African-American Religion: A Confluent of African Traditional Religion and Christianity

By David Musa

Literature on North American slavery is almost inexhaustible but negligent of the religious culture of the slaves, most especially African-American Christianity. As noted in Robert Handys insightful article, for several decades AfricanAmerican Christianity appeared only as incidentals in the general historiography of American Church history. Considering the immeasurably positive role of the Church in the lives of African-Americans, this oversight is almost inexcusable.

Even where studies in slave Christianity have been attempted one would search in vain for any substantial discussion of the mutual effects of the slaves original African religion and Christianity.

Thus this study is a contribution to recent explorations into that vital aspect of the history of African slaves in North America their Christianization. The study focuses on the question of why the African slaves were apparently more responsive to Christianity in the Great Awakenings than during the previous evangelization efforts by the Anglican missionaries. I propose that the continuities as well as discontinuities between Christianity and African Traditional Religion were key among determinant factors in the slaves response to Christianity. Basically, the slaves responded to the type of Christianity in which these factors were more prominent, the Great Awakenings vis--vis the Anglican version.

The first chapter of this study highlights the problem of past inattention to slave Christianity, especially as it relates to African Traditional Religion. In Chapter two, I argue for both West Africa as the original home of the slaves and African Traditional Religion as the predominant religious culture of that region. The third chapter describes the process, personnel, and problems encountered in slave Christianization. Chapters four and five analyze and evaluate the impact of Christianizing efforts by the Anglican missionaries and revival evangelists respectively.
Chapter six summarizes and discusses the value of my findings for the African-American Church and Christianity in general. The study contains suggestions for further research.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504913683

David Musa

David Musa, Ph.D. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), Trinity International University, Deerfield, Illinois, is currently adjunct professor of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, adjunct professor of Religious Studies, Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin. Having previously taught at Carthage College for over 7 years, Dr. Musa now has the special responsibility of creating and directing West African J-term Courses, normally conducted in Senegal and Ghana. Dr. David Musa earned his undergraduate degree (B.Sc.) and a Diploma in Education (Dip. Ed.) from Fourah Bay College, (University of Sierra Leone). David also earned his M.A. (Systematic Theology) from the Wheaton Graduate School, Wheaton, Illinois, as well as an M. Div. (Intercultural Studies) from Trinity International University. David is founder and Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Agape Voluntary Efforts (SAVE, Inc), a non-profit (501)(c)3), Christian Charity created nearly two decades ago for the express purpose of meeting the spiritual and physical needs of civil-war degraded country of Sierra Leone and Africa at large. David has published the “History of Christian Mission in sierra Leone,” in the Evangelical Dictionary of World Mission, Scott Moreau, ed. His most recent publication was under the title: African American Religion: A Confluent of African Traditional Religion and Christianity, published by AuthorHouse, Bloomington, Indiana.

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© 2015 David Musa. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/26/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-1367-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-1368-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015908049

