Religion

Invisible Churches: How Enslaved Africans in the US Resisted Their Owners’ Obedience Doctrine

During the era of American slavery, Christianity became both a tool for oppression and a source of hope for enslaved African Americans. Slaveholders leveraged the Christian faith, twisting its messages to reinforce submission and obedience to them. Out of...

Pope Nicholas V: The Pope Who Granted Portugal the Right to Enslave Africans in 1452

Pope Nicholas V, born Tommaso Parentucelli in 1397, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1447 until his death in 1455. While his pontificate is remembered for its contributions to art, and...

The Creation Story of the Bakongo People of Africa and Its Similarity to the Big Bang Theory

The creation story of the Bakongo people, an ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo, offers a fascinating perspective on the origins of the universe. The Bakongo have historically inhabited regions along the Atlantic coast of Central...

Augustus Tolton: The Runaway Slave Who Became a Catholic Priest in the US

Tolton was an African-American born into slavery in Monroe County, Missouri, around 1854. During the Civil War, he fled to Quincy, Illinois, with his family and eventually became the first publicly recognized Black Catholic priest in the United States. Tolton's...

How Catholic Missionaries Aided Belgian King Leopold in Committing Atrocities in Congo

Few chapters in colonial history are as harrowing and tragic as the exploitation of the Congo Free State under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium from 1885 to 1908. While the atrocities, described as one of the...

The Beautiful Rock-Hewn Churches of Ethiopia

The Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela are eleven monolithic churches carved into the rugged landscapes of Lalibela, in Ethiopia, these remarkable structures were commissioned by King Gebre Meskel Lalibela in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and aimed to...

The Doctrine of Discovery: How the Catholic Church Authorized Colonial Powers to Seize Lands and Subjugate People in Africa

The Doctrine of Discovery was instrumental in legitimizing European colonialism in Africa. As European powers embarked on voyages of exploration and expansion, they carried with them the papal bulls that provided divine sanction for their actions.

Rosa Egipcíaca: The Enslaved Prostitute Who Became a Pioneering Afro-Brazilian Writer and Religious Mystic

Rosa Egipcíaca, also known as Rosa Maria Egipcíaca of Vera Cruz and Rosa Courana, was an extraordinary individual whose life journey traversed the harsh realities of enslavement, prostitution, spiritual awakening, and ultimately, literary achievement. Born in 1719 in the...

How Christian Slave Owners Used the Bible Story of Ham to Justify Their Enslavement of Africans

Slaveholders claimed that the black race descended from Ham, and like Canaan, to come from Ham is to be a slave. Some slaveholders removed Canaan entirely from the story and bestowed the curse on Ham whom they claimed was the progenitor of the black race.

The Creation Story of the Efé People of DR Congo

According to the Efé creation myth, their story begins with the divine hand of God crafting the first human being, named Baatsi. Using clay as his medium, God sculpted the form of a man.
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The 1908 Springfield Race Riot That Unleashed Terror on African Americans

In August 1908, Springfield, Illinois, a city hailed as the home of Abraham Lincoln, erupted into a storm of...
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