The trans-Atlantic slave trade, which persisted from the 16th to 19th centuries, separated millions of people of African descent from not only their ancestral homeland, but also from their native languages, beliefs, and way of life.
For many Black people living in America, the result has been an incessant yearning for knowledge of that distant past. The feeling of being seemingly isolated or even alien, in the land you presently call home has been referred to by scholars as a cultural identity crisis. In his book, The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois referred to the phenomenon as double consciousness.
Recently, African-Americans have ushered in a cyclical cultural moment reminiscent of both Pan-Africanism and Black Power movements of yesteryear that embraces a more afrocentric approach to health, cuisine, hair care, and even spirituality.
The growth of traditional African spiritual systems has grown exponentially amongst African-Americans over the past 50 years, beginning in densely populated areas such as the east coast before moving west.
James Anyike, pastor of Scott United Methodist Church in Indianapolis and author of Historical Christianity: African Centered, said he feels misinformation is at the root of some Blacks who abandon Christianity.
“For the majority of the people I know who have made that turn away from Christianity, it is because they found out something that didn’t quite jive with what they have learned historically,” he said.
“If I go into a Black church and see a picture of a white Jesus and then I learn or hear that he wasn’t white then I go to my pastor and ask him and he tells me the same misinformation then I might feel uncomfortable because I may begin to feel as if my culture has been rejected.”
For Anthony Artis, an adherent of Lucumi (also known as Santeria) an Afro Caribbean sect of the Ifa belief system from the Yoruba tribe of Western Africa, his faith journey began when he was just 11 years old. “It started way back when I was a kid. I was raised in the A.M.E. Church in Kokomo and when I was about 11 years old I caused quite a stir,” said Artis. “It was my family church, my grandfather was the superintendent of the Sunday school but something just wasn’t doing it for me,” he said.
An extensive survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows that more than one-quarter of American adults (28 percent) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion – or no religion at all.
Artis explained he felt like something was missing and he had also grown to be bothered by what he described as an abundance of hypocrisy amongst congregants. Artis eventually left that congregation for another, and then another, even exploring Catholicism, Universalist Unitarianism, as well as Confucianism and Buddhism while in college.
“None of those paths did it for me,” he said. “During this time, I never lost my faith. I just couldn’t connect with the systems I was being exposed to.” That was until he met his wife, Iris, and was introduced to Santeria.
In 1995, Artis traveled to Cuba and had his first reading, a divination ritual through which a high-ranking priest uses a variety of instruments to give spiritual advice and insight as well as inform the person receiving the reading of their path of destiny. “Basically, in this system you are having a talk with yourself but it’s your higher self,” said Artis. “In this cosmology everyone has a guardian angel, your Ori. That part of you that stays in the spirit realm at all times.” Lucumi teaches adherents to worship a pantheon of deities, known as Orishas, of which there are more than 20. Through the divination process, Artis learned he and his son, Andre Rosa-Artis, were to become high-ranking priests. In 2004, Artis went through a weeklong initiation process in Cuba and is now the only babalawo, which translates into “father of the secrets” in Yoruba, within a 100-mile radius of Indianapolis. Andre Rosa-Artis said that coming of age in a spiritually diverse household taught him several valuable life lessons.
“I was blessed enough to have opportunities to tag along with parents that traveled the world and seeing how different people live gives you a different perspective on life. Also, having the ability to reach somewhere (spiritually) where others can’t has been a big thing for me.”
Rosa-Artis said he encounters misconceptions about his beliefs.
“People see the African stuff and they think it’s voodoo or something spooky, but what we do isn’t done in an evil way. The only purpose or objective of it all is to be in balance,” he said. “The spiritual systems that come from Africa are different than religions because the object of spirituality is to keep your entire self (mind, body, spirit) in balance even with everything else that’s going on around you. That’s something a lot of people don’t have that they yearn for. I think that’s a big reason why you see a lot of people moving toward African spirituality.”
Anyike, who describes himself as a religious pluralist, says he discovered through cultural and spiritual studies as an undergraduate student that there was a way to intersect his Christian faith and ties to Afrocentricism.
“I am a better Christian because of my Afrocentrism, I changed my last name to Anyike which is an Igbo named that honors our ancestors as well as my relationship with God,” he said.
During his time as a pastor, he has infused several African-inspired traditions into worship services such as live drumming and observances of Kwanzaa and Umoja Karamu. Anyike also wears African garb while preaching.
Anyike’s congregation is not unlike others in the United States as well as throughout Africa which are seeking to bridge that cultural and spiritual gap several Blacks have experienced.
“My own decision and my perspective is very personal and I feel this is the path God has led me to. There are some people that feel as though African spirituality is where they meet God and hear from Him – I can’t say that their relationship is not as legitimate as mine just because it’s different. It would be foolish of me to assume that,” said Anyike. “My challenge to other brothers and sisters is to pray to God and follow the path given to them.”