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD

ABSTRACT

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1.   INTRODUCTION

Statement of the Problem

Description of the study

Definition of Terms

Limitations of the Study

Procedure and Chapter Summary

2.   THE PROVENANCE AND PROTO-RELIGION OF AFRICAN SLAVES IN NORTH AMERICA

The Provenance of African Slaves in North America

The Geography of the Slaves’ Original Home

Evidence from Slave Shipping Records

Evidence from Eyewitness Accounts of a Slave Trader

Evidence from Former Slaves

Evidence From Ethnolinguistic Inventories

The Proto-Religion of African Slaves in North America

Probable Islamic and Christian Influences

African Traditional Religion: A Definition

African Traditional Religion: Its Essential Elements

Beliefs

Belief in the Supreme God

Belief in Spirits

African Traditional Religion in Practice

Dance and Music in African Traditional Religion

Secret Societies in African Traditional Religion

General Characteristics of African Traditional Religion

Revelation and Soteriology in African Traditional Religion

The Structure of African Traditional Religion

Sacrifice in African Traditional Religion

3.   THE PROCESS, PERSONNEL, AND PROBLEMS IN SLAVE CHRISTIANIZATION

The Fate of the African Religious Culture of the Slaves

Factors Stimulating or Inhibiting Slave Christianization

Christianization as Rationale for Slavery: Roman Catholic Expansionism

Christianization as Part of Western Colonial Expansion Strategy

Christianization as By-Product of Humanitarian Concerns

Christianization from a Sense of Christian Obligation

Obstacles to Slave Christianization

4.   THE PROGRESS OF SLAVE CHRISTIANIZATION:

EARLY ANGLICAN EFFORTS

Anglican Soteriology and Slave Christianization

Anglican Ideology of Slavery and

Slave Christianization

Anglican Strategy and Its Effects on Christianization

Anglican Methodology of Slave Christianization

Slave Demographics and Its Effects on

5.   THE PROGRESS OF SLAVE CHRISTIANIZATION:

EFFECTS OF EVANGELICAL REVIVALISM

North American Evangelical Revival:A Brief Background

Effects of Evangelical Revivals on Blacks

The Spread of Evangelical Revival to Southern States

The Post-Revolutionary Revivals and Slave Christianization

The Contents of Evangelical Revival Messages

The Conduct of Evangelical Revival Meetings and Slave Christianization

Character of Revival Settings and Slave Christianization

6.   CONCLUSION

Summary of Study

Analysis of Findings of Study

Implications of Findings of Study

Recommendations for Further Research

APPENDIX A

SOURCES OF SLAVE SUPPLIES IN THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE ACCORDING TO SIGISMOND KOELLE’S ETHONOLINGUISTIC INVENTORY, PLOTTED ON THE AFRICAN MAP

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Tables

Table 1.   Regional Distribution in Percentage of Slaves Exported from Africa by Ships Known to the British Foreign Office, 1817-43

Table 2.   Slave Departures (Thousands) from Outlets in the Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, and Bight of Biafra, 1662-1863 (Listed from West to East)

Table 3.   Projected Contribution of African Regions and Ethnic Groups of the Northern and Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1526-50

FOREWORD

One cannot talk for too long with African-Americans about the formative influences in their lives without religion, especially Christianity, coming to the fore. It is a well-known fact that religion plays a critical role in understanding all aspects of African-American life. A Pew Research Center report of 2009 found that While the U.S. is generally considered a highly religious nation, African-Americans are markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the U.S. population as a whole, …

This is not a new phenomenon. Even at the beginning of the 1900s centuries since the beginning of the slave trade, when W.E.B. DuBois wrote the Souls of Black Folk, he said, The Negro has already been pointed out many times as a religious animal,—a being of that deep emotional nature which turns instinctively toward the supernatural. Endowed with a rich tropical imagination and a keen, delicate appreciation of Nature, the transplanted African lived in a world animate with gods and devils, elves and witches; full of strange influences,—of Good to be implored, of Evil to be propitiated. The religiosity of the slaves was not the result of becoming Christians. They were religious before they encountered Christianity. On the subject of the religion of the slaves, he said that the church was not only the social center for the slave life but also the most characteristic expression of African character. In other words, the church or their religious life was not just about what they did, it was who they were.

DuBois explained that the religious identity of the slaves is best explained by an understanding of the context from where they were taken. He says, the social history of the Negro did not start in America. He was brought from a definite social environment, … under the headship of the chief and the potent influence of the priest. Though DuBois astutely noted the connection between the religion of the slaves and African Traditional Religion, subsequent scholarship did not explore this path further. Rather it was assumed by many that the slave masters suppressed African religious practices as heathen. Only dancing which is considered the most primitive form of religious expression survived. But nothing could be further from the truth.

