AFRICAN DIASPORIC RELIGIONS: PART ONE
CENTURIES OF RELIGIOUS MIGRATION
Organized Religion
This is a look into how many African diasporic religions developed, from the advent of the transatlantic slave trade to the contemporary period. The migration of West Africans to the New World by Catholic and Christian colonial powers resulted in direct imperial influence on the development of African religions across the diaspora. Migrating to a new area brings about adversity in many sociopolitical arenas, especially if it is a forced migration. Intragenerational acculturation processes and further geographic displacement made it more difficult to find others of the same faith to practice, worship and communicate with. This results in the hierarchy, celebrations, and worship amongst other forms of religious practice being subject to change. The influence was so strong that resistance tactics had to be used to not conform to western ideology. Before a deeper look is taken to how aspects of the religions changed across oceans and the development of African resistance, more background needs to be given on what led up to those occurrences.
It is commonly agreed upon that for any society to function, there must be an established religion. Anthropologists and theologists have charted the religious beliefs of societies since the earliest periods of human history. Scholars believe in functionalists’ theories which place religion is at the center of societies because it serves many purposes. The reason behind its prevalence/necessity is due to religion being a mechanism for community engagement, instilling a sense of support for one’s well-being, providing a moral compass and explaining forces beyond human imagination. Religion justified civilizations by providing a purpose that scientific inquiry could not explain. Throughout the centuries thousands of religions and belief systems have been widespread amongst many civilizations; the three largest religions being Abrahamic Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Having gained a massive following with over half of the global population subscribing to one of them, these monotheistic belief systems had developed over the centuries through times of war, massive cultural shifts and global events in addition to being spread through an imperialist and sovereign rule.
RELIGIOUS MIGRATION
Religion has always been migratory, facilitated in large by forced mass migration and in other instances, such as with Catholicism, through missionary conversion treatments. The movement of religion through migration has allowed for an expansion of the diaspora and the globalization of religion. Many missionary projects have been shown to be integral in the institutional changes of a nation, oftentimes by causing people to question their being, lifestyle, and circumstance thus inspiring a revolution. History has shown that people may be forced out of their country for a variety of reasons, with religious persecution, political turmoil, economic instability, and natural disasters being the major reasons’ emigration occurs. Migrants often turn to those of a common religious faith for stability, comfort, and reassurance of identity in the face of the distress. In the newly established communities, religious furnishings, visual representations and architecture are put up to reinforce the sense of a person’s ethnic identity. The prevalence of the symbols continues to spur thoughts of community engagement, which in turn motivates people to continue to help build the community through service movements. While migration due to persecution is one of the many reasons to migrate, the biggest reason for religious dispersal throughout the diaspora is widely accepted to be the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Religion has always been migratory, facilitated in large by forced mass migration and in other instances, such as with Catholicism, through missionary conversion treatments. The movement of religion through migration has allowed for an expansion of the diaspora and the globalization of religion. Many missionary projects have been shown to be integral in the institutional changes of a nation, oftentimes by causing people to question their being, lifestyle, and circumstance thus inspiring a revolution. History has shown that people may be forced out of their country for a variety of reasons, with religious persecution, political turmoil, economic instability, and natural disasters being the major reasons’ emigration occurs. Migrants often turn to those of a common religious faith for stability, comfort, and reassurance of identity in the face of the distress. In the newly established communities, religious furnishings, visual representations and architecture were put up to reinforce the sense of a person’s ethnic identity. The prevalence of the symbols continues to spur thoughts of community engagement, which in turn motivates people to continue to help build the community through service movements.
THE BREAKDOWN
The first step of the European forced acculturation process on the Africans was the denunciation of their background. There were attacks made on the cultural and religious practices of the Africans by placing harmful labels on them as such as uncivilized or demonic, with many people not having even a surface level understanding of one African tradition. This created a stigma around religions from Africa and ostracized those that subscribed to those beliefs. This mentality contributed to the global justification of imperialism and the foul treatment of Africans at the time. Many of the negative stereotypes of African culture and religion remained in western culture long after migrations such as the transatlantic slave trade had ended.
The largest global migration in history was the transatlantic slave trade; the forced movement of over 10 million Africans by European imperial powers. One can imagine how depraved and stripped Africans felt after the voyage, with only their religion to rely on for hope, stability and answers to why subjugation and imprisonment had befallen them. Unfortunately, the circumstance had made it extremely difficult for religion to be exercised and expressed freely during the horrors of slavery. The physical restriction made it difficult for enslaved Africans to exercise their religion through shows of faith such as pilgrimages, worship, and other traditional practices. The lack of religious expression also negatively manifested in the mental health of African slaves. The colonizers purposefully restricted the slaves and left them devoid of religious freedom without consequence. Religion gives way for one to have independent thought and allows one to examine the conditions of the universe, which they did not want the enslaved to have. By forcing a conversion to Christianity under the guise of divine right, the imperialist powers would be able to continue a system of social control that would last for generations. The plan was to convert the enslaved before they empowered themselves and attempt to change how things were done in the New World. The Europeans knew that Christianity did not have to be introduced in the Americans in an enslaved environment. There were missions’ trips done throughout Africa long before the slave trade began. Missionaries aided in Africans developing their own version of Christianity so by the time they were enslaved, they already had some alignment with European views; thereby making the acculturation process controlled by the Europeans easier.
