Development of West Indian religion abroad
From Seminar 2: The Peopling of New York City
Barbara Beacom
Contents |
The Full Circle of West Indian Culture – The Cycle of Religion
Religion is an important element in West Indian culture. In fact, religion can be described as one of the defining features for West Indian culture. An Evangelical Christian once said “We have been challenged to pursue the examination of our own experience and expression of the syncretism between Christianity and cultural traditions.”(Sankeralli 36) Christianity was brought to the West Indies through different Christian sects. Christianity spread as Christian missionaries spread. However, various Caribbean religions sprang up after being influenced by these missions, with some religions greatly incorporating African culture. When the West Indian immigrants migrated to the US, they brought several key characteristics of the Caribbean church along the way. After the churches were established in the United States, churchgoers were able to complete a cultural cycle, by returning to their ethic “home” (such as an island in the Caribbean or Africa). The cultural twisting and shaping of West Indian religion, especially Christianity, allowed the now present sects of Christianity to establish missionary efforts abroad and spread their uniquely transformed Christian religion.
West Indian Migration to the United States
Afro-Christian religions survived the first wave of immigration in communities in the United States. West Indian continued to practice unique religions in the United States like voodoo (a folk religion that fuses Catholic traditions and spirit-possession cults of West Africa). West Indian religions that were based on magic and God’s possession of the worshipper through rituals, such as Shango in Trinidad, also survived migration.
The first wave of Caribbean migration occurred between 1990-1930. (Klevan, 37) They came because of economic reasons. The islands were in economic ruin as Great Britain encouraged free trade in 1846. The working conditions were horrible, persistent poverty plagued agricultural communities, and natural disasters destroyed crops. In the US, the economy was booming, thanks to the World War I manufacturing boom. (Klevan, 40)
The recent wave of Caribbean immigrants (from about 1960 to present) also had reasons like economics to come to America. Many are looking for a better education for themselves and their children, since the school system in American is free to everyone. Many are looking just for a decent job they cannot find back home. What ever the case is, recent Caribbean immigrants formed social niches when they came here. These communities had a high concentration of West Indian immigrants.
Destination for the immigrants: New York City. Over half of people reporting a West Indian first ancestry resided in the greater New York metropolitan area according to the 1990 census data. Within the New York City area, residual enclaves, such as Flatbush, Cambria Heights, a small area near 125th street and Amsterdam in Harlem, and East Elmhurst Queens, flourished. (Foner, 98) These communities grew, as many new immigrants found relatives in these areas. These enclaves also protected West Indians against racism, established economic programs that helped new immigrants, and made job hunting relatively easy. Large West Indian populations also created organizations that helped provide assistance to their home country in the Caribbean.
Transnationalism and Religion
The constant contact with one’s home country through “multistranded social relations, along family, economic, and political lines, that link their societies of origins and settlement” (Foner, 7) is the definition of transnationalism. Religious ties were also maintained even though the immigrants are not with their original religious setting in their home countries. To support the immigrants need for religious institution they participated in back home, transnational religious institutions formed.
Transnational religions are supported and also the creator of religious globalization. Transnational religions bridges beliefs across seas and yet creates a sense of religious unity within the migrant community. “The transnational religious practices that individuals engage in are often reinforced by the organizational context where they take place.” (Levitt, 6) The communities with transnational religious organizations allow for the strengthening of unique West Indian religions.
How Religion Changed
The culture of an immigrant is infused in their religion. “Since the 1960’s, the status-conferral function of religion in the institutional areas where US culture has been best tolerated difference” (Warner, 219). They key aspects of West Indian culture is their incorporation of music and praise and worship. Typical instruments in the church include the drums and tambourines. Especially in West Indian churches, music can set the rhythm of worship. To investigate the elements of a Christian church and how transnational culture effects it, an investigation of Rugby Deliverance Tabernacle could shed the light on West Indian Christianity.
"What is the difference between the church back then that I worked with the Caribbean was [Rugby Deliverance Tabernacle has] the all, all charismatic, charismatic movement where people, you know, get up and praise and worship..." - Betsy Rose Taylor V
Rugby Deliverance Tabernacle
Rugby Deliverance Tabernacle is a nondenominational Christian Church in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The congregation is mostly made up of West Indians, because it serves a mainly West Indian community. It is estimated to have about 60-75 percent Jamaican members, with the next highest ethnic percentage being Guyanese. In order to see the role of Christianity in a West Indian life, my group and I ventured on a journey to the West Indian transmigrant population in Flatbush.
