca but they also solidified means of
exploitation as Abrahamic faiths in general speak of how to keep slaves. The
Arabic Muslim slave trade was not racial; they captured and sold slaves across
Africa and Europe indiscriminately. The African continent and its states were
known far and wide for its seemingly endless gold supply so when certain Muslim
rulers like Mansa Musa realized that tolerating the other dominant natural religions
in surrounding African states kept their gold coming to him, he was sure to
exhibit much diplomacy. Other tribes
were simply enslaved and sold to the Arabic Muslims via the Trans-Saharan Trade
routes.
By the 1200’s Christian Europe, growing
as a player in the flourishing world economy, gathered knowledge of Africa’s
trade routes and close ties to the Middle East through traveling Muslim-to-Christian
converts like Leo Africanus. At the same time there was a growing conflict
between Christians and Muslims over control of the Iberian Peninsula. [5]
Attempting to reap the rewards of the gold in Africa, other goods from India
and Africa’s interior, the Portuguese entered Africa on the opposite side of
the continent and began its own relationship. In examining one of the earliest
contacts of Europe with Africa the journal “Sons of Adam” states an account of
Portuguese explorer Infante Henrique: “In his diplomatic en-treaty, Infante
Henrique minimized the commercial incentive and fashioned the ‘toils of that
conquest’ into a ‘just war’ under the banner of a Christian Crusade.” All these
conquests into Africa required papal approval and as “Son’s of Adam” states: “the
pope’s authority prevailed, since all humans were of Christ though not with the
church. ‘As a result,’ the medievalist James Muldoon notes, ‘the pope’s pastoral
responsibilities consisted of jurisdiction over two distinct flocks, one consisting
of Christians and one comprising everyone else.’’’ Initially, Pope Innocent IV
in the early 1200’s forbade conquest of dominion over “infidel” lands because
they did not violate natural law but once revisited, the imperial Christian
adherents preferred the evolving state-church relationship and justification of
divine nobility over peasant and infidel in their growing nation. The
discriminatory practices that were beginning to take shape in Europe with the
Christian majority vs the Jewish and Muslim minority began influencing their policies
with the wider world. The African states practicing animism were categorized as
simply “pagans.” Developing their own economy and their need for slave labor as
they expanded across the Atlantic, the Christian Europeans bought slaves who
were predominantly from West Africa as these Western smaller states were
consumed by larger Muslim African empires. The majority of these newly enslaved
Western Africans were not Muslim or Christian but many variations of religions which
made it hard for them to live in peace and made it easy for the larger African
Empires to control them.[6]
By the 1500’s the trans-Atlantic slave
trade was born and it was based on the oppression of smaller tribes by the
larger Muslim African Empire, and the religious zealotry, greed and expansion obsession
of the Christian Europeans trying to play catch up. This left the early West African
slave to be nothing more than a pawn of two competing growing economies, one
Muslim trade route that was long established, and another one blossoming from
Christian European domination moving to the west.
From the “seasoning process” of the
slave in the Caribbean to the labor in the America’s, the European’s taught
their faith to the African’s which consisted of not only a firm belief that the
Europeans were superior with a superior religion but also acted to keep slaves
subservient. By the 1600’s a biblical ideology that involved the story of Ham,
Abraham’s son, had already been used to enslave people of all colors depending
on who was the oppressor at the time. This story where Ham’s son Canaan is
condemned to a life of servitude was employed as divine order to degrade and
discriminate against groups of people. This biblical story was exploited by
Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the previous centuries dating back to
Ethiopian slaves in old Arabia which eventually conflated “blackness” with
servitude. [7] In
the America’s the ideology was well solidified and became a simple truth to
many of the slave masters.
