A Kwanzaa Idea as Religious Space : A Rhetoric of Resistance

ISBN-13: 9783639135213 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 124 str.

Annette Madlock

Opis

African-American communication is like a quilt,constructed of unique verbal and nonverbal patternsthat create a rich and functional way of expression.This quilting effect comes from the mixing ofdifferent African and European cultures as a resultof various historical events. Kwanzaa CommunityChurch is working in the tradition of weaving Africanand European tradition to create a rich and uniquereligious and cultural space, rhetorically driven byboth Christianity,and the philosophy and principlesof Kwanzaa, a distinctly African-American culturalholiday. Molefi Asante''s Theory of Afrocentricity andErnest Bormann s Symbolic Convergence Theory wereused to analyze these cultural phenomena.Afrocentricity strives to create room for thepresence of intellectual thought of Africa andAfricans being the subject and not the object ofdiscourse. SCT was used as the theoretical frameworkwhile employing fantasy theme analysis as the methodto critique the artifacts used by Kwanzaa CommunityChurch, Presbyterian Church, USA to disseminate itsmessage of salvation, social justice, and celebrationof African-American heritage by its use of Kwanzaathe cultural holiday.

O autorze

Dr. Annette Madlock is Assistant Professor at Southern
Connecticut State University. She received her Ph.D. in
Intercultural Communication and Rhetoric from Howard University
in Washington, D.C. She holds a B.A. in Organizational Management
and an M.A. in Communication, both from Bethel University.