Religion in America #4: “America's Religions,” Ch. 2, African Background to New World Religions
Jan 2025
21
In this lecture/discussion video from my Spring 2014 Religion in America class at Marist college, we begin to discuss the textbook for the class (America's Religions: From Their Origins to the Twenty-first Century 3rd. ed., by Peter Williams), focusing on Chapter 2, "The African Background of New World Religions" We discuss in particular the forced immigration from Africa (especially West Africa) to the Americas, how different dynamics affected the capacities of African slaves to continue practicing indigenous religions of Africa in the Americas, and the forms that these new religions -- including Santeria, Candomble, Vodun, Shango, and others -- took...... 
ORIXÁS or ORISHAS The deities worshipped in the Candomblé religion and brought to Brazil by abducted slaves, especially the Yoruba people. In Africa, these were kings, queens, mythical heroes and other ancestors raised to the status of gods. "Originally every group worshipped its own ancestors in Africa, and every township was bound to a local deity, often an ancestor of the local ruling dynasty, a leader of one's own clan, or a person who somehow uniquely helped and supported the group. ... Because of the changed conditions in the Diaspora, there developed a genuine pantheon of deities, in which a......