The Devil’s Beatings

Abstract

With the possible exception of the Kingdom of Kongo, the history of Christianity in Atlantic Africa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has not been examined in depth. We know even less about the development of European religious concepts and perceptions in this part of the world since it is usually assumed that such ideas remained static. While a variety of studies have discussed the specifics of European demonology in the Americas, no comparable investigations exist for West and West Central Africa. Using the concept of the ‘beating devil’ as a case study, this article examines how European Christians adapted their religious ideas in this non-European context, and relates the results to European religious discourse in the Americas. The article argues for a more-comprehensive investigation into the circulation of discursive elements in the Atlantic world that includes the African dimension as well as a comparative view of the multilingual source material.