"Nou Kwe nan Sentespri" (We Believe in the Holy Spirit): Music, Ecstasy, and Identity in Haitian Pentecostal Worship

“There Is a Higher Height in the Lord”: Music, Worship, and Communication with God

“…He then continued [18]: See I don't know about you, but sometime on Sunday morning I can't hardly stay in the bed I'm sittin' there at my counter in the kitchen, an' I'm readin' and I'm prayin' Just waitin' until daylight comes, so I can start getting' ready to get here 'Cause I can praise God by myself, But when I get where all of God's folk are, An' I see lifted up hands, An' I see tear-filled eyes, An' I see hallelujas Even though I'm goin' through what I'm goin' through I know that everything is gonna be alright, because the God we serve is just good like that He just good like that And then when I look at my little ugly self, Caroline An' I see how God still love me 9 There exists a wide variety of valuable writing on this area of belief, i.e., that the Holy Spirit can be physically manifest in the Service, but detailed discussion of this literature is beyond the scope of this article. The reader is referred, however, to [23] for readings from a wide variety of perspectives and [24,25] and [27][28][29], referenced at the end of this article. For a variety of readings on African American church music and worship, the reader is additionally directed to [30], especially sections IV and VII.…”

Touloutoutou and Tet Mare Churches: Language, Class and Protestantism in the Haitian Diaspora of the Bahamas

“…By 1977, 20% of the country had converted to Protestantism (Romain, 1986: 81). At the turn of the twenty-first century as much as one-third of Haiti self-identifies as Protestant or Pentecostal (Butler 2002: 85).…”

“…In his interviews with Haitian Pentecostals in Haiti and the United States (Brooklyn, New York), Butler found that most of his informants expressed a preference for music that is cho (hot), as opposed to the “cold” styles traditionally favored by Adventist and Baptist Haitians. In both independent and organizational churches, “hot” styles of Pentecostal musical worship feature lively tempos, energetic use of the body, highly emotional singing, and constant, driving rhythmic accompaniment, all of which are geared toward evoking the felt presence of the Holy Spirit (Butler, 2002: 95).…”

“… 7. Butler (2002) and Robbins (2004) note that glossolalia or xenoglossy (speaking in tongues) lies at the heart of Pentecostalism and distinguishes Pentecostal and Charismatic churches from other forms of Christianity. Believers and members of P/C churches receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and during ecstatic moments are able to heal others and prophesy. …”

The Ritualization of the Self in Ghanaian Gospel Music

“…Dilger 2008;Meyer 1999), as cathartic relief (Collins 2004), or in terms of the indigenization of Christianity (Amanor 2004 andAtiemo 2006). Instead, I argue for approaching this culture as ritual performance, as a form of mimesis that involves embodied patterns of ritualized behavior as well as playful improvisation and that serves, in this way, as a medium of self-creation and selftransformation, what, with reference to anthropologist Thomas Csordas (1990 and1994), I call the ritualization of the self (see also Butler 2002 and. In doing so, I want to contribute to the understanding of an aspect of Ghanaian popular culture that has so far received relatively little attention.…”