The African philosopher, John S. Mbiti, describing contemporary African life says Africans are incurably religious. There is a congruence between Mbiti and DuBois’ description of these Africans many centuries apart. If these descriptions are accurate, then wherever Africans are, they will display this almost innate characteristic. There is ample evidence to suggest that this is what happened. When they were brought into the new world, they came with their religion and organized themselves and continued to practice it in some form before they converted to Christianity. In some places like Brazil and Haiti, African Traditional Religions survived slavery into the modern times albeit in new forms but the connection with African Traditional Religions is irrefutable.

Though the role of religion in African American life is incontestable, there is a dearth of literature on the relationship between African traditional religious heritage of the slaves and their Christianity. Dr. David Musa’s work, African-American Religion: A Confluent of African Traditional Religion and Christianity has done us a great service by contributing to fill this deep, embarrassing and ugly ditch in American religious literature.

He argues that while innovation and creativity of the Africans played crucial roles in the origin, development and practice of African-American Christianity, the residual African cultures, including the slaves’ native African traditional religious heritage, also played significant roles in their response to the new religion of the masters. This book is helpful in understanding the American religious landscape. DuBois says, the study of Negro religion is not only a vital part of the Negro in America, but no uninteresting part of American history. Musa brings a rich first hand knowledge of African Traditional Religions to this study thus he is able to see natural connections that may elude one who knows African Traditional Religions only through literature. Anyone who wants a better understanding of the sources of African-American religiosity, especially Christianity, and the forces that shaped it will find this book helpful.

Bulus Galadima

La Mirada, California

June 2015

Soli Deo Gloria

Dr. Bulus Galadima is the Dean of the Cook School of Intercultural Studies at Biola University, La Mirada, California.

References

• Du Bois, W. E. B. 1903. The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.

• Mbiti, John S. 1969. African Traditional Religions and Philosophy. Heinemann Educational Publishers, Oxford, 1969.

• A Religious Portrait of African-Americans www.perforum.org/2009/01/31/a-religious-portrait-of-african-americans/

ABSTRACT

Literature on North American slavery is vast but negligent of the religious culture of the slaves, most especially African-American Christianity. As noted in Robert Handy’s insightful article,¹ for several decades African-American Christianity appeared only as incidentals in the general historiography of American Church history. Considering the immeasurably positive role of the Church in the lives of African-Americans, this oversight is almost inexcusable.

Even where studies of slave Christianity have been attempted one would search in vain for any substantial discussion of the mutual effects of the slaves’ original African religion and Christianity.

Thus this study is a contribution to recent explorations into that vital aspect of the history of African slaves in North America—their Christianization. The study focuses on the question of why the slaves were apparently more responsive to Christianity in the Great Awakenings than during previous evangelization efforts by Anglican missionaries. I propose that the continuities as well as discontinuities between Christianity and African Traditional Religion were key among determinant factors in the slaves’ response to Christianity. Basically, the slaves responded to the type of Christianity in which these factors were more prominent, the Great Awakenings vis-à-vis the Anglican version.

The first chapter of this study highlights the problem of past inattention to slave Christianity, especially as it relates to African Traditional Religion. In chapter two, I argue for both West Africa as the original home of most of the slaves and African Traditional Religion as the predominant religious culture of that region. The Third chapter describes the process, personnel, and problems encountered in slave Christianization. Chapters four and five analyze and evaluate the impact of Christianizing efforts by Anglican missionaries and revival evangelists respectively. Chapter six summarizes and discusses the value of my findings for the African-American Church and evangelical missions in general. The study contains suggestions for further research.

Dedicated first and foremost, to the glory of God and to my

family. To Ndidiamaka: my beloved wife; Ndiloma, Ukejeh

and Ngozi: our Children. Also, to the memory of

Dr. Timothy Philips of the Wheaton Graduate

School, Wheaton, Illinois, who selflessly

worked with me on this project,

undeterred by his terminal

illness

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to many people for their various contributions in making this project a reality.

First, to Dr. Thomas Nettles, my mentor and first reader, without whose encouragement and guidance this study may not have materialized. I am also grateful to Dr. Bruce Fields, my second reader, for his candid corrections and suggestions. My sincere thanks Dr. John D. Woodbridge for his encouragement and solid pieces of advice. I am further indebted to Dr. Bulus Galadima for his willingness to step in as external reader on very short notice when we lost Dr. Timothy Philips. Thanks to my best buddy, Carew, for his invaluable technical assistance.

