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Kongolese Peasant Christianity and Its Influence on Resistance in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century South Carolina

Ngonya, Karen Wanjiru

Abstract Details

2009, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, African-American and African Studies.
This thesis draws on recent research that utilizes the Diasporic approach in thestudy of slave culture in the New World. It attempts to link the old Kongo Kingdom to South Carolina through religion and resistance. It proposes that Kongolese peasants developed a variant of Christianity in the Kongo Kingdom, used it to cope with sociopolitical turbulence in Kongo, and continued to draw upon this religion to resist enslavement in the New World. Using a wide range of sources varying from black spirituals to contemporary observer reports, the present inquiry traces Kongolese peasant Christianity from its inception in the Kingdom of Kongo in the sixteenth century through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in South Carolina, focusing on its influence on resistance. This is a significant contribution to the existing scholarship because it gestures towards a re-evaluation of slaves who practiced Christianity. More often than not, scholars portray Christianity as a European religion, and thus depict Africans who practiced it as either acculturated or practicing a newly syncretized form of Christianity. By portraying Christianity as a European religion, scholars unwittingly negate the resilience and flexibility of African cultures.
Walter c. Rucker, PhD (Committee Chair)
Leslie A. Alexander, PhD (Committee Member)
Ahmad Sikainga, PhD (Committee Member)
84 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ngonya, K. W. (2009). Kongolese Peasant Christianity and Its Influence on Resistance in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century South Carolina [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250192500

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ngonya, Karen. Kongolese Peasant Christianity and Its Influence on Resistance in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century South Carolina. 2009. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250192500.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ngonya, Karen. "Kongolese Peasant Christianity and Its Influence on Resistance in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century South Carolina." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250192500

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)