Winter 2000
Volume 4 Number 4
Winter 2000
Volume 4 Number 4
 contd. Even the expression of one religion should be allowed different forms. Individual believers have contributions to make to what it means to be Muslim or Christian. Ask Kulsumbi, 25, of Gunjavatti, what it means to be religious. As a Muslim woman, she contends that she does not go to the mosque for ramzan (Friday prayers), but she prays at home and participates in celebrations in honor of Mahbub-e-Subhani (represented by the tomb or the dargah of a Muslim saint). She prays through Subhani and believes that her requests are granted. Hakeem Hasan, 70, of Mainelli expresses his submission to Allah by going to the mosque in Gunjavatti, 3.5 miles away from his village, and praying with his family every day. Also, he sleeps only on his left side because to him that is an act of total submission to Allah, who is Lord of all. "To sleep any other way would be asserting my will against Allah’s," he said with conviction. Hasan’s sleep posture is an expression of his faith. How do we understand Anton Fernandez, a farm laborer in Mainelli, who takes permission from his overseer to receive communion on Sunday, but leaves church immediately after receiving the sacred elements to go back to work? Katherine Anton, a Christian, says God is wind. God is the wind that cools her when she is working on the farm; the wind that breathes through the soil to make plants grow is God. To her, this wind protects her when she is alone in the forest. She therefore can go alone into thick forests to fetch firewood without any fear. Katherine may not be able to talk about the doctrines of Creation or the Trinity, but she believes that God is always present with her. When her son-in-law left her daughter recently, Katherine and her husband took their grandchildren to live with them so they could go to school. She says that the God who took care of her till the present will help take care of her grandchildren. Despite who they are and how they experience and express their religions, it is clear that African Indians’ spiritual lives have been mischaracterized. Such stereotypes flow from how hegemonic forces label minorities and marginalize people to dehumanize them. African Indians have histories, and they are active and responsible players in constructing who they want to be, what they should be called, and what kind of religious and cultural experiences and expressions they choose. All of this human activity takes place within state and national policies and labels that systematically tend to impede their personal and collective self-realization. Since they are thinking, feeling, and acting human beings, African Indians daily face situations that make them ask, Are we not citizens, too? This powerful question rings in the hearts and minds of all people and in the corridors of institutions that persistently try to silence the powerless. ____________________________ Pashington Obeng, a Th.M. graduate of PTS (Class of 1985) who earned his Ph.D. at Boston University, is an associate pastor of Wellesley Hills Congregational Church in Massachusetts, an assistant professor of African studies at Wellesley College, and a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. A native of Ghana, he is the author of Asante Catholicism: Religious and Cultural Reproduction among the Akan of Ghana, published by E.J. Brill, 1996, and of several scholarly articles. His research areas include the anthropology of religion (focusing on interreligious and cultural communication), images of African people through the cinema, and African Indian culture and religion. He wishes to thank the following people who enabled him to reach and encounter African Indians: Fathers Francis, Tom, and Lawrence and Sisters Edith, Felcy, Leena, Valentine, and Alice. Readers who wish to know more about African Indians or to engage the author about ideas in this article can contact him by telephone at 781-235-4424 or 781-283-2567, or by email at pobeng@wellesley.edu or obeng@fas.harvard.edu. © Copyright 2000 Princeton Theological Seminary |
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