All right, good day, class. Let's jump straight into this week's lecture. We're going to be looking at, again, more of an introduction, still introducing ourselves to this concept of the African-American religious experience.
And inside of your reading on this last week, just want to kind of delve a little bit deeper inside of some of the information that was covered, okay? Again, make sure that all of this information is inside of your upcoming paper, okay? All right.
So the first thing, African traditional religion refers to this indigenous and autoconfianess religion of the African people. It deals with their cosmology, ritual practices, symbols, arts, society and so on, because religion is a way of life and it relates to culture and society as they affect the worldview of African people. OK, let's add some let's add some information. Let's add some information to this African derived religions. I'm.
I'm going to use ADR throughout this just so I can shorten it. But African-derived religions begun or began the study of the zodiac and astrology. Actually, let me do it this way just to kind of help you all out a little bit. Let's do it this way. Here we go.
The study of astrology. There is nothing wrong with studying astrology. There's nothing wrong with studying the zodiac.
I actually taught a Bible study a couple of months ago on the fact that even the Bible encourages us to study astrology, to study the stars. If any of y'all are interested in watching that, let me know and I can send it to you all. African-Dubro religions began the study of the zodiac and astrology. ADR is heavy. and ritualistic practices like possession, offering or offerings, prayer, and sacrifices.
Okay. ADR is heavy. and symbolism. This can be in nature as well as artistic symbols.
Also inside the arts ADR is deep into performance, okay? When you see, you know, the ring shouts and when you see singing, when you see art, crafts and whatnot, okay? They're deep into performance, music, arts and crafts, okay?
ADR is a communal, communal practice, African-derived religions are typically heavy inside of community, inside of society. Ultimately, African-derived religions, now watch this, I know it's going to sound a little whatever, but African-derived religions are not really religions. Our Western world considers them religions because of the presence of deity or some level of God. However, those who practice these, I'm putting in quotations now, religions, consider it a way of life, okay?
They consider it a way of life, okay? Now, which is very, very different than what we experience inside of, you know, Western world, because we separate the sacred and the secular, okay? Inside of ADR, there is no separation. between the sacred and the secular.
Okay, that's important to note. Okay, make sure that that's inside of your paper. That's very important to note.
Okay, another thing with regards to African derived religions is this notation that traditional African religions are not stagnant, but highly dynamic and are constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age. We're going to ask the question, does this history matter? Modernity? does now matter, and then also technical advances. Let's break this down a little bit.
The history of African-derived religions dates back before contemporary religions. So your African-derived religions like Santeria, Voodoo, Hoodoo. Yoruba, a lot of these practices, a lot of these ways of life, a lot of these religions, and we're using a lot of terminology here, date way back, way back before even Christianity and Judaism.
It's important to note that Christianity is actually one of the youngest religions. in the world and gathers a lot of its practices and beliefs from African derived religions. Now as it relates to the modernity of African derived religions, the modernity, of African, it's really a blend of African culture and post-Christian, actually let's do post, let's do post-Christian and Judaism theology.
What we've been seeing as far as ADRs is this, like I said, it's really this blend. Most ADRs are polytheistic, meaning that they believe in multiple gods. Most ADRs are polytheistic. And because of that, they have also... adopted other religious figures.
So this modernity of African-derived religions, like I said, it really is this blending. I mean, there are a lot of people that I know who are, quote unquote, Christian and Buddhist, that are Yoruba and Catholic. that practice voodoo and hoodoo, but then also are a part of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. So, again, it's really this adoption of this universal form of religion that ADR has really introduced us to.
And there are a lot of I mean, I want you all to know that there are a lot of religions out there that you might not have even heard of. But truth of the matter is they're out there and people are still practicing them. I mean, if you've ever gone to New Orleans, you know that there are still, I hate to say like that, but I had to say like this, but, you know, witch doctors and people who practice magic.
We're going to talk in a couple of weeks. I'm going to do a whole lecture on voodoo and hoodoo and what that looks like, because it's really not. I know it gets the reputation of being an evil practice, but the fact of the matter is that it's not all evil. You actually have good voodoo and then you also have, you know. the evil voodoo.
We're going to talk about that inside of a couple of weeks. Then we also have technical advantages, advances. Technology has made us more aware of these African practices and belief systems.
