Retention and Transformation
Let's look more closely at recursive transformation, or how the past informs the present: From 1619, well into the next century, enslaved Africans had taken on somewhat of a broken form of the English language. They had indeed fashioned text, phrases, and metaphors along with Biblical references into their peculiar and ingenious gift of expression in ways which only they could decipher. In "African American Belief Narratives and African Cultural Traditions," John Roberts writes, "The existence of these conditions that threatened the physical, social, and spiritual well-being and survival of Africans enslaved in America proved opportunistic in facilitating their ability to transform and retain important aspects of their religious cultural heritage" (Roberts 2009, 15).
The following example "Form and Analysis" speaks to the religious cultural heritage that is retained in America.
This particular folk song falls into the category of Negro spirituals.An African American folksong that employs religious text or solemn thought. Spirituals are slave songs based on a sacred text or solemn thought or belief. At first glance, the word "sometimes" would appear to negate this tune's sorrow as descriptive of a child sold from his mother, as slavery separated many families in this manner. However, the deeper meaning of the words is that the child is a long way from its mother, Africa.
The words "sometimes I feel" appear three times before there is a phrase to release the tension. This tension buildup and subsequent relaxation is a standard structure employed in Negro folk songs. The intent is to build intensity and emotion with each repetition (some would quickly link the form in this spiritual to represent the Triune God (or Trinity)-one repetition for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Spirit. Although the concluding phrase is often one of repose or hope, the one here remains within the depths of loneliness and sorrow itself.
A contrasting example to this sorrowful song is as follows:
Though no one understands the singer's trouble "but Jesus," the last phrase is one of exclamatory faith. "Glory" acknowledges His power and sovereignty, whereas "Hallelujah" fulfills the submissive and celebratory act of the singer's belief. In this regard, Ruth Gillum explains: "The Negro, as a people, has seemed instinctive to realize that the end of all Being is Expression; with a sort of esoteric wisdom, he perceives the intense sublimation of group expression of Self. His music, growing as it does out of his bewilderment at his sufferings as a slave, is not an experiment, but an experience" (Gillum 1943, 173). Albert J. Raboteau has argued that, despite differences in religious practices throughout Central and West Africa, slaves shared more fundamental beliefs than in their enslavers' Christian faith. By embracing those commonalities, they transformed elements of their traditional religions in ways that allowed them to continue to address critical needs under the conditions imposed on them by slavery. As Gillum would add: "God became the reality, and slavery, an illusion" (Gillum 1943, 173).
Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr.
The oppressors required something that was of great value from the oppressed, only to make a mockery of their religion.
Steal Away to Jesus
My Lord, He calls me. He calls me by the thunder.
The Trumpet sounds within my soul.
I ain't got long to stay here.