HDS 3689/AFRAMER 181X: African Religion in the Diaspora

Instructor: Jacob Olupona

This course focuses on the history and phenomenology of African peoples’ religious experiences in the Americas. The historical and social processes that led to the emergence of African diasporic religions in Latin America and the Caribbean will form the core of our reading materials. We will examine the role of myth, ritual, arts, and symbols as well as the social and political processes that explain the evolution of Black Atlantic religious traditions as formed by African indigenous traditions, African Christianity, and African Islam. Using historical, ethnographic, and textual sources, the course will illuminate the lived religious experiences of enslaved Africans as well as new immigrant diaspora communities in South America, the Caribbean, and the USA. We will examine Africana religious parallels and divergences in religious practice and social identity. Guest lecturers will offer their expertise on the various religious processes and expressions of African peoples in the Americas, while contributing to broader conversations about the future of African religions in the diaspora and the sociopolitical challenges we face in today’s world, particularly how the devotees of these traditions face forms of racial, ethnic and religious discrimination in their various countries.