Witches and Brujas: Exhuming the Voices & Histories of African-Based Religions

Catalog description

Witches and Brujas: Exhuming the Voices & Histories of African-Based Religions In 2016, Puerto Rican rapper and Santeria priestess Princess Nokia (Destiny Frasqueri) released the song “Brujas” capturing the spirit of a generation looking to exalt and reclaim the historically maligned spiritual legacies of African and indigenous women. Drawing on anthropology of religion texts as well as historical examples--ranging from Tituba, the enslaved Native Ameican women targeted in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, the Code Noir 1685 (Haiti) and1724 (Louisiana) to the witch-hunts and yellow press in post-independence Cuba, the 1993 U.S. Supreme Court Case Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v City of Hialeah, Florida, and Beyonce's Lemonade-- this course will look at the ways African-based spiritual systems has been apprehended, criminalized, legalized, and re-legitimized within the context of modernity, nation building, contemporary racial formations, and pop culture movements. We will explore how these processes have particularly impacted notions of feminine agency and gender roles within marginalized religious communities. Students will gain an introduction to various African-based religions including but not limited to Santeria, Vodou, Candomble, and Kumina, and to the extent time allows, allied indigenous-based religions such as Curanderismo.