Free to Be a Slave: Slavery as a Metaphor in the Afro-Atlantic Religions

Whereas most African Americans and most university scholars regard enslavement as a demeaning condition, many African or African-inspired religions represent slaves as powerful and social hierarchy as a normal condition of life. Indeed, Christianity and Islam valorize slavery and the slave is ways that we seldom highlight or recognize as shaping publicly accepted conduct even in recent times.

Duke Scholars

Author J. Lorand Matory Cultural Anthropology