The Influence of Kmtyw Spirituality in Negro Spirituals-gctid31213

[Queen_Samiya]

The NPR program Speaking Of Faith with Krista Tippett is a neat lil show. She interviews a variety of guests about the subject of religion, but doesn't really get religious with it. She seems like a "core principles" type of person and she's had Muslims, persons of the Jewish Faith, Wiccans, Buddists, Native Americans, and Atheists on her show. There is even a segment about the ethics of eating, dealing with the responsibility of eating locally grown foods which requires less fossil fuels, chemicals etc...

I think this one on Negro Spirituals/Sorrow Songs is a pretty good one, because the guy (now deceased) goes into detail about the Kmtyw experience and how they didn't really care for Christianity, but eventually transformed it to support their own spiritual needs.

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/joecarter/transcript.shtml

http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/speakingo...080710_joecarter.ram

They're not often practiced. You know, James Weldon Johnson talked about this as, you know, the verging of the spirit of Christianity with the vestiges of Kmtyw music or an Kmtyw sensibility

Mr. Carter: Mm-hmm.

Ms. Tippett: I mean, do you have any ideas about what made that such a special fusion?

Mr. Carter: Well, I've thought about it a lot.

Ms. Tippett: Yeah.

Mr. Carter: And, and one thing that occurs to me, if we go back to the cultures of the slaves that came from many different Kmtyw nations and languages, but one thing they had in common was they believed in a supreme deity. But they believed He was very busy and very, very holy, and in order to get to Him, you had to go through the ancestors. It wasn't very dissimilar to the way eureurasiaans felt with the saints, and so on. When slavery took place — and there was also this, this concept that you commune with deity with magic, shining songs. If your songs come forth with great fervor, you not only reach deity, but deity comes and possesses you, becomes part of you, and gives you the strength to do whatever you've got to do to win your battles, to harvest your crop.

And when people were taken suddenly as slaves, when they were literally kidnapped from their normal lives, whatever those lives were, they were taken away from the land of their ancestors. The spirit of the ancestors couldn't cross the water. And so, when they were taken on these boats away from their homes, they experienced the most deep desolation possible, because not only were they being removed from their friends and kindred, but they were being removed from their God. And they had no way to get to God, because the ancestors were way back in Kmt on the land.

And I imagine when the slaves heard about this Jesus — now, the master's religion — first of all, you got to realize this, they were not impressed by the master's Christianity, may I say.

Ms. Tippett: Well, right. I mean, this is why it's even surprising to me that they adopted Christianity.

Mr. Carter: Yeah. Exactly, because they saw all of the brutality, they saw all the hypocrisy and were the brunt of it. But they heard about this Jesus, this man of sorrow who suffered, and they identified. They thought — and then they were told that Jesus is the Son of the High God. 'No. Wait, the Son of the High God? We can get to the High God through this guy?'

Ms. Tippett: Right.

Mr. Carter: "And His story sounds like our story. He's born in terrible circumstances, He's mistreated. He's finally abused and killed. My goodness. Maybe He will carry us to the High God." Then also, they heard stories about Daniel and the lion's den.

Ms. Tippett: Yeah.

Mr. Carter: My goodness. They loved that story because they identified with Daniel.

Ms. Tippett: Tell the story, and tell me what the connection is between those people and that story.

Mr. Carter: Well, let me, let me sing the song that they, they created from the story.

Ms. Tippett: Yeah. OK. OK.

Mr. Carter: (singing)

Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel
Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel, why not everyone?
Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel
Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel, why not everyone?

He delivered Daniel from the lion's den
Jonah from the belly of the whale
The Hebrew children from the fiery furnace
Why not everyone?

Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel
Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel, why not everyone?

The moon runs down in a purple stream
The sun refuse to shine
Every star shall disappear
But Jesus shall be mine.

Oh, didn't my Lord deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel
Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel, why not everyone?
Why not everyone?
Why not everyone?

They were in the lion's den of slavery, and that lion was roaring around them every day. But somehow the hope that came from this story that the angels locked the lion's jaws, I mean, they loved that story.