Without the help, encouragement, and sacrifice of my family, this study could hardly be done. Hearty thanks to my wife, Ndidi, for your love and support in the tough periods of this journey. To Ndiloma, Ukejeh (UK), and Ngozi, our Children: I acknowledge the huge debt I owe you for allowing me to divert several precious moments and attention from you for the sake of this study. You will always have a special place in my heart.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

The Negro Church is the only social institution of the Negroes which started in the African Forest and survived slavery; under the leadership of priests or medicine man, afterward of the Christian pastor, the Church preserved in itself the remnants of African tribal life and became after emancipation the center of Negro social life. So that today the Negro population of the United States is virtually divided into church congregations which are the real units of race life.²

Statement of the Problem

The effects of African-American slavery are indelibly stamped on many facets of American life, most especially American Christianity. Nowhere else in the World has Negro slavery exercised such large influence upon the Christian Church as in the United States,³ asserts William Sweet, a noted American Church historian. Elaborating on his point, Sweet affirms that

all of the great American Churches grew in more or less intimate contact with the institution of slavery and all of them were of necessity greatly affected by it. The most important of the schisms that have occurred among American churches were those growing out of Negro slavery, while some of the most difficult problems facing the Churches today are due to the Negro and the bitter conflicts which have arisen in the Churches because of him.⁴

Sadly, not too many American Church Historians seem to have had the insights and perceptions of Professor Sweet. For until very recently, hardly any attention was paid to African-American Christianity, or Church life as a whole, notwithstanding the tremendous volume of literature available on the institution of slavery.⁵ Such neglect prompted the very insightful comment by Robert T. Handy that; American church historiography has regarded the history of Christianity among Negroes as a ‘special topic,’ to be treated in connection with certain definite crisis or to be handled by those with a particular interest in that subject. In the same train of thought Handy claims that in the main general historical interpretations of American Church life, Negro Christianity has been treated rather incidentally, even casually.⁶

This is an unfortunate oversight, because the story of American Christianity would be incomplete without a treatment of the interaction between Christianity and slavery. In addition, a centerpiece would be missing in the story of African-American slavery, and to a large extent, the total experience of African-Americans in their sojourn in America, if the mutual effects of Christianity and slavery were not properly articulated. This is especially crucial considering the seemingly firm consensus among scholars of African-American religion that even before emancipation and thereafter black religious institutions have been the foundation of Afro-American culture.⁷ This has been observed at several levels, notably: the role of the Church in African-American life as an Agency of social control, a source of economic cooperation, an arena for political activity, a sponsor of education, and a refuge in a hostile white world.⁸

Hence one of the goals of this study is to investigate that generally neglected but very vital aspect of the African experience in North America—the Christianization of the African slaves. Not only am I interested in the mechanics of the Christianization of the slaves but my curiosity also extends further into the mutual interaction between the slaves’ original African Traditional Religion and Christianity, from the 1600s to the time of emancipation. As one of its benefits, it is my hope that this study will contribute to a deeper understanding of the genesis of the African-American Church. I also hope it will foster a healthy appreciation for the nurturing and supporting role which evangelical Christianity, as a body of confession, played in the transformation of African-Americans from African slaves to American citizens.

I also envisage a subsidiary contribution of this study to be the exposition of the intricate relationship between African Traditional Religion and Christianity. Lessons learnt from that relationship, as played out in the context of North American slavery, could lead to more relevant approaches and methodologies in evangelism and evangelical missions.

Description of the study

For several decades, the general historiography of American slavery tended to fit into four periods: the period of the Post-war polemics, the period of the nationalist historians, the period of the scientific historians and lately, the period of the economic approach.⁹ According to Miller and Smith, a historical conflict over African-American slavery followed immediately after the civil war, at which time the debate polarized into the old pro and anti-slavery camps.

