Central Africans and cultural transformations in the American diaspora / edited by Linda M. Heywood.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Heywood, Linda M. (Linda Marinda), 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Africans--America--History.

Africans.

Africans--Cultural assimilation--America.

Africans--Cultural assimilation.

Slavery--Social aspects.

History.

Slavery.

Slave trade--Social aspects.

Slave trade.

Civilization.

Ethnicity.

America.

Africans--America--Ethnic identity.

America--Civilization--African influences.

Africa, Central--Civilization.

Africa, Central.

African diaspora.

Slave trade--Social aspects--History.

Slavery--Social aspects--History.

Africans--Migrations.

Central Africa.

Physical Description:

xv, 384 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Summary:

Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora sets out a new paradigm that increases our understanding of African culture and the forces that led to its transformation during the period of the Atlantic slave trade and beyond, putting long-due emphasis on the importance of Central African culture to the cultures of the United States, Brazil, and the Caribbean. Focusing on the Kongo-Angola culture zone, the book illustrates how African peoples reshaped their cultural institutions, beliefs, and practices as they interacted with Portuguese slave traders up to the year 1800; it then follows Central Africans through all the regions where they were taken as slaves and recaptives. Here, for the first time in one volume, leading scholars of Africa, Brazil, Latin America, and the Caribbean have collaborated to analyze the culture history of Africa and its diaspora. This interdisciplinary approach across geographic areas is sure to set a precedent for other scholars of Africa and its diaspora.

Contents:

Part 1 Central Africa: Society, Culture, and the Slave Trade

1 Central Africa During the Era of the Slave Trade, c. 1490s-1850s / Joseph C. Miller 21

2 Religious and Ceremonial Life in the Kongo and Mbundu Areas, 1500-1700 / John K. Thornton 71

3 Portuguese into African: The Eighteenth-Century Central African Background to Atlantic Creole Cultures / Linda M. Heywood 91

Part 2 Central Africans in Brazil

4 Central Africans in Central Brazil, 1780-1835 / Mary C. Karasch 117

5 Who Is the King of Congo? A New Look at African and Afro-Brazilian Kings in Brazil / Elizabeth W. Kiddy 153

6 The Great Porpoise-Skull Strike: Central African Water Spirits and Slave Identity in Early-Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro / Robert W. Slenes 183

Part 3 Central Africans in Haiti and Spanish America

7 Twins, Simbi Spirits, and Lwas in Kongo and Haiti / Wyatt MacGaffey 211

8 The Central African Presence in Spanish Maroon Communities / Jane Landers 227

9 Central African Popular Christianity and the Making of Haitian Vodou Religion / Hein Vanhee 243

10 Kongolese Catholic Influences on Haitian Popular Catholicism: A Sociohistorical Exploration / Terry Rey 265

Part 4 Central Africans in North America and the Caribbean

11 "Walk in the Feenda": West-Central Africans and the Forest in the South Carolina

Georgia Lowcountry / Ras Michael Brown 289

12 Liberated Central Africans in Nineteenth-Century Guyana / Monica Schuler 319

13 Combat and the Crossing of the Kalunga / T.J. Desch-Obi 353.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0521802431

0521002788

OCLC:

46472191