Black Spirituality and Black Consciousness

Book excerpt: African American spirituality plays a central role in the formation and practice of Black freedom in America. This freedom is primarily spiritual and cultural and has a significant role in shaping Black consciousness, behavior and belief.It has created a cultural archive or black culture soul, which shapes the colors, content, timber and texture of the African American communities.Unlike other paradigms which posit the social, political and economic imperatives of freedom, the African American model stipulates the vital role of Black spirituality. This spirituality embodies the creation and sustenance of Black culture, establishes psychological and spiritual relocation in response to oppression, and equips African Americans with the spiritual tools for their physical, vocational and institutional survival.A central thesis of the book is that African American spirituality, by the way it shapes and informs black life, creates a unique praxis of freedom. Most importantly is the way Black spirituality is expressed in Black culture, the Black church and Black life values.Creativity is, therefore, essential to freedom. That freedom is manifested in everything from the development of jazz as a sui generis and indigenous art form, to the ways Black people walk, talk, interpret and oppositionally express themselves in the world.Such creativity is indispensable to the formation and preservation of Black life. It has been used by African Americans as a powerful weapon in maintaining identity and creating a spirituality of culture and a culture of spirituality, which have largely thwarted their complete psychological and physical annihilatio