George Mason University Religion in The Modern African Diaspora Paper Q1 – This assignment introduces you to the history of religion in the modern African

George Mason University Religion in The Modern African Diaspora Paper Q1 – This assignment introduces you to the history of religion in the modern African Diaspora. It allows you to glimpse at the various ways the African Diaspora experience has been shaped by, and in turn have shaped and interpreted, African religious ideas and practices. The YouTube link takes you to an interview with J. Lorand Matory. Your task is to watch Matory’s one hour-long interview and give short answers to the 25 questions which have been attached Q2 – Please record your reactions to the video of the interview with Professor Matory on African Diaspora religions. What stood out for you? What was surprising? What is your take away from the conversation? What new questions did this interview raise for you? MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
HISTORY 350: INTRODUCTION TO THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
SPRING 2020
RELIGION AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA EXERCISE
PROMPT: Religion has played a very important role in the history of the modern African Diaspora in the
Atlantic World in everyday life and in social relations. Religion has deeply shaped the African peoples
scattered by the transatlantic slave trade. It shaped how they remade themselves under the conditions of
plantation slavery. It helped to transform their new identities. It contributed to their collective struggles
for survival and self-realization.
Africans who were involuntarily brought to the so-called New World (the Americas – North America, the
Caribbean, and South America) by European slavers did not come with empty heads. Africans carried
with them knowledge of languages, ideas about time, views about death, notions of beauty, fond
memories of their childhood and much more.
An important aspect of the Africans’ worldview was their cosmologies and the religious belief systems
embedded in them. In short, Africans brought their religions with them to the Americas. In his interview,
Matory explores the nature of African Diasporic religious ideas and practices and their historical and
contemporary significance.
After listening to the interview (please takes notes while you listen), answer the following 25 questions.
Your answers should be able to fit in the spaces I have provided between the questions.
1. Who is J. Lorand Matory? (There is information about him at the start and at the end of the
video)
2. What is Matory’s area of expertise/area of specialist knowledge?
3. What is Vodou? Why does Matory reject the term Voodoo? Which country is it closely identified
with?
4. What are the 4 aspects of Vodou?
5. Where in Africa did Vodou originate?
6. What are Vodou’s key principles and values?
7. What is “spirit possession?”
8. How does Matory answer the accusation that Vodou discourages personal responsibility and
fosters social mistrust?
9. What does Matory mean when he argues that “religions of the African Diapora are not mere
survivals of a primordial past?”
MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
HISTORY 350: INTRODUCTION TO THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
SPRING 2020
10. In outlining West African religions, Matory tells us that these religions do 3 things. What are
they?
11. Who/what is Yamanja?
12. Who/what is Shango?
13. Who/what is Obatala?
14. Who is a Babalawo?
15. What is Santeria or Ocha? Where did it originate?
16. What are the examples of Africanisms in the Black Church in the United States?
17. Who was Melville Herskovits? What important argument did he make?
18. What is Candomble? Where did it originate?
19. Who/what is Eshu?
20. How does Matory explain the context of the Brazilian-Nigerian religious links?
21. What does African American religion in the United States have to do with African culture?
22. Why does Matory argue that practices like ritual killing in Africa, which take place today,
should not be seen as either traditional African religious practices or as uniquely African?
23. What is the difference between monotheistic and polytheistic religious beliefs?
24. What role did religion play in the successful uprising of Haitian slaves that led to the Haitian
Revolution?
25. How does the Vodou religion view and deal with sexuality and gender roles?

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