{"id":35,"date":"2020-05-11T18:13:31","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T22:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/africana-studies-3020-spring-2020\/?page_id=35"},"modified":"2020-05-16T22:51:07","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T02:51:07","slug":"religion-christianity-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/africana-studies-3020-spring-2020\/religion-christianity-spirituality\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion\/Christianity\/Spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the semester we have seen many ways that religion\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and\u00a0<\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span>pirituality\u00a0<\/span><\/span>have\u00a0<\/span><\/span>played a\u00a0<\/span><\/span>significant<\/span><\/span>\u00a0role in the lives of Black Americans. In\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows Uplifted<\/span><\/span><\/em>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>a novel published by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper in 1892, we see\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Bl<\/span><\/span>ack<\/span><\/span>\u00a0people\u00a0<\/span><\/span>rel<\/span><\/span>ying<\/span><\/span>\u00a0on Christianity to comfort them as they experienced\u00a0<\/span><\/span>pre- and post-emancipation\u00a0<\/span><\/span>tra<\/span><\/span>u<\/span><\/span>ma<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span><\/span>turmoil<\/span><\/span>. When asked by a fellow bondsman if he\u00a0<\/span><\/span>felt bitter towards their master<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>man<\/span><\/span>\u00a0responded, \u201cthe Lord says, we must forgive (81).\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Here Harper represents those<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>B<\/span><\/span>lack\u00a0<\/span><\/span>A<\/span><\/span>mericans\u00a0<\/span><\/span>who\u00a0<\/span><\/span>decided<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>to listen to what God said about forgiveness and loving your enemies.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Notably,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Yvonne\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Chireau<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition<\/span><\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>(2006)\u00a0<\/span><\/span>argues that<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>overwhelmingly,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Black Americans chose to follow a Christianity that was different from their masters<\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>\u00a0form of Christianity because \u201cthe dogma taught by whites had no place in the Bible<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0(127).\u00a0<\/span><\/span>They relied on the written text in the Bible and their relationships with other people to understand what Christianity meant to them.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Black people claiming their own Christianity\u00a0<\/span><\/span>in the 18<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span>\u00a0and 19<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>centur<\/span><\/span>ies<\/span><\/span>\u00a0resulted in \u201cthe emergence of independent black churches, the organization of denominations, the involvements of black ministers in political organizing within black communities and in electoral politics, and the development of church-related economic enterprises\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span>that have remained until today<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>(<\/span><\/span>Weisenfeld<\/span><\/span>\u00a0138)<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not all Black Americans relied on only a Christian God however, many also believed in conjure. Chireau emphasizes that \u201cthe simultaneous emergence of African-based supernaturalism (later identified as Conjure and Hoodoo) and Black Americans\u2019 embrace of Christianity resulted in the reinforcement of magic and religion as convergent phenomena\u201d (Chireau 7). At the same time, as Julie Dash shows us in Daughters of the Dust<\/em>, many Black people held on to West and Central African spiritual practices and Muslim teachings that merged with Christianity in uneven ways. In this section we explore the many ways Blackness is expressed\/understood through spirituality and religion.<\/p>\n

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Daughters of the Dust \/\/ Lemonade\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

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Upon first viewing Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s visual album <\/span>Lemonade, <\/span><\/i>I lacked the cultural history or knowledge to recognize the film\u2019s references and inspiration stemming from the seminal classic film <\/span>Daughters of the Dust. Lemonade\u2019s <\/span><\/i>cinematography and stylistic decisions signal an appreciation of the film, released in 1992, and its striking portrayal of distinctly black, rural, and woman-focused narratives. I only knew that the movie was so strikingly beautiful and haunting that I would eventually return to it one day with new perspectives and ideas than what I had as a senior in high school. Although I haven\u2019t watched the full film since, the clips and songs come back to me now, as a senior in college, with the knowledge and awareness of multiple histories, religious practices, access to memories, and personal experiences that I could not have imagined only four years ago. Now I look back on my initial response to Lemonade and think how superficial my feelings were, how much I missed without understanding all the references and inspiration embedded in the work. This section will specifically analyze the aesthetics of the seminal film <\/span>Daughters of the Dust <\/span><\/i>as represented in <\/span>Lemonade.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Both films explore the particular experience of black women regarding family, loyalty, forgiveness, pain, and power. <\/span>Lemonade <\/span><\/i>incorporates long, white, flowing dresses, rolling waves of the ocean, stunning imagery of southern moss, and a detailed depiction of black material culture to\u00a0 represent key aspects of <\/span>Daughters of the Dust. <\/span><\/i>The striking visuals accompany <\/span>Lemonade\u2019s <\/span><\/i>non-linear narrative, one which draws on black feminist thought to investigate how memory functions as a cultural process. Much of <\/span>Lemonade <\/span><\/i>occurs within distinctly rural, Southern spaces, predominantly near water and the land. Thus, Beyonc\u00e9 connects not only her black femininity to her Houston hometown, but intertwines gender, the land, and healing. Just as <\/span>Daughters of the Dust <\/span><\/i>gained \u201cits power as a woman-focused counter narrative that works across…and against the powerful popular stories of community narrated by African American men\u201d in various forms of artistic representation, so too does <\/span>Lemonade <\/span><\/i>explicitly link divine, spiritual feminine energy to black women\u2019s cultural practices (Abron, 95). In <\/span>Lemonade, <\/span><\/i>Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s aesthetic choices mobilize memory and healing as productive spaces for political and personal meaning, especially for black women. Her work, albeit implicitly, is positioned in contrast to an urban and masculine dialogue – one which her unfaithful husband, Jay-Z, represents as the former King of Rap. Yet understanding Jay-Z\u2019s reasons is not the intention of the short film. Rather, <\/span>Lemonade <\/span><\/i>addresses infidelity as a lens through which the viewer can more fully understand the power of black families and the strength of black women as bearers of children, family, and remembrance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The relationship between <\/span>Lemonade <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Daughters of the Dust <\/span><\/i>embodies the necessity and importance of fluid and flexible practices of remembering and re-enacting. Although many Americans are collectively conditioned to be \u201cunaccustomed to seeing what women do as defining moments in African American culture,\u201d as a source of knowledge dissemination and production, <\/span>Lemonade <\/span><\/i>and its predecessor shift a cultural analysis of black identity to African American women (Abron, 102). In the film, Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s sense of self is actualized through the embodied rituals of her family, practices passed through her family to connect ancestors to their descendants. <\/span>Lemonade <\/span><\/i>represents the cycle of forgiveness, understanding, and family through the lens of the black female experience, one that is both deeply spiritual and grounded in everyday life. Knowledge disseminated through visual forms, particularly in this contemporary digital moment, can offer valuable insight into blackness as a fluid and multifaceted concept.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n