Any African-derived religion that you want to learn more about, you can Google it now. There are full documentaries on some of these practices now. There are videos that you can find on YouTube that show these religious groups or show these community groups actually practicing offerings and sacrifices and possession and whatnot.
So it really has given us this opportunity to expose ourselves to African derived religions. All right. Now, again, traditional African religions are less of a faith tradition and more of a lived tradition.
There is, again, no separation between the sacred and the secular. All elements of life are considered to be connected to the divine. And then also, community practices together along with individual rituals.
Most of them are communal. Okay. Inside of ADR, like I said, a lot of the practices that you see, like possession, like offerings, like giving sacrifices and whatnot, most of them are communal.
Now, of course, you have your prayers and whatnot, but every element, including death. Let me write this in here. We're going to talk about ancestral worship in a minute, but ancestral worship. is big in African-derived religions. So death, reincarnation, and ancestral worship, and spirit possession, all of these things are a part of this lived tradition, okay?
It's not like you just go to church on Sundays and that's all that you're doing in order to display your religion. Every single element. including how you dress, how you farm, how you manage your finances, how you are in relationship with family, how you are in relationship with your spouse, how you are in relationship with your ancestors, your deceased relatives and whatnot.
This is all a part of this lived tradition. Now, as it relates to, and when looking at African-derived religions, we have to address, while we're addressing religion, in Africa, scholars speak of this triple heritage. That is the triple legacy of indigenous religions, Islam and Christianity, that are often found side by side in many African societies. Again, most African societies have a blend of these three branches of religion.
Let me give you all some examples, okay? So indigenous religion. Let's do this.
Here we go. Indigenous religions would include voodoo, voodoo, Yoruba, Santeria. Harumble. These are just a couple of examples, okay?
Islam. You have different branches of Islam. Oops.
Excuse me. I'm sorry, class. All right, there we go.
So even inside of your Islamic faith, you have the Sunni, you also have Khawarati and the Nation of Islam. You have the Sufis. Excuse me.
Again, just kind of giving you all some examples. And then even inside of Christianity, you have Judaism. You have Baptists.
You have Catholics. What else do you have? you have the Church of God in Christ, you have full gospel. These are just some examples that I want to give you all. But again, inside of this triple heritage, religion is so diverse, and there's so much variety, but we can find African influences inside of all of these branches.
of religion, inside of all of these practices. Now, while those who identify as practitioners of traditional African religions, most of them identify as either Muslim or Christian. The largest religious practices out there right now are of the Muslim faith.
Now, they still have their branches or will fall under the Christian faith. Okay, now traditional African religions have gone global. The transatlantic slave trade led to the growth of African inspired traditions, such as American such and the Americans such as Caramblay in Brazil, Santeria in Cuba, and Voodoo in Haiti. Because of the slave trade, make sure that this is inside of your paper because of the slave trade, African religion.
and culture made its way around the world. Although slaves were incarcerated, they still brought their culture with them, okay? Slaves brought their culture. and their religion with them during the slave trade.
Now, one thing to note is that slaves had to adjust, had to adjust some of their practices. and rituals in order to adjust, or should I say in order to be accepted in various environments. One of the things that I love talking about, and I think I even showed you all last week.
If not, I can send you all the video, but there really is no difference. than what you see inside of the church today for those evangelical and Pentecostal churches where, you know, people are jumping and shouting and rolling on the floor and whatnot. It looks exactly the same, almost exactly the same to what possession and ancestral worship looks like inside of the African culture. Okay.
There are so many things that had to be, what's what I'm looking for. adjusted in order to make African culture and rituals acceptable inside of this Western culture. Okay.
Another thing is sacrifices. Sacrifices are huge inside of African culture where you would, sacrifice a lamb or sacrifice a cow or, you know, sacrifice even, I mean, that, I mean, that. not just livestock, but also vegetation and whatnot.
But it was huge to bring that concept over here because, of course, they didn't understand it. But then if you connect it to the sacrifices that take place inside of the Bible, of course, it makes sense. Now, inside of the biblical terms, when it came down to sacrifices, people did it. as a sacrifice to God, you know, just God.
But African culture, you do sacrifices not just to the gods, plural, but for specific purposes. Okay, you're not just sacrificing just for the sake of sacrifice. You also make sacrifices for your elders.
You know, there's a belief. I don't know if you all know, but inside of some cultures, they leave food out for the ancestors. and for their elders and those who have made their transition in order to feed them inside of the spirit world, which I think is really, really cool.
