“That Further by Faith”: Ancestral Futurity, Reincarnation, and the Conjuration of Denmark Vesey’s Revolutionary Religious Perspective

Abstract

This article expresses the importance and theoretical viability of Black religious communities reflecting on armed struggle as an option in their pursuit of liberation. African Americans have wrestled with various perspectives on what forms of resistance to white supremacy were religiously legitimate and those that were deemed practical. From moral suasion, immigration, a Black separate state, to violent resistance, Black people in the United States have debated these perspectives and have charted paths forward that continue to be accompanied by Black suffering and death at the hands of racists to the present day. While moral suasion has obtained a hegemonic place in mainstream Black political discourse, violent resistance has often been characterized as both religiously illegitimate and impractical. However, by using concepts from Afrofuturism and traditional African religion, the author will present Denmark Vesey as a model for contemporary Black religio-political thought. Using the themes of “past future”, time travel, resurrection, reincarnation, trance, and conjure, the author grounds himself in an African-centered epistemology that transcends the limitations of the Eurocentric model limited only to scientific “reality”. The author claims that by conjuring Vesey’s revolutionary interreligious Pan-African approach, it will provide more options for Black religio-political theory and praxis.