Religions of the African Diaspora: Crash Course Religions #11

[@oddaceisodd.]

I would just like to say I love John’s phrasing when he talks about religious traditions. He doesn’t say “these people believed that..” he says it as it is, “they welcomed their ancestors with song and dance.” I like how he phrases things in the way the people practicing these things would say it.

[@LethargicScientist]

I'm amazed you mentioned spiders in the joke camera without touching on Anansi, god of stories, who is usually depicted as a spider with a human head or mask.

[@bea-ti9rg]

OMG I NEVER THOUGHT JOHN GREEN WOULD BRING UP MY RELIGION IM LITERALLY CRYING 😭❤❤❤

[@patriciaschonrock2929]

Same it was great to see

[@hshepherd95]

This will be awesome to show to my AP African American Studies students! Thank you.

[@NinaDmytraczenko]

In Brazil there's Umbanda, a religion that is the sincretism of Yoruba, Catholicism, spiritism, and indigenous religions! Despite being a newish religion (100yo), it has ~400.000 followers

[@darrin-moto-2879]

I wrote my final history seminar paper on Vodou and the Haitian Revolution. This was a pleasant surprise to pop up on my feed this morning.

[@noble_sword64]

Great episode! I think African culture and religion doesn’t feature frequently enough in media, so I learned a lot of new stuff today. Really hope to see a series on African history by CC in the future.

[@charliespinoza1966]

That would be amazing

[@nouramouctar817]

Thanks for taking the time to mention just how big Africa is and how spread the diaspora is. ❤️

[@o.7.o]

Some other facts: there’s Louisiana Voodoo, and Hoodoo/Rootwork/Conjure developed in the southern US. The spiritualities always venerate their ancestors (one way is with an ancestor worship table where they interact with their passed on loved ones at least once a week). Also, according to Santeria and Vudu, everyone has an Orisha or Lwa assigned to them at birth. When getting initiated, it is sometimes called being crowned.

[@evan7642]

8:52 The Universe: YO Everything suddenly existing: sup?

[@ebonyblack4563]

I really appreciate the level of respect that keeps being shown in this series.

[@leahbrown2392]

It's been a while since I've watched crash course this consistently. I love this series. Thank you!

[@AndrewGordonBellPerc]

Loving the series, I can imagine how stressful it must've been to cover some of these topics, but you're doing it with grace

[@JPBelizaire]

It's amazing to watch this man talking about Haiti. In a good way.

[@sergion2777]

Yoruba is also practiced in Miami, Ocala, Tampa and lots of other parts of Florida by many Cubans. Whenever you see a "botanica" you know it's around. Thanks for explaining this topic! Great video John!

[@Volundur9567]

Yoruba is one of the cultures. But yes, botanicas specifically cater to these ATRs including Afro-Cuban TRs.

[@unicorntamer2207]

This is where my community college class is taking a different direction. We have three weeks left in the semester. We're talking about new age religions, atheist, agnostics, and then wrapping up with a final essay reflecting on what we've learned in the class. But we were going in the same direction as this crash course series for a very long time. I've been enjoying everything so far. ❤

[@Rawi888]

Oh my God. Hearing that intro theme after sooooo long. I used to ENGULF these videos back in highschool. Straight up INHALE. Soo glad I had this pop up on my home feed. Its also about a particular topic thats been on my mind the longest. Thank you 🩶🫵🏿

[@davidalexallen]

You're handling these delicate topics very well, I'm super impressed and proud :)

[@climbingdan]

I thought a single episode about such a broad subject would be too vague and unfair to the practitioners, but it was actually just right for me and I learned a lot.

[@Pookie515]

Thank you so much for covering this religion in such a thoughtful and inclusive manner. Thus far the series has been excellent!

[@lhfirex]

It's pretty cool to see the synergy between African religions and Islam and Christianity. Really reminds me how religions in Japan blend together between Shinto and Buddhism (and to a lesser extent, Christianity).

[@ramentaco9179]

never stop making these!