But again, these are things that have to be brought over into into culture in order to be accepted. OK, make sure some of y'all get re re enlisted inside of the class. There we go. Something the concerns of.
health, wealth, and procreation are very central to the core of African religions. This is why they have developed institutions of healing, commerce, and general well-being for their very own practitioners and adherents of other religions as well. A healthy body, an ADR, a healthy body is just as...
important as a healthy spirit. This is where fasting comes into play. Fasting and diet are huge in African-derived religions. Huge in African-derived religions.
Let's just go to wealth as well. Prosperity in ADR. Prosperity of self as well as finances are focused on. Have you all ever noticed that some of the wealthiest, as far as just knows how to manage money, how to manage crop, how to manage. business.
Literally, as a matter of fact, I think it was a Nigerian who is now taking over, is it Red Lobster or Taco Bell, taking over a major company inside of the U.S., hoping to bring it out of bankruptcy. Have you all ever noticed that African individuals have such a handle on money and are probably some of the wealthiest people in the world? Even when they come here to the States, they bring so much finances with them. They bring so much cash with them. Because here's the thing, inside of African culture, inside of African-derived religions, wealth is a part of it.
Wealth and creating generational wealth is a huge part of it. Wealth is a huge focus, is a big focus. in ADR and the generational wealth as well.
Okay. And then you also have procreation and ADR, growing the family is of high importance. Okay. Growing the family is of high importance.
high importance. Okay. That's one reason why you see a lot of kids in Africa and they have very, very big families.
And then why is this even poured over here inside of the Western world? You know, how many of you had, you know, grandmothers or great grandmothers or aunts and uncles who were, who were part of families of, you know, six, seven, eight, nine. My grandmother had 11 kids.
No, no. Yeah. Yeah. As a matter of fact, yeah.
My, my grandmother on my dad's side had 11 kids. and my grandma on my mom's side had nine kids so just this whole notion of procreation and large families has spun over inside of the western world as well last thing is that in oh did i get to oh no healing and adr healing by way of nature and um what's the word i'm looking for um you know my way of nature and herbal treatments that's what i love As I spoke before, there is nothing in this world that nature or herbal treatments cannot heal. And we can go into a huge debate on this because whenever I say this, people are always like, you know, what about cancer?
What about AIDS? What about this and that? Here's the thing. Your body responds to what you put in it.
And to every sickness, to every disease, there is some herbal remedy that can treat it. And I always encourage my class, before you pop a pill, see what the herbal remedy is. Just a while ago, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. And at first, I started taking a low dose.
blood pressure pill, but then I started doing research on some natural herbal things that I could do in order to get my blood pressure down. Like of course, losing weight, exercising, apple cider vinegar, beetroot juice. And literally within a matter of a month, my blood pressure was under control because of those natural herbal treatments.
Okay. And we can learn so much from, I mean, even, even inside of, even inside of our, of slave theology. We'll talk about this inside of a couple of weeks. If you notice that there was no access to medicine, there was no access to doctors for slaves.
So what did they have to do? They had to go to the root woman or the root man, and they would mix up some kind of concoction, either put it on your skin or something that you would inhale or something that you would consume. But again, there are herbal and natural treatments.
for healing, and even just for general well-being, okay? Y'all give me five more minutes and then I'm going to let you all go. The last thing is that indigenous African religions are not based on conversion like Islam and Christianity.
They tend to propagate a peaceful coexistence and they promote good relations with members of other religious traditions that surround them, okay? In other words, you don't become a member of an African-derived religion. You are born into the community.
You are born into or taken into or adopted into the community that practices and... It ultimately, like stated before, becomes a way of life. And again, there's this peaceful coexistence.
Peaceful coexistence represents the fact. that no religion is better or above any other religious practice. So in other words, if you're Kadungle and I'm Santeria, that's fine.
I'm not going to say that mine is better than yours, that my gods are better than yours, that... my practices are better than yours, like we see inside of this Western world. I'm not going to say that how I express worship is better than yours.
No, there's this peaceful coexistence that promotes this good relationship with members of other religions and traditions that surround them, okay? So I hope and I pray that this was enough to really explain and to flush out the readings for this week. Again, I hope that you enjoyed this week. I hope that you enjoyed this week.
All of this, as much of this needs to be inside of your paper assignment for this week. Thank you all for tuning in and I'll see you all next week.