The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (66 page)

African-American religion
.

The religious beliefs of so large and diverse a population cannot be unified into a single, artificial scheme. The African dispersion has now mingled with many other sources, and black Americans look to more roots than those of their African origin (thus
black Muslims
may absorb Islam
ab origine
, not simply via Africa, and black Catholics advert to St Martin de Porres, a 17th-cent. Peruvian of Afro-Hispanic descent); and in any case, the nature of the religious beliefs in any particular area depends on a creative interaction with existing beliefs and customs. In relation to Christianity, they have been marked by a strong independence (for the first African-American Church, see
AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
), ranging from the ‘storefront churches’ to the African Orthodox Church (founded by Marcus
Garvey
and an Episcopalian priest, G. A. McGuire), in which the
Madonna
and
Christ
are visualized as black. At one stage (
c.
1960) the National Baptist Convention numbered more than 6 million members. In relation to Islam, see
NATION OF ISLAM
,
BLACK MUSLIMS
.
Despite the extreme vitality and diversity of African-American religion, H. A. Baer and M. Singer (
African-American Religion in the 20th Century
, 1992) have suggested that African-American religion falls into four broad types:

(i) messianic-nationalist (cf.
MESSIAH
);
(ii) 
thaumaturgic
;
(iii) conversionist;
(iv) mainstream.

In addition, it is clear that all types are united by a profound involvement in the religious possibilities of music and dance. R. F. Thompson (
Flash of the Spirit
, 1983) has singled out as recurrently characteristic the dominance of a percussive style, propensity for multiple metre, overlapping call and response, inner pulse control, suspended accentuation patterning, and songs and dances with social allusion.

 
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African Apostles
.

Two distinct independent Christian movements in central Africa, both beginning in Zimbabwe in 1932, the Masowe Apostles and the Maranke Apostles. The former derive from John Masowe (?1910–73). His followers became called VaPostori (Shona, ‘the Apostles’), but their anti-government and anti-church attitudes led to harassment which drove them to seek freedom by settling as the Apostolic Sabbath Church of God in the Korsten slum of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 1947. Here their manual skills led to the popular name of the Basketmakers' Church. Deported in 1962, they moved north
en route
to Ethiopia and Jerusalem, but most settled in Zambia near Lusaka, where they established a range of small industries; others established the church in some nine adjacent countries, and Masowe died in Tanzania.
The Maranke Apostles were founded by Johane Maranke (1912–63), brought up in the American
Methodist
mission, who had a
pentecostal
experience and also visions of going to heaven, which were later recorded in
‘The New Revelation of the Apostles’
as an addition to the Bible.

 
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African Greek Orthodox Church
.

A complex development from E.
Orthodoxy
around an
Anglican
Ugandan, Reuben Mukasa (1899–1982), nicknamed Spartas. After hearing of Marcus
Garvey's
independent African Orthodox Church in America, he founded his own counterpart in Uganda in 1929. Upon finding the Garvey Church to be heterodox, Spartas separated and affiliated in 1933 with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Alexandria.

 
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African Instituted Churches
.

Indigenous churches in Africa, characterized by their independence from the history (and originally missionary) churches. Hence they were first known as African Independent Churches. The initials AIC became common, so that the new and current name (adopted by the churches in question to emphasize that they are founded and led by Africans, and are not to be defined by their relationship to the historic and missionary churches) allows the same initials to be used. For examples, see
AFRICAN APOSTLES
;
AFRICAN ISRAEL CHURCH NINEVEH
;
AIYETORO
;
ALADURA
;
BAYUDAYA
;
BRAID(E)
;
BWITI
;
DÉÏMA
;
EAST AFRICAN REVIVAL
;
ETHIOPIANISM
;
FEDEN
;
GODIANISM
;
GOD'S KINGDOM SOCIETY
;
HARRIS MOVEMENT
;
JAMAA
;
KIMBANGU
;
KITAWALA
;
LUMPA CHURCH
;
MAI CHAZA'S CHURCH
;
MARIO LEGIO
;
MUSAMA DISCO CRISTO
;
NAZARITE CHURCH
;
PROVIDENCE INDUSTRIAL MISSION
;
ZION CHRISTIAN CHURCH
;
ZIONIST CHURCHES
.

 
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African Israel Church Nineveh
.

An early independent church in Kenya, mainly among the Luhya and the Luo. It was founded by the highly charismatic David Zayako Kivuli (1896–1974) who was baptized in 1925 in the Pentecostal Assemblies of East Africa (a Canadian mission), had a mystic experience in 1932, became a teacher and evangelist, and led a small peaceful secession in 1942. By 1960 it was spreading to Uganda and Tanzania, and in 1975, when it joined the
World Council of Churches
, it claimed 76,000 members.

 
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