Introduction to Africana Religions

Catalog description

This course introduces several African-Diaspora religions like Haitian Vodou that developed when the enslaved creatively adapted their African traditions to the Americas; as well as with those African religions from where they derived. Importantly, it will challenge the centuries-old demonization and persecution of these traditions. Furthermore, it will explore how in the last decades, Africana religions have been reclaimed by Black and Brown communities in the US looking for a decolonized spirituality as part of a greater movement towards liberation; and also, how they have jumped from necessary secretness unto the public sphere, even being embraced by celebrities like Beyoncé.