Elizabeth Perez

This chapter focuses on Afro-Diasporic religions (which crystallized in the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade) and Black Atlantic traditions (which include Afro-Diasporic religions as well as religious formations that look to East Africa and beyond as inspiration, while eschewing West and Central African “survivals”). It considers the impact of colonization, enslavement, and Christianization on African-inspired queer and trans religious experience; explains Caribbean and Latin American constructions of queerness; examines the roles that gendered performance and symbolism have played in Afro-Diasporic religions; and describes the ways that the “gay-friendly” aspects of Black Atlantic traditions can complicate participation for trans people. It goes on to define gender as a multicausal condition, discuss trans practitioners’ religiosity, survey a selection of variously gendered divinities, and gesture toward new directions for scholarship.

Controversial Harlem-born rapper/singer, songwriter, and provocateuse Azealia Banks is the most famous, vocal, and visible proponent of Black Atlantic traditions in recent times—making a critical reckoning well overdue. I begin here by tracing Banks's engagement with Afro-Diasporic religions as a trajectory from vamp to bruja [witch]/santera to mayombera. A review of Banks's public statements reveals her growing commitment to championing “so-called voodoo” and urging other African Americans to do so as well. I argue that the release of Beyoncé's Lemonade in 2016 catalyzed Banks's advocacy for Kongo-inspired Palo Mayombe, long overshadowed by Yorùbá-based orisha worship. I further demonstrate that Banks's espousal of Palo Mayombe has been bound up with her identity as a Womanist and dark-skinned, cisgender femme fatale. More than a political program, however, Banks's discursive constructions amount to a Black Atlantic metaphysics. Drawing on Irene Lara's formulation of “bruja positionalities,” I propose that the theoretical scaffolding for her metaphysics should be designated Brujx Womanism. Missteps notwithstanding, Banks emerges as a metaphysician, aspiring to repair Black bodies by re-membering Kongo traditions. In closing, I suggest that Banks's Brujx Womanism may contribute to the conceptualization of Conjure Feminism in four crucial respects.