Channel Proteins: pass molecules through; contain channel down middle. – ions and small polar molecules.…
This book is thorough, insightful and filled with examples on how many of the African Religious traditions were fused with Christianity to created what we know as the black church of today. The two strengths include the sidebar on the historical documents and the excellent reflection upon the spirituals.…
“I trod on Africa without a thought, straight from our family’s divinely inspired beginning to our terrible end,” (9).…
The rich relation the African Christians found with the history of Israel forces me to see the past in a new light. After the Civil War, Brother Thornton, suggested that “Promised Land” was still in the distance for Africans in America, stating, “We have been in the furnace of affliction, and are still…I am assured that what God begins, he will bring to an end…There must be no looking back to Egypt…If we would have greater freedom of body, we must free ourselves from the shackles of sin, and especially the sin of unbelief.” The humility seen in Thornton and in the writing of Raboteau, offer no blame for the sin done, sometimes even in the name of Christianity. But rather seek to humbly seek change. This is something I believe every Christian would wish to be a description of their church leadership and congregation. The “Invisible Institution” of the early American African church and their rich heritage show deep humility and a desire for gospel change. A people that despite being abused by the church, fought to better the…
(1) The historical influence of Christianity in the West (Europe and the Americas) and in Africa and Asia…
Certain views, like that of Blythe, a nineteenth century African writer and supporter of African rights challenged the common perceptions of the era but they did not change them. Blythe talks about scientific Europeans ‘giving academic study to the Negro’ but his overall suggestion is that there is a general ‘opinion of some God is everywhere except in Africa.’ (Blythe 1903 in Brown, 2008) Read and Dalton They described both their perception of Benin society and the objects they were studying in a very ambivalent way at the first sight of these remarkable works of art were at once astounded….and puzzled to account for so highly developed an art amongst a race so entirely barbarous as the Bini’ (Read and Dalton 1897 in Brown, 2008).This negative and perception of Benin was a common perception of the whole of Africa at this time . Anthropologists in general struggled to fit explanations of such sophisticated works of art into these commoner held opinions which circulated throughout all major establishments of newspapers, museums and Encyclopaedias. This meant that stereotypical notions were gaining credibility over real facts. Read and Dalton were unfazed and presented their historical version as a prejudiced one, shaped by the society in which they lived, hence they form the conclusion that ‘no hope that a…
5. Discuss the similarity between Christianity and African paganism. (Refer to Christianity as most followers think it should be lived/presented, not the version practiced by Nathan. The ideas of Tata Fowles will be helpful.)…
In this book, the author proves his point of view by presenting the slave's narratives and the missionary reports and journals that depicted the typical day to day life of the religious slaves. Through the use of secondary sources, the author analyzes the transformation of the African traditions into Christianity and the behaviors that resisted change.…
The role of religion has changed over time in West Africa from the migration of Islam bringing its new faith, rituals, and establishment of a greater connection with the outside world through trade and cultural diffusion. However the unique African religion that existed beforehand was still retained; the African culture still believing in animism and polytheism even after the spread of Islam. From 1000-1500 CE the role of religion has seen changes and continuities influenced by the spread of foreign territories, economics, and political/social systems in West Africa.…
When defining any discipline that the world offers, it is important to discuss its origin, pre-disciplinary history, and its formation as an actual academic study. According to Professor Robert Lee Harris Jr., “African studies is the multidisciplinary analysis of the lives and thought of people of African ancestry on the African continent and throughout the world” (Harris 321). While analyzing Harris’s definition of African Studies, one must focus greatly on the fact that ancestry has an immense impact on creating a disciplinary study. Disregarding the history of the African people before establishing a study about them only hinders the opportunity a student has to fully understand what they learn about. “For some four hundred years, Europeans conquered and divided the whole of the African continent among themselves. The dark cloud of colonialism descended over Africans, whose land, labor, and economical wealth were methodically and thoroughly exploited and stripped by colonial powers” (Martin and Young 4). Anthropologists studied African people during the time of colonization and therefore, started the African Studies. Although the anthropologists had the opportunity to study the culture, language, and lifestyle of the Africans, they unfortunately developed a colonial-based view.…
The story of the emergence and overwhelming manifestation of African American Religion is rooted in the memoirs of the enslaved. Religion aided in innumerable pivotal roles in the progression and acceptance of American people and the African American church. Christianity, astoundingly, became the focal point of African American culture, despite the awareness that their oppressors had previously used the same doctrines of Christianity against them to justify 300+ years of slavery, genocide, and rape. The elucidation of why Christianity was so successful is beyond what any one book could bother to grasps. Albert Raboteau’s Canaan Land valiantly takes the charge to convey the often neglected narrative of the African American religious experience and it’s awe-inspiring capacity to instill meaning, hope, and dignity within a people(x).…
In 1993 Paul Johnson wrote an article titled “Colonialism’s Back-and Not a Moment too Soon.” In this article, he argued that colonialism was a good thing for Africa. He believed Africa was in need of foreign powers to intervene and govern the land. He said that the governments of different African nations were crumbling and the people were uncivilized. However, Johnson failed to recognize the historical legacy of colonialism in Africa, and all that was negatively affected by it such as the people, traditions, and the land. His biased argument drove his focus to overlook the greater violence and seemed to put a positive light on colonialism. Africa suffered, and still does today due to the nature of violent and exploitative colonialism. There were political, economical, environmental implications that affect areas of Africa still today. It is of much importance to talk about the significance of colonialism of Africa and how it has been negatively affected by it.…
"Julius Kambarage Nyerere." Dictionary of African Christian Biography. N.p., 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.…
John Mbiti, is called the “father of contemporary African Theology”, and was born in November of the year 1931,i n Kenya. He is currently 87 years of age and is a renowned pastor, author of various books as well as a Theologian and a teacher. He is also seen as a religious Philosopher and he critically challenged the Christian hypothesis of the “demonic and anti-christian”, seen as the traditional African religion. He made the following statement “Christian Theology in Africa is not a new phenomenon”? With the statement the question arises, how old is this phenomenon then really. If we look back at the history of the very early church of Egypt, the gospel was spread throughout Egypt, North Africa as well as Ethiopia already in 43AD. The Jewish Bible was translated for the first time in Alexandria, Africa and the African people read the Bible even before Christianity was expanded all through Africa. The Bible was translated into Coptic- the local language in Egypt at that time. The People in Egypt that became the first Christians, was common people which spoke Coptic, an Egyptian dialect. John Mbiti sees the Bible as the main source for theological development and the spread of the gospel.…
The Baptism of Satan in Africa came into the offing when I was halfway through “The Dialogue on Africa and Underdeveloped Countries”, the fourth chapter in my recent volume, The God of Prophet TB Joshua and Genuine men of God in Retrospect. In that volume, I endeavoured to re-echo the essence of existence. The incomprehensibility, capabilities, LOVE, and “wickedness” of GOD were also investigated against many fundamental philosophical questions.…