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The following article is from the Secular Humanist Bulletin, Volume 24, Number 1 (Spring 2008).
African Americans for Humanism member Anthony B. Pinn now has out a 2008 paperback edition of his book The African American Religious Experience in America, published by the University Press of Florida. Pinn, Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and professor of religious studies at Rice University, has become one of Black America’s premier religious studies scholars. In the book, Pinn challenges the notion that the study of Black religion is complete with a study of Christianity and Islam. As was the case with his 1998 book Varieties of African American Religious Experience, Pinn focuses on other religions such as Judaism, Buddhism, Voodoo, and Santería.
Michael Lackey, who teaches at Wellesley College, is the author of the 2007 book African American Atheists and Political Liberation: A Study of the Sociocultural Dynamics of Faith, also published by the University Press of Florida. I discuss many of the historical figures covered in this book in my speaking engagements across the United States. Please contact me at (716) 636-7571 (ext. 426) or nallen [at] centerforinquiry.net if you would like me to address your group on this fascinating subject. My mailing address is AAH, PO Box 664, Amherst, NY 14226-0664.
I am currently writing a book tentatively titled Successful, Secular and Black: 25 Profiles. To be published by Prometheus Books, it is a collection of biographical sketches of people of African descent who have lived great lives without relying upon religion. Perhaps these three books will usher in wide scholarly interest in Black humanism.
Organized humanism in Africa is continuing to grow. Leo Igwe of the Nigerian Humanist Movement has met with a humanist leader in Burkina Faso and has traveled to other African nations as well. Igwe organized a major celebration of Darwin’s birthday at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He continues to have articles published in major Nigeria media and to take the lead in tackling major human rights issues throughout his nation.
In November, Igwe visited Brazza ville, the Republic of Congo, to attend the forty- second session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR). He met with members of Anti-Slavery International, Amnesty International, and other rights groups. He also met with UN nongovernmental organization representatives from Congo, Angola, and Mozambique. Most important, he was able to meet with the leader of a humanist group in Kinshasha, Congo, that AAH had supported until contact was lost due to strife in the African nation.
Igwe also traveled to Cameroon and met with humanist leaders there. He has a long history of supporting organized humanism in that nation. He has now made several contacts with humanists in such French-speaking nations as Mali, Benin, Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Senegal, and Burundi.
Peter Adegoke of Nigeria holds an important position in the Nigerian Association of Philosophy Students. The Center for Inquiry/Transnational has distributed literature to large numbers of Nigerian students in the nation’s institutions of higher learning. In February, the organization held its second national conference, and many CFI materials were again handed out to students.
The Center for Inquiry/Kenya continues to make impressive strides. They are making inroads on the college campuses of the nation, hosting seminars, workshops, debates, and other programs. During debates on evolution and intelligent design on campuses, it has become evident that most college students in Kenya reject the Adam and Eve creation myth.
The Ugandan Humanist Effort to Save Women (UHESWO) continues to have success in working for the rehabilitation of prostitutes. They continue to receive favorable media coverage and praise from women’s groups throughout their nation.
AAH still has not had much success in spreading humanist ideals throughout the Caribbean or Latin America. In the early part of the twentieth century, there were large numbers of rationalists in Jamaica, the most famous being the Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay. McKay was best known for his poem, “If We Must Die,” which advocates the right of Blacks to defend themselves against racist Whites. Winston Churchill used the poem to rally the English against the Nazis.
AAH has worked with Elayne Jones of California in efforts to start a group in Barbados, but those plans were not completed. However, AAH still supports the Fundashon pa Skol Humanista na Papia mentu, the only humanist primary school in the Netherlands Antilles. Allen met the school’s founder, one of the country’s leading poets, Frank Arion, in Holland in 1992.
AAH also supports the Freethinkers of Haiti and humanists in Guyana and has had contact with the Trinidad and Tobago Humanist Association. Anyone interested in helping to develop humanism in the Caribbean and Latin America may contact me at any time.
Norm R. Allen Jr. is executive director of African Americans for Humanism. He is an associate editor of Free Inquiry and the editor of The Black Humanist Experience: An Alternative to Religion and African/ American Humanism: An Anthology (both from Prometheus Books).
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