There are important differences in ritual and belief between the non-Christian religion (African) described in Marimba Ani's Let the Circle Be Unbroken and the Christian religion (Baptist) described in Albert J. Raboteau's Slave Religion. The most obvious difference is that the Baptist religion has Jesus Christ at its center as God in human form, while the African religions had a number of gods. However, the greatest difference is found in the cultural differences related to those religions. The African religion is a part of a cultural tradition reaching far back in the history of Africans and African-Americans. The African religion symbolizes freedom and independence. The Baptist religion, on the other hand, symbolizes, at least in part, a brief history tied in with slavery and dependence on a culture which was foreign to Africans. In part, the Baptist religion was used to make slaves obey, although some whites feared that the equality taught by Christianity would lead to slaves trying to win their independence (Raboteau 102).
It is true that there appear to be some similarities between the two religions in the two books. However, even in those similarities there are differences. Raboteau writes that the immersion in baptism in the Baptist religion has been compared to
"water cults in Nigeria and Dahomey" (Raboteau 57). However, Raboteau goes on to point out that in the water cults the individual is driven into the water after being possessed by the god of the religion, while in Baptist immersion, the Holy Spirit is not "the god's own element," but it is the Holy Spirit which comes down after the immersion (Raboteau 58).
Raboteau also points out similarities between the ecstatic nature of worship in the Baptist religion and in African religion (59), and he concludes that "the similarity of some traits may make it very difficult or even impossible to separate what is African from what is European in origin" (59).
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