Important Differences in Ritual and Belief

Raboteau also sets out similarities betwixt the ecstatic nature of worship in the Baptist religion and in African religion (59), and he concludes that "the similarity of some traits whitethorn make it very diffi rage or steady unsufferable to separate what is African from what is European in origin" (59).

Still, from the point of view of Ani, the African religion certainly did not rifle in the Baptist religion of the slaves and their ancestors in the same forms it took in Africa. raze Raboteau admits that despite similarities and blendings of the two religions, in the slave system "it was not possible to maintain the rites of worship, the priesthood, or the 'national' identities which were the vehicles and supports for the African theology and cult organization" (92).

Raboteau believes that much more of the African religion survived chthonian the Baptist religion of the Southern slaves and their ancestors (92). Ani points out that one cannot remove a people from their nation, their homeland, their continent, their natural environment, and their culture, without destroying much of the religion that is a vocalization of the culture. Raboteau looks at the singing and dancing of the slaves, the spirituals, the "ring shouts" and the "folk beliefs," and he concludes that much of African religion survived in the New field (92). Ani believes th

at the non-Christian religions of Africa were for the most start taken apart and lost when the Baptist religion was imposed on the slaves.

Still, Ani believes that the culture and "ethos" (Ani 3) of the Africans has survived under the Christian religion, but only because African-Americans start out fought for that culture as a group; "Ethos, like culture, is soundless to refer to shared group reaction and group response. The African-Diasporic ethos refers to our unique spirit and spiritual cosmos. It is a result of our shared ethnical history and is derived from Africa" (Ani 3).

That idea of "spirits" would be opposed by Baptists who believe only in Jesus Christ and the sanctum Spirit, but Ani seems to believe in a decentralized religion, a "universal life force" and the "mysterious workings of the universe' (Ani 37). Ani believes that in such a cosmic force, blacks can find a way to keep their culture and religion alive even outside of Africa.

Ani does not argue that African-Americans should go back to the African religions. Ani argues for "an African-Diasporic humanism" which "grows out of the African conception of the human being" and "places emphasis on the human spirit" and on "the s
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