[@derekkeng]

Great series, John. Keep it up! Always refreshing to learn something new

[@dakogolpeter9796]

Great lesson John will be anticipating the next video

[@matthewmartin5732]

love the rolled up sleeves. Real boss sh*t John

[@ThinkForYourself2025]

These are the ones I've been waiting for.

[@tallyprestin1881]

Is pizza John a religion? No. But is it idolatry? Maybe. Let's turn to the thought bubble ...

[@missandi1971]

I love this! I took a class called Psychology from An African-Centered Perspective. This is an awesome video.

[@kuroazrem5376]

So, the fact that "Yo" was the first sound of the universe, it means God is a rapper?

[@kmart1396]

John: We need to cross culturally blame more on spiders Me: * aggressively gesturing to West African Mythology * Sir, literally Anansi who is a Trickster God

[@pongop]

Wow! The Bambara's "Yo" and Hinduism's "Aum"! And kind of the Gospel of John (in the beginning was the word and the word was God).

[@quincy9908]

It's crazy to me how on how so much African religions and philosophy (minus African American kinda) is ignored in relation to the wider world.

[@laurensjanssen8352]

I'm learning so much from your channel that I should have been learning at school. Thank you!

[@TalonSky]

Off topic somewhat, but I did indeed hang out with spiders for several years of my youth. I had a huge web pop up outside my window when I was growing up, and was fascinated by watching the spider catch prey and then seeing her babies hatch and grow. My mom wanted to go out and break the web down and I threw a fit (I was maybe 12); they weren't doing anything, they weren't coming inside, and I felt protective over them. Mom figured it was better than me doing drugs on the streets, so she let me keep them so long as I took any that got inside back out. This went on for years, I thinkuntil I left for college. The mom spider would have babies, they would grow and then fly off on the wind using parachutes of web, I am completely serious. The mom would die around winter, and in early spring one of the babies (I'm assuming) would come back, fully grown, and repopulate the web. This was so consistent it became a tradition I looked forward to. I distinctly remember once hearing a buzzing and thumping, and looking out to see a wasp or something similar picking the babies off the web. Literally just plucking them off. I ran out with a broom and fought it off, getting stung a *bunch* in the process, but it was worth it. I know that wasp also deserved to eat and live (I don't remember if I killed it or drove it off, this was over 20 years ago), but these were my friends lol. Anyways, your tangent just made me pleasantly stroll down memory lane. I hope that family of spiders might still be going, or at least the spirit attached to them is at least happy.

[@kendrickoyola4290]

❤

[@Jibreel-jt1qh]

So much similarity with hindu belief. Africa-Universe originate from yo sound. India-Universe originate from om sound.

[@isacami25]

i imagine the last few episodes were hard to record because of the controversy. this episode must have been hard because there was so much to cover

[@maysveryown4732]

im so happy to see this!

[@EdwardConnors]

The Ethiopian lounge in Addis has a coffee ceremony! Altho I don't know how authentic it is.

[@itakpeemmanuel5863]

Just want to say I really appreciate the mini-rant about spiders. John Green gets it

[@gailaltschwager7377]

Thank you!

[@SayItAintTso]

Santería is a religion?! This whole time I thought it was a place. Thank you John for making me slightly less ignorant one video at a time!

[@allstarjazzy]

Wish he could’ve touched on hoodoo, which was developed by enslaved people in america (with west African roots) and was used as a form of resistance against slave masters.

[@crashcourse]

We covered Hoodoo a bit back in episode 4!

[@KennethKlein-lc2mk]

On the complex issue of leaving African Traditional Religion and embracing Christianity, Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart is an excellent place to begin.

[@The_TinesJathian]

yooo new video!

[@dominic3797]

5:18 "You can sells tshirts with your mustachio'd face on them, and thats not a religion" ...sounds like it's responding to an argument John has had to have before 😂😅

[@sams1982]

Love the Pizza John inclusion! DFTBA

[@StephySon]

I grew up like many Haitian Americans with Catholic practitioners but Haitian voodoo also in the background. Always sprinkled in, the prayers and the protection chants and whatnot. Same with my cousins who are Santeria. It was so natural to me

[@elpargo]

Great episode as always. I was wondering if you left out the rastafari on purpose, and if you didn’t please add a chapter on it. It’s an amazing story and I’ll love to see John’s. Take on It.

