Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism

Contents

ix C ON T EN TS ILLUSTRATIONS xi FOREWORD xiii PREFACE xvii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxix The Harlem Window: An Introduction 1 part one: the harlem years CHAPTER ONE “We Have as Much Right ...to Believe That God Is a Negro”: Religious Nationalism and the Rehumanization of Blackness 23 CHAPTER TWO “Here I IsWhere I Has Longed to Be”: Racial Agency, Urban Religion, and the Early Years of Walter Eugene King 50 CHAPTER THREE Harlem Yoruba, Orisha-Vodu, and the Making of“New Oyo” 88 CHAPTER FOUR “Indigenous Literacies”and the African Library Series: A Textual Approach to History, Nation, and Tradition 121 x CHAPTER FIVE “This Religion Comes from Cuba!”: Race, Religion, and Contested Geographies 142 part two: african american yoruba since 1970 CHAPTER SIX Oyotunji African Village: A Diaspora Experiment in African Nationhood 167 CHAPTER SEVEN “That’s Alright ...I’m aYoruba Baptist”: Negotiating Religious Plurality and“Theological Openness”in African American Yoruba Practice 226 CHAPTER EIGHT “Afrikan Americans in the U.S.A.Bring Something Different to Ifa”: Indigenizing Yoruba Religious Cultures 271 CONCLUSION “WhatWe’re Looking for in Africa Is Already Here”: A Conclusion for the Twenty-first Century 311 NOTES 343 BIBLIOGRAPHY 407 INDEX 430 ...