Slavery evolved gradually in the new
colonies acknowledging that the early slaves were merely indentured servants
who were represented by people of all colors. As the economy expanded and the
necessity for cheap or free labor grew, so did the Christian justification for
slavery, ironically. One of the greatest scholars the United States has ever
produced W.E.B. DuBois writes of the black man’s assimilation: “Nothing suited
his condition better than the doctrines of passive submission embodied in the
newly learned Christianity. Slave masters early realized this, and cheerfully
aided religious propaganda within certain bounds. The long system of repression
and degradation of the Negro tended to emphasize the elements in his character
which made him a valuable chattel: courtesy became humility, moral strength degenerated
into submission, and the exquisite native appreciation of the beautiful became
and infinite capacity for dumb suffering.” Their new economic position gave
Africans no hope in this life but as Christianity promises, the rewards will be
in the next life when the savior returns. DuBois states, “The Negro losing the
joy of this world, eagerly seized upon the offered conceptions of the next…this
became a comforting dream.”[8]
The slave masters made sure to educate
the African man just on what they felt was safe and applicable to keep them
subservient. The slave had no option to learn to read and relied solely on what
was told to them. However this brainwashing propaganda merged with their own
African religious ritual as many accompanied their native songs with concepts
of the new “faith.” This was a replay of many of their African ancestors as we
can see a religious syncretism even to this day throughout the African
continent. Many traditional and native ceremonies were mixed with icons from
the dominating culture’s belief systems and integrated in traditional songs and
dance of the enslaved people.
Throughout the south as the economy
of America grew through the African man’s nonstop free labor, the Christian
faith was not only a new part of the black man’s existence, it was the center
of the black community as church meetings were where all issues were discussed,
problems were solved and secretive plans were made. The importance of the
church and community came about from the black man’s need for hope but also
from the benefits that the American oppressors afforded them if and ONLY if
they converted to Christianity. As the European countries fought each other
overseas and “ownership” of the US colonies exchanged hands, different
stipulations were placed on the slaves from whichever country was controlling
at the time. By the 1700’s the American states had moved from policies of white,
Native American and African indentured servitude, to white servitude, genocide
of natives and no possible freedom for blacks unless through manumission. In
some parts of the country blacks were afforded more freedoms and this lead to a
cultural foundation. Some more sympathetic masters taught their slaves to read
and as the African now African American man evolved his ideologies with his
plight, other stories from the bible began serving as a catalyst for
progressive ideas of real freedom in THIS life as opposed to the afterlife. The
story of the Jews exodus from Egypt to freedom enticed black men and women as a
calling from their new almighty god to take action against their bondage. The
biblical references emboldened the African American community and for the first
time they saw themselves as the “chosen people of god” like the Jews. This
fueled men like Nat Turner to go on a rampage killing all white people. He
undoubtedly had some other mental deficiencies as he regularly heard voices and
saw visions, but his obsessive compulsion with the bible made him an
indifferent killer believing he was doing god’s work. These new black
evangelical leaders empowered their listeners and created a new dynamic in the north
and south.
Different conflicting interpretations
of the bible started surfacing through the Quaker movement who were the first
people to organize societies for the abolition of slavery. The book that had
discussed slavery with detailed instructions on how to own other humans was now
being used to justify freedom for all men from scripture citing all men’s
equality under a god. The contradictions played out in the United States in
different pockets of the country with alternative agendas.[9]
After the revolutionary war the white
man declared an epic freedom from tyranny, at the same time these same words
were being used by the black slave population who were looking to free
themselves as well. The early black Christian church was used as a means of
mobilization for a repressed people. This demographic of people with more
melanin focused on the freedom, emancipation, and good graces of the Christian god
in the bible whereas another demographic with less melanin used the same Christian
god to prove that slavery was just a part of the “plan.” Jefferson Davis, the President of the
Confederate States of America proudly stated: "[Slavery] was established
by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments,
from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among
the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest
proficiency in the arts."[10]
In-between these incompatible
interpretations of ancient people’s ideas of society were opposing influential
black leaders like Jupiter Hammon who believed it was every black person’s
Christian duty to patiently await the end of slavery and appease his slave
masters and Olaudah Equiano who loudly opposed the Christian slave masters as
hypocrites and vigorously opposed the institution.