[@joshualove1403]

Egungun is the Ancestor Orisha who is an amalgamation of all Egun (ancestors)

[@xxkittnenxx]

Excuse me, MY Pizza John shirt has John singing a Chappell Roan lyric.

[@JaiBeeFlyy]

Great job covering my homeland, John! I think you left Anansi out but otherwise, wonderful work!! I actually wanna cry!🥹 We get left out so much so, thank you! 🤗

[@Surax]

4:58 And here I thought you preferred None Pizza with Left Beef. Or is that Hank?

[@graphixspot]

Look at all my people's spiritualities! Yoruba Isese (IFA), make some noooooise!

[@OrigamiMarie]

Y'know if you're gonna spend a pile of money on a coffin, why _not_ make it actually interesting and applicable to the person's life? Seems kinda sad and dull that we all get such bland eternal beds.

[@parchalama]

I'm not an expert on it but also it seems like syncretism of Christianity and Western African religions is pretty common in the caribbean. Celia Cruz had songs referencing orishas, etc., and the song Aguanile mentions Yemaya and has "Kyrie eleison" as part of the lyrics, from Ancient Greek prayers.

[@sambowman91]

Pizza John is a religion and it is not for you to deny it.

[@thealternate2003]

nice video

[@pongop]

I just mentioned the Ghana coffins the other day!

[@oliverinspace47]

@8:49 someone needs to clip this

[@tahaymvids1631]

Y O

[@aeroscorpian]

While Pizza John isn't a religion, I do feel an argument could be made that Pizza John is a symbol to Pizzamas, and that Pizzamas could be seen as a movement with great importance that a large group of people believe does good for humanity. Does that make Pizzamas a religion, and therefore Pizza John a religious symbol?

[@scriptorpaulina]

This is so cool, especially having sat in on a great explanation of each of these pantheons at BlerdCon.

[@marqsee7948]

I had my order of Pizza John's in eleven minutes and seven seconds. It was rich but not disgusting, too much filling to rush through, and worth having again. Recommended to savor the mouthfuls, gorging will miss a lot. Have it a few times, there's more in there than you might think! One star (there's only one star in the video, John).

[@Syco108]

Today I learned John Green has no empathy for spiders

[@manuelclarencemarbella1002]

Too early for the comments

[@themotherbrassica]

Come to Maryland, where you can truly eat at a Pizza John's.

[@Enderkilgannon]

The spider tangent was on point, but I dislike them both. But spiders are more sneaky than snakes.

[@LikelyToBeEatenByAGrue]

Either John or the scriptwriter got kind of punchy on this one, huh? Don't get me wrong, it was fun and really interesting.

[@mtrujillo9221]

I’m loving these controversial types of videos

[@sevgiyakn5759]

Pizza made in Turkey is not actually pizza. We call it that for the tourists 😅

[@gibsonwhite843]

S.C. mention!

[@grantbaugh2773]

Honestly I would join a Pizza John religion

[@mevomevo12]

YO

[@dez8080]

Love the liberated language !!!! "enslaved peoples"

5:11 is football a religion?

[@smashedapples]

Pizza John isn't a religion....yet.

[@jeremiahbaker985]

I would very much like a t shirt with the mustachioed visages of Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Horace, Odin, ...all of them. With mustaches

[@swarmtactics23]

Yo...

[@joshbobst1629]

Don't be a Stephen king. Spiders are our friends. They bug the bugs that bug us

[@anxious66]

Yo.

[@hamzauddin8740]

yo

[@Rock-tc3qg]

8:50 yo

[@kevinkerkhoff6670]

5:10 It's not a religion, yet 🤪

[@cobaltpterodactyl]

SO EXCITED FOR CHINA!!

[@zigzag4273]

Yo.