Instead of the interest in slavery abating with emancipation, it seemed to have only ignited keen and fresh interest in the institution. The polemics were largely between North and South, black and white. It is estimated that over 600 books and articles on slavery were published in the year 1865-1899 and "slavery also ran like a leitmotif through post-bellum writings on the ‘Negro problem’¹⁰ and race relations"¹¹

It is understandable that at this time most Southerners, especially Whites, tended to describe slavery in glowing terms. Many of them held the belief that slavery was actually beneficial, not only for the South as a whole, but for the slaves also. Pro-slavery arguments included the idea that racial order and harmony thrived better in slavery days than in the post-slavery South. Unlike the post-slavery times, argued pro-slavery writers, slaves were better fed, clothed and housed in the antebellum South. In fact, the argument continued, slaves reaped humane treatment from their paternalistic masters. Cruel, abusive slaveholders were rare.¹² Robert Collins’ book, Essay on the Treatment and Management of Slaves published in Boston, in 1853, is typical of sentiments expressed by those in favor of slavery. His presentation concludes with the following words:

Under this system of management and treatment, which I have attempted to detail and which differs but little from the common practice of the country in its main features, the owner receives a good income upon the property, and the slaves are generally a happy and contented people. They have but few cares on their minds, and no provisions to make for tomorrow. The thought of a starving family never disturbs their dreams, for they have the strongest guarantee in the direct interest of their owner, that they will be provided for, both in food and raiment.¹³

To underscore his point, Collins refers to other writers who shared his views thus:

Another eminent writer of extensive information in regard to Negroes in Africa says: the greatest blessing that could be bestowed upon them would be to transport them across the Atlantic to the shores of America. Though they might be perpetual bondsmen, still they would emerge from darkness into light - from barbarism to civilization - from idolatry to Christianity - in short, from death to life. Then it may well be asked, of what has the slave of the South, or his true friend, to complain? There is no country, and no place upon the face of this earth, where the Negro race have such security for wholesome living, as in the United States.¹⁴

This mentality that slaves were better off in bondage than freedom in America or even in their native Africa was the backbone of the pro-slavery rhetoric. On the other side of the post-war polemics on slavery, some Northerners, including, former abolitionist, blacks, and friends of freedmen, condemned slavery as a blot on American civilization and identified vestiges of the institution in the black codes of reconstruction, and later, in sharecropping, convict labor, peonage and Jim Crow laws.¹⁵ The ability of these writers to capture and accurately describe the long-lasting influence of slavery on American racial thought was remarkable. Some of those effects, in the form of White domination and racial conflicts, not only remained quite alive in the South even after emancipation, but are still with us today. Stanley M. Elkins offers a succinct discussion of this debate in his book, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life. He also provides a list of helpful titles of some of the literature that came out in that period.¹⁶

The Nationalist period in general slave historiography roughly covers the years 1890 - 1920. Miller and Smith suggest that more than 2,000 slavery items, including many Theses and Dissertations appeared¹⁷ in this period. The focal point in the study of slavery became a keen interest in the institution from a historical perspective. Under the strong influence of nationalist motivations and scientific methodology, some historians of slavery became obsessed with the ideas of objectivity and impartiality. Some of the influential writers at this time were Herman E. von Holst, James Schouler, John Bach McMaster, James Forde Rhodes and Albert Hart.¹⁸

The Nationalist historians also tended to emphasize the institutional features of slavery, and in their bid to present a truly national history, they interpreted slavery and the Civil war as national tragedies.¹⁹

They exercised every caution not to cast any blame on the South, but still their criticism of slavery was almost of equal fervor to that of the abolitionists. In fact they wrote with enough moral underpinnings to warrant the comment from Miller and Smith that; the Nationalist historians were no more impartial than the old abolitionists or post-bellum neo-abolitionists.²⁰ Nevertheless, they were precursors or catalysts for the scientific historians of slavery.

It is noted