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The Africans
who were brought to the Americas were stripped of their
land, their possessions, and their freedom. However,
they carried with them a very important resource that
helped them survive the suffering of slavery and the
trauma of being uprooted from their homes: their religious
traditions. These faiths were incredibly rich and varied,
as diverse as the African nations where the slaves had
come from. The religions of the Yoruba people of present-day
Nigeria, the Efik and Ijo of Nigeria’s Calabar
region, and some of the Bantu-speaking peoples of central
Africa – today the two Congos, Gabon, Cameroon,
Angola, and the Central African Republic – all
provided the roots for the Afro-Latin American religions
found in countries like Cuba, Haiti, and Brazil. These
new forms of the old African faiths are the products
of years of cross-fertilization and mutual influence
between the Africans of various nationalities who found
themselves in the common situation of slavery, and with
the Catholic religion of their new homes.
The survival of these religions is an amazing feat of
cultural and spiritual resilience. Although the slavemasters
tried to force Africans and their descendants to reject
their old divinities in favor of Catholicism, Christianity
merely provided new divinities in the form of saints,
who provided a convenient way for Afro-Latin Americans
to disguise their own deities in Catholic worship. It
was their unshakable faith, and the help of their gods,
that gave black people in Latin America the strength
to survive and persist through all the struggles of
slavery and racism.
The documentaries in this module present the history of African religions in Latin America, their intermingling with Catholicism and with each other, and the ways that the faithful communicate with their gods.
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Key Terms
Abakuá – a religion centered
on religious brotherhoods, which prescribes
a moral code for men. It originated among the
Efik and Ijo people of a region in southeastern
Nigeria called Calabar.
Bantu – a major African language family. A variety of ethnic groups spread throughout southern, central, and eastern Africa speak Bantu languages. In Cuba, some Bantu peoples and traditions are called “Congo.”
Candomblé – an Afro-Brazilian religion with roots in Yoruba tradition, centered on the worship of the orishas.
Lucumí – an Afro-Cuban religion with roots in Yoruba tradition, centered on the worship of the orishas. Also called “Santería” and “Regla de Ocha.”
Orisha – the deities of the Yoruba
people. In Brazilian candomblé and Cuban
lucumí, each orisha is associated with
a particular Catholic saint. Also spelled “orixa”
in Brazil.
Palo Monte – an Afro-Cuban religion with roots in the spiritual traditions of the Congo and Angola, centered on the worship of ancestors, spirits, and the divine essence. Also called “Mayombe.”
Syncretism – the way in which people with different cultural practices, such as religion, borrow elements from one another through their interactions over time. The Afro-Latin American religions, for example, were formed from the interactions between different African religious traditions and Catholicism, among others.
Yoruba – an ethnic group whose 10 million people live in the present-day nations of Nigeria and Benin.
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Discussion and Study Questions
Before viewing:
1. Are you or is someone you know religious? How does religious
faith help people deal with difficult times in their lives?
2. Why do you think the European and Portuguese slavemasters tried so hard to eradicate African religious traditions in the New World?
3. Define the word “superstition.” Why do some people use that word to define other people’s beliefs? What would you do if you were told your belief was superstitious, irrational, or wrong?
4. Why do many religions focus on ancestors and the forces of nature?
5. What relationship does the believer have with supernatural forces in different religions?
After viewing:
1. What are some of the similarities between the various religious
traditions in Africa, Cuba and Brazil? What are some of the differences?
Do any of them share features with African-American Christianity
in the United States?
2. How were these religions able to survive for so long and through so much persecution?
3. How are these religions syncretic (see key terms)?
4. How is it possible to have more than one religion?
5. What is spiritual trance? How do explanations of trance by believers and by scientists differ? How are they similar? What are the ways of telling the future in Afro-Latin American religions? What is the role of spiritual trance and telling the future in these religions?
6. How do the religions of Afro-Latin America allow their believers to have contact with the spiritual realm?
Videos
Pierre Fatumbi Verger: Messenger between Two Worlds
Ache Moyuba Orisha
Caurí: The Word of the Saint
Nganga Kiyangala
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Study guide prepared
by Michael A. Birenbaum Quintero.
Special thanks to Sheila Walker of Spelman College
for her comments and suggestions.
This project has been partially funded by the
National Endowment for the Arts.
Copyright 2005, Latin
American Video Archives. Contact LAVA at info@lavavideo.org |
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