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- Title
Black Brotherhoods in North America: Afro-Iberian and West-Central African Influences.
- Authors
DEWULF, JEROEN
- Abstract
Building on the acknowledgement that many Africans, predominantly in West-Central Africa, had already adopted certain Portuguese cultural and religious elements before they were shipped to the Americas as slaves, this article argues that syncretic Afro-Iberian elements must also have existed among slave communities outside of the Iberian realm in the American diaspora. It explores this possibility with a focus on Afro- Iberian brotherhoods. While it was long assumed that these so-called "black brotherhoods" were associated with slave culture on the Iberian Peninsula and in La tin America only, it can now be confirmed that Afro-Catholic fraternities also flourished in parts of Africa during the Atlantic slave trade era. A comparative analysis of king celebrations in Afro-Iberian brotherhoods with those at Pinkster and Election Day festivals in New York and New England reveals a surprising number of parallels, which leads to the conclusion that these African-American performances may have been rooted in Afro-Iberian traditions brought to North America by the Charter Generations.
- Subjects
NORTH America; UNITED States; BROTHERHOODS; FRATERNAL organizations; FESTIVALS; AFRICAN American social life &; customs
- Publication
African Studies Quarterly, 2015, Vol 15, Issue 3, p19
- ISSN
2152-2448
- Publication type
Article