• Home page
On This Page:
• Surveys and Overviews
• African Traditional Religions
• Black Church in America
• Candomble
• Espiritismo
• Santeria
• Vodoun

African Religions in the Americas Reading List

Surveys and Overviews

• Murphy, Joseph M. 1994. Working the Spirit: Ceremonies of the Africa Diaspora. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Pinn, Anthony B. Varieties of African American Religious Experience. Fortress: 1998.
• Simpson, George Eaton. Black Religions in the New World. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978.

African Traditional Religion

• Idowu, E. Bolaji. 1973. African Traditional Religion: A Definition. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.
• Ìdòwú, E. Bólájí. 1994. Olódùmaré: God in Yorùbá Belief. New York: Wazobia.
• Mbiti, John S. 1975. Introduction to African Religion. Portsmouth, N H: Heinemann Educational Books, Inc.
• MBiti, John S. 1990. African Religions and Philosophy. Portsmouth, N. H.: Heinemann.
• Ray, Benjamin C. 1976. African Religions: Symbol, Ritual, and Community. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Black Church in America

(This list is especially underdeveloped. I have included these particular books because they focus on the African elements in the religions of the U.S.)

• Genovese, Eugene D. 1975. Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made. Book 2 Part 1. New York: Vintage Books.
• Pitts, Walter F. Old Ship of Zion: The Afro-Baptist Ritual in the African Diaspora. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Sobel, Mechal. The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century Virginia. Part III. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987.

Candomble

• Landes, Ruth. The City of Women; introduction by Sally Cole. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994.
• Voeks, Robert A. Sacred Leaves of Candomblé. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.
• Wafer, James William. The Taste of Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomblé. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Espiritismo

• Pérez y Mena, Andrés Isidoro. Speaking with the Dead: Development of Afro-Latin Religion among Puerto Ricans in the United States: A Study into the Interpenetration of Civilizations in the New World. New York, N.Y.: AMS Press, 1991.

Santeria

• Brandon, George. Santeria from Africa to the New World: The Dead Sell Memories. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
• Clark, Mary Ann. "Santeria" in Sects, Cults, and Spiritual Communities: A Sociological Analysis. Zellner, William W. and Marc Petrowsky (eds.). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998.
• Clark, Mary Ann. 2005. Where Men are Wives and Women Rule: Santería Ritual Practices and Their Gender Implications. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
• Clark, Mary Ann. 2006. "Santeria." In Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America, edited by E. V. Gallagher and W. M. Ashcraft. Westport: CT: Greenwood Press. Best 20-page introduction to the religion. Suitable for undergraduate and graduate-level classes.
  
• Clark, Mary Ann. 2007. Santería: Correcting the Myths and Uncovering the Realities of a Growing Religion. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Written with the general reader in mind, this book isntended for seekers or those with no background in the religion.
  
• Curry, Mary Cuthrell. Making the Gods in New York: The Yoruba Religion in the African American Community. New York: Garland Pub., 1997.
• Brown, David D. 2003. Santeria Enthroned: Art, Ritual, and Innovation in an Afro-Cuban Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  
• Edwards, Gary, and John Mason. 1985. Black God--Orisa Studies in the New World. Brooklyn, N. Y.: Yoruba Theological Archministry.
• Flores-Peña, Ysamur and Roberta J. Evanchuk. Santeria Garments and Altars: Speaking without a Voice. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994.
• Lazo, Irete. 2008. The Accidental Santera. New York: Thomas Dunne Books.  A fictionalized account of one woman's introduction to Santeria. Well written,  informative and a good read.
  
• Mason, John. 1985. Four New World Yorùbá Rituals. Brooklyn: Yorùbá Theological Archministry.
• Mason, John. 1992. Orin Òrìsà: Songs for Selected Heads. Brooklyn: Yoruba Theological Archministry.
• Mason, John. 1996. Olóòkun: Owner of Rivers and Seas. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Yorùbá Theological Archministry.
• Mason, John, and Gary Edwards. 1999. Ìdáná Fún Òrìsà: Cooking for Selected Heads. Brooklyn: Yoruba Theological Archministry.
• Mason, Michael Atwood. 2002. Living Santería: Rituals and Experiences in an Afro-Cuban Religion. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press.
  
• Murphy, Joseph M. Santeria: African Spirits in America. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.
• Palmié, Stephan. 2002. Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
  
• Vega, Marta Moreno. 2000. The Altar of My Soul: The Living Traditions of Santería. New York: One World, The Ballantine Publishing Group.
• Wendel, Johan. 2003. Santeria Healing: A Journey into the Afro-Cuban World of Divinities, Spirits, and Sorcery. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
  

Books to Avoid

• Anything by Migene González-Wippler.
• de la Tore, Miguel. 2004. Santería: The Beliefs and Rituals of a Growing Religion in America. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
  

Vodoun

• Brown, Karen McCarthy. Mama Lola. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1991
• Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. New York: McPherson & Company, 1983.
• Dunham, Katherine. Island Possessed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
• Hurston, Zora Neale. Tell My Horse. Philadelphia, New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1938.
• Laguerre, Michel S. Voodoo and Politics in Haiti. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.
• Métraux, Alfred. Voodoo in Haiti. Translated by Hugo Charteris. New York, Oxford University Press, 1959.
• Tallant, Robert. Voodoo in New Orleans. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1946.

Online Resources

See my African and Afro-Diaspora Religions page for websites devoted to Santería, Candomblé, other Orisha religions, Vodoun, and more.