The Black Atlantic, A Religious Interpretation (FYS)

Description

The world as we know it is shaped by The Black Atlantic. This phrase centers the forced movement of enslaved Africans from Africa to the Americas and Europe as the center of a set of complex forces: European global expansion, land expropriation, indigenous extermination and, of course African enslavement. But Africans were not solely objects of dehumanizing subjugation and property. Africans co-created this world through material practices, traditions of knowledge, and meaning making summed up in the word religion. This course will both introduce students to the themes of Black religions formed in and through the Black Atlantic, and specific communities, for example, Rastafarianism, Islam, Buddhism, and Pentecostalism. Students will read scholarly articles and engage multi-sensory sources and first-person accounts of both themes and communities. All resources will be provided in class or via Moodle. Offering: Crosslisting Grading: OPT Credits: 1.00 Gen Ed Area: SBS-RELI Identical With: RELI177F , AMST137F Prereq: None