My Soul Is a Witness: African-American Women's Spirituality

Rating:
Summary: A thoughtfully wide-ranging collection of voices
Review: _My Soul Is a Witness_ was an astounding collection of works -- narratives, poems, excerpted pieces, and songs -- that seek to begin discussion of the spiritualities of African American women. Richly drawn tales of the childhood influences of church, of the passages into adulthood, of the continual seeking of Self, and of the challenges of balancing organized religion with a more loose acceptance of Spirit -- this anthology incorporates the views, stories, and thoughts of numerous women of African descent.

Spirituality is not an easily categorizable term and many of the pieces juggle the complexities of defining one's spiritual life. This anthology encompasses the writings and speeches of well-known authors such as Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Alice Walker, Iyanla Vanzant, and Nikki Giovanni, with plenty of space remaining for lesser-known authors to bring their herstories to the table. The writers, who claim identities as Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Catholics, as followers of Yoruba, Kemetic, and other Afrocentric religions, as aethesists, and those who do not identify themselves -- they are validated by the reader as possessing unique and often parallel views on the presence of Spirit in their lives.

This was a book required by my professor (and an author included in this anthology), Prof. Akasha (Gloria) Hull ... I read it with a sincere and profound respect for the multi-faceted approach of these authors in their quest to recognize the importance of spirituality in their lives and the lives of those before them.