The four train to Brooklyn was filled with what looked like people dressed up with nice ironed shirts and nicely combed hair. The bus to the church was packed with ladies with their Sunday best. Since it was Sunday, church day, many West Indian Christian churches observe Sunday as a holy day and kept the streets of Flatbush busy.
The Sunday 11:30 mass started out with slow song. These songs began to develop into friendly, upbeat music. While praising God, the members of the Church would be moving with the music in their spots. In church a band of drummers and guitar musicians played on the side. The church was described as having a “loud” voice. One of the members of Rugby Deliverance Tabernacle had the experience of church both in the Caribbean and in the United States.In comparison church in the Caribbean is more tame while Rugby, according to the member, allows for more “charismatic movement”.
Missionary Work
Rugby is a transnational church that tries to explore their member’s ethnic origins. Rugby organizes missionary trips to various countries such as Jamaica, Ghana, South Africa, and Saint Lucia. When asked why they picked these certain countries, a member of the church said missionary trips are based on the ethnicities of its members. Missionary work is important now not only to spread faith, but also to assist the very needy.
Rugby’s missionary work focuses on first providing basic needs to the people before they can try to preach the gospel. According to one of the heads of the church, people in the third world countries lack the basic necessities they need to survive. Therefore, Rugby and other missionary groups try to bring aid, in the form of food and medicine, to try to get the people physically ready to hear the Gospel.
Does the missionaries workers feel any ties to the to countries in which their ethnic heritage can be traced? When asked this question, most members of the Rugby church stated that the culture of the missionized country didn't have a great impact on them. However, one member did note that they wanted to explore how certain cultural aspects of the people prevents them from doing well in society. Missionary workers maintain the same identity, according to our interviews, while on mission trips. Missionaries also help spread their identity as they expose people to the religion they believe.
Conclusion
Religion in the West Indies is a complicated mixture of African elements and European Christianity. Many new religions were formed in blending the two. When West Indians migrated, they brought their religion with them. Their religious ties were still strong and had a sense of religious transnationalism. However, West Indian religion completed a full cycle, by sending it’s own missionaries around the world. They were once greatly influenced by missionaries and now are missionaries themselves.
Work Cited
Klevan, Miriam. The West Indian Americans. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990. Foner, Nancy. Islands in the City. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
Russell, Horace O. “The Missionary Outreach of the West Indian Church: Jamaican Baptist Missions to West Africa in the Nineteenth Century.” Review author[s]: Chilcote, Paul W. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2. (2001), pp. 487-488. <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-7882%282001%2934%3A2%3C487%3ATMOOTW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T>.
Capone, Stefania. “Religions Transnationales.” (Civilisations, vol. LI, no. 1-2) Review author[s]: Lauterbach, Karen Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 74, No. 4. (2004): pp. 686-687. <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0001-9720%282004%2974%3A4%3C686%3ART%28VLN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I>.
Wariboko, Waibinte E. “I really cannot make Africa my home: West Indian missionaries as ‘outsiders’ in the church missionary society civilizing mission to southern Nigeria, 1898-1925.” Cambridge University 45 (2004): pp 221-236.
Warner, Stephen R. “Religion, Boundaries, and Bridges.” Association for Sociology of Religion, Inc Vol. 58, No. 3 (1997): pp 217-238.
Levitt, Peggy. “Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging: The Institutional Charater of Transnational Religious Life.” Association for the Sociology of Religion Vol. 65, No. 1 (2004): pp 1-18.
Glazier, Stephen D. “Syncretism and Seperation Ritual Change in an Afro-Caribbean Faith.” American Folklore Society Vol. 98, No. 387 (1985):pp 49-62.
Schmidt, Bettina E. “The Creation of Afro-Caribbean Religions and their Incorporation of Christian Elements.”
Sankeralli, Burton, ed. At the Crossroads African Caribbean religion and Christianity. St. James: Caribbean Conference of Churches, 1995.
Hunte, Keith. Protestantism and Slavery in the British Caribbean. Jamaica: The University of the West Indies Press, 2001.