African diaspora religions

Example of Louisiana Voodoo altar inside a temple in New Orleans.

African diaspora religions are a number of related religions that developed in the Americas in various nations of the Caribbean, Latin America and the Southern United States. They derive from traditional African religions with some influence from other religious traditions, notably Christianity and Islam.

Characteristics

Afro-American religions involve ancestor veneration and include a creator deity along with a pantheon of divine spirits such as the Orisha, Loa, Vodun, Nkisi and Alusi, among others. In addition to the religious syncretism of these various African traditions, many also incorporate elements of Folk Catholicism including folk saints and other forms of Folk religion, Native American religion, Spiritism, Spiritualism, Shamanism (sometimes including the use of Entheogens) and European folklore.

Various "doctoring" spiritual traditions also exist such as Obeah and Hoodoo which focus on spiritual health. African religious traditions in the Americas can vary. They can have non-prominent African roots or can be almost wholly African in nature, such as religions like Trinidad Orisha.

African diaspora religions in the present

The nature and composition of the African diaspora have undergone significant changes over time: from the forced migration of African captives of the Old and New Worlds to the voluntary emigration of free, skilled Africans in search of political asylum or economic opportunities; from a diaspora with little contact with the point of origin (Africa) to one that maintains active contact with the mother continent; all culminating in the birth of a unique African who straddles continents, worlds and cultures.

Defining diasporas

There are several conceptual difficulties in defining the African diaspora—indeed, in defining the term diaspora. Contemporary theorizations of the term diaspora tend to be preoccupied with problematizing the relationship between diaspora and nation and the dualities or multiplicities of diasporic identity or subjectivity; they are inclined to be condemnatory or celebratory of transnational mobility and hybridity. In many cases, the term diaspora is used in a fuzzy, ahistorical and uncritical manner in which all manner of movements and migrations between countries and even within countries are included and no adequate attention is paid to the historical conditions and experiences that produce diasporic communities and consciousness—how dispersed populations become self-conscious diaspora communities.

List of religions and spiritual traditions

Brazil

• Batuque
• Candomblé
  • Candomblé Bantu
  • Candomblé Jejé
  • Candomblé Ketu
• Catimbó
• Macumba
• Quimbanda
• Santo Daime
• Tambor de Mina
• Umbanda
• Xangô de Recife (Yoruba religion, Brazil)

Colombia

• Yuyu [1]
• Lumbalú [2]

Cuba

• Abakuá
• Arará religion
• Cuban Vodú
• Palo
• Santería

Curaçao

• Montamentu

Dominican Republic

• Dominican Vudú

Guyana

• Comfa
• Obeah

Haiti

• Haitian Vodou

Jamaica

• Convince
• Jamaican Maroon religion
  • Kromanti dance
• Kumina
• Myal
• Obeah
• Rastafari
  • Bobo Ashanti
  • Nyabinghi
  • Twelve Tribes of Israel

Puerto Rico

• Sansé Espiritismo

Saint Lucia

• Kélé

Suriname

• Winti

Trinidad and Tobago

• Spiritual Baptist
• Trinidad Orisha
• Obeah
• Rastafari

United States

See also: Black church and Religion of black Americans

• Hoodoo (Gullah Voodoo/Lowcountry Voodoo)
• Louisiana Voodoo

Venezuela

• Afro-Venezuelan Spirituality

María Lionza also known as Venezuelan Yuyu, Vodu or Espiritismo Venezolano/Marialioncero

Afro-Venezuelan Folk Catholicism

• Santeria
• Palo Mayombe

See also

• Black theology
• Ring shout
• Traditional African religions

External links

• Roots and Rooted