Central Africans and cultural transformations in the American diaspora

Forward Jan Vansina Introduction Linda Heywood Part I. Central Africa: Society, Culture and the Slave Trade: 1. Central Africa during the era of the slave trade, c. 1490s-1850s Joseph C. Miller 2. Religious and ceremonial life in the Congo and Mbundu areas, 1500-1700 John K. Thornton 3. Portuguese into African: the eighteenth century Central African background to Atlantic Creole culture Linda Heywood Part II. Central Africans in Brazil: 4. Central Africans in Central Brazil, 1780-1835 Mary Karasch 5. Who is king of the Congo? A new look at African and Afro-Brazilian Kings in Brazil Elizabeth W. Kiddy 6. The great porpoise-skull strike: Central-African water spirits and slave identity in early nineteenth-century Rio De Janeiro Robert W. Slenes Part III. Central Africans in Haiti and Spanish America: 7. Twins, Simbi spirits and Lwas in Kongo and Haiti Wyatt MacGaffey 8. The Central African presence in Spanish Maroon communities Jane Landers 9. Central African popular Christianity and the making of Haitian Vodou religion Hein Vanhee 10. Kongolese catholic influences on Haitian popular Catholicism: a socio-historical exploration Terry Rey Part IV. Central Africans in North America and the Caribbean: 11. 'Walk in the Feenda': West-Central Africans and the forest in the South Carolina-Georgia low country Ras Michael B. Brown 12. Liberated Central Africans in nineteenth century Guyana Monic Schuler 13. Combat and the crossing of the Kalunga Thomas J. Desch-Obi.