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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 11, No. 11

Publication Date: November 25, 2024

DOI:10.14738/assrj.1111.17958.

Boubakar, A. B., Assongba, B., Kombieni, D., & Kpohoue, F. (2024). Religion in African Americans Live: A Harrowing Comment in

Richard Wrights “Black Boy” and James Baldwins “The Fire Next Time”. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 11(11). 256-

267.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Religion in African Americans Live: A Harrowing Comment in

Richard Wrights “Black Boy” and James Baldwins “The Fire Next

Time”

Adam Boni Boubakar

Belmonde Assongba

Didier Kombieni

Ferdinand Kpohoue

ABSTRACT

Religion has been a key fact in black Americans slaves daily life, as it fills a gap.

Religious practices when slaves were not in plantations appeared as psychological

relief that helped endure their fate out of resignation, as their helped the slaver

control their slaves. Richard Wright and James Baldwin have exposed the role

played by religion in the slavery institution, respectively in Black Boy and The Fire

Next Time. The present paper aims to highlight some positive impacts of religious

practice as lived by slaves on the one hand, and to reveal how religion helped slave

masters subjugate their slaves to permanent needs in God’s name. The

methodological approach in the study has been a documentary and analytical since

the work has allowed moving from the fictional works described in the two novels

to historical facts in America. In the process of understanding, interpreting and

analyzing the message shed by Wright and Baldwin through their here works, three

literary theories have been found adapted: the New Historicism championed by

Stephen Greenbalt and Jonathan Goldberg which examines through the books the

history as well as the main factors they point out, the Psychoanalysis Literary

Criticism, a doctrine by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacon, and the Marxism which

has allowed displaying the cultural and intellectual heritage of the United States

during the fight for African Americans’ emancipation and total integration in

America, and the Psychoanalysis Literary Criticism which has permitted exploring

the role of consciousness and the unconsciousness in literary expression of

historical facts, including the authors, the readers and the characters, mostly those

who are really involved in the plot.

Keywords: religion, Black Americans, psychology, domination, abuse.

RELIGION AS A PILLAR OF THE SLAVERY INSTITUTION

African religions played a significant role in the emancipation and liberation of African

Americans in the United States in various ways. They provided a sense of identity, community,

and cultural continuity for enslaved Africans. They preserved African cultural practices, beliefs,

and values, fostering a sense of resilience and resistance against the dehumanizing conditions

of slavery.

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 11, Issue 11, November-2024

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

traditional religions had largely been supplanted by Christianity among African Americans,

especially in the rural South.

By Wright's time, African Americans had been in the United States for several generations, and

many African cultural practices had been blended or replaced with those of the dominant

culture. The retention of African religions was more common in regions like the Caribbean or

parts of Latin America where African cultural practices persisted more strongly. In the

American South, however, the assimilation into the dominant Christian culture was more

pronounced.

Broadly speaking, Wright's lack of reference to African religions reflects the specific cultural

and religious landscape of his upbringing, where Christianity, particularly Southern Baptist

Christianity, was the dominant religious force. His personal narrative is deeply intertwined

with the social, economic, and racial struggles of African Americans in the early 20th-century

South, a context in which African religions had largely faded from everyday practice. This

absence is indicative of the broader process of cultural assimilation and the focus of his literary

work on critiquing the oppressive structures of his time.

As far as James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, it is a powerful exploration of race relations in

America during the mid-20th century. Unlike Richard Wright's Black Boy, Baldwin's work does

touch on African religions, but it does so in the context of a broader discussion on religion,

identity, and the African American experience. Baldwin was deeply interested in the role of

religion in African American life. He was critical of Christianity, particularly how it had been

used to justify racism and oppression. Baldwin's exploration of African religions can be seen as

part of his broader critique of the religious landscape that shaped African American identity.

Baldwin contrasts African religions with Christianity to highlight the cultural and spiritual

heritage that was lost or suppressed through slavery and colonialism. So, his exploration of

African religions versus Christianity in The Fire Next Time serves as a profound commentary on

the cultural and spiritual heritage of African Americans, and how it was impacted by the history

of slavery and colonialism.

Before the transatlantic slave trade, African societies had rich and diverse religious traditions.

These included various forms of ancestor worship, animism, and spiritual systems that were

integral to their communities and cultural identities. The transatlantic slave trade forcibly

removed Africans from their homeland, severing their connection to these traditional religions.

Enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas, where they were systematically stripped of

their cultural and spiritual identities. Colonial powers and slave owners imposed Christianity

as a means of control, using it to justify slavery and to enforce social and racial hierarchies.

Baldwin highlights how African spiritual traditions were suppressed by the violent imposition

of Christianity. This suppression was not merely an attempt to convert Africans to a new

religion but was also a strategic move to dismantle their cultural identity and community

bonds, which could foster resistance to slavery.

By contrasting African religions with Christianity, Baldwin emphasizes the loss of a rich cultural

and spiritual heritage. African religions were deeply tied to the people's ways of life, social