From the early African roots of
ritualistic magic, song, and dance representative of many traditional society
religions, the only thing really missing in the syncretism with Christianity is
the element of sacrifice, though many Africans continue sacrificial practice in
Africa alongside Christianity. Today’s black church has the characteristic 3
elements DuBois named as the Preacher, the Music, and the Frenzy. The origins
of these things long predate any concepts of Christianity as they are generally
central to any traditional ceremony or gathering of people. The Preacher is an
orator and a leader. He is one who touches the soul of the congregants. The
Music is used to move and create a rhythmic environment for a sort of hypnosis
to reach outside oneself and finally the Frenzy is when a congregant is thought
to be actually touched by the god.[11]
Without this element a person has not yet “reached” the ultimate level. The
frenzy looks very similar to spiritual possession in older Vodun practices and
the evolution to this modern form is easy to link.
As I analyze all this information and
meld it with my other knowledge on anthropology, history, philosophy and
theology, I see the church to this day is still a therapeutic organization that
brings people together in a community and predicates on the strength of the
whole banding together, however this is not a positive thing when considering
the community of KKK members joining together in hatred. It seems like African
American church devotees do not care so much that their “faith” was forced on
their “people” at a point when all other elements of what they knew themselves
to be as a culture was destroyed. It may be too painful to think about. The
idea may also be that the end may have justified the means because now they are
“saved” or “found.” When looking at the religion as an organism though, I do
not see it anywhere close to that. If religions serve a function and fight to
exist, having what we would call a “fitness” like in an organism, their fitness
is based on “reproductive ability” which translates to adherents child birth
rates, infant mortality rates, the destruction of other opposing ideas, conversion-deconversion
rates, and life expectancy of adherents.[12]
This faith has “survived” because of,
not through, the decimation of many
cultures. We can have faith in anything,
so how could one choose which claim to believe? If a person is not strict in
basing their beliefs on concrete testable evidence, then why of all the
intangible speculative things to put ones faith in would someone accept
something as truth from people who had no interest in their well-being and
furthermore used this belief to demean, pacify and degrade their existence? We
have seen studies of black school girls picking white dolls to play with
because they looked “nicer” in America. Most all images of the savior of all
mankind in the Christian religion is shown as a Caucasian. These images have
created the infrastructure for institutional colorism. I prefer to call it
colorism because there is only the human race and this race has people with
more and less melanin depending on folic acid and vitamin D intake. The
concepts of “the dark” and going to “the light” are a constant theme in
Christianity and it wreaks havoc on the human psyche. With these Western
watered down clumsy concepts of the “good and pure” being white and the “evil
and imperfect” being black, we will continually keep recycling the same
discrimination. Doesn’t it make more sense that people use anything around them
to aid in their struggle to survive, even if it was taught by OTHER people who
wanted complete control? The belief is just a passing fad, however the ACTIONS
of the people who fight to survive is much more commendable and our species has
shown that it will take a toxic theme and twist it to change their predicament
for the better. That to me is the beauty of life and will long endure any
controlled mental manipulation.
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"AFRICAN RELIGIOUS BELIEFS |
Tewahedo | Palo | Serer | Tijaniyyah | Vodon." AFRICAN RELIGIOUS BELIEFS |
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[1] "AFRICAN
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS | Tewahedo | Palo | Serer | Tijaniyyah | Vodon." AFRICAN
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS | Tewahedo | Palo | Serer | Tijaniyyah | Vodon. N.p., n.d.
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[2] "The
Story of Africa." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
[3] Franklin,
John Hope, and Alfred A. Moss. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African
Americans. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994. Print.
[4] "Islam
in Africa." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Apr.
2014.
[5] Bennett,
Herman L. ""Sons of Adam": Text, Context, and the Early Modern
African Subject." Representations 92.1 (2005): 16-41. Print.
[6] "Culture
and Religion in West-Africa." - Atlas West-Africa. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr.
2014.
[7] Lee,
Felicia R. "From Noah's Curse to Slavery's Rationale." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 31 Oct. 2003. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
[8] B.,
Du Bois W. E. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. Greenwich, CT:
Fawcett Publications, 1961. Print.
[9] "Slavery
and the Making of America." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
[10] "By
Their Strange Fruit." Religious Roots of Racism -. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr.
2014.
[11] B.,
Du Bois W. E. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. Greenwich, CT:
Fawcett Publications, 1961. Print.
[12] Diamond,
Jared M. The World until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional
Societies? New York: Viking, 2012. Print.
