Negroes in Britain by K. L. Little

Author:K. L. Little [Little, K. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Reference, General, Social Science, Sociology
ISBN: 9781136244131
Google: nZbvTiC_Rp8C
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-09-05T00:48:10+00:00

7. THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

(a) The Christians. It is almost a truism to say that the type of religious belief found in the community also reflects to a large extent the general educational standard, and in some degree the social aspirations of a fairly representative section of it. To some of the older West Africans and West Indians, the Wesleyan Methodist church makes a strong appeal: the attendance of this group, though small, is very regular, and their devotions are carried on with all the zest and sincerity of the convert of the mission type. In this church, the attendance is divided about equally between the sexes, the womenfolk being in the main the wives of the men concerned. Few young people appear to attend, but one or two coloured women sing in the choir. The service is conducted on orthodox Methodist lines, and although an occasional vocal assent comes from the congregation in the course of the minister’s address, there is nothing in their mannerisms or in the nature of the service itself, apart from the weekly singing of “For those in peril on the sea”, to mark it off from any other church of this sect. The minister seems to frame his sermons mainly in the style of the “manly appeal”. The same church seems to be used also for the majority of the coloured weddings which take place in the district; while the minister’s readiness to bury coloured persons, even when not regular attendants at his church, seems to have neutralized a certain amount of incipient criticism of him in other ways. Such events, particularly weddings, create a fair amount of interest and excitement among the womenfolk; the male attitude is relatively apathetic. They are also the occasion for a certain amount of conspicuous economic consumption, which undoubtedly is vastly out of proportion to the income of most of the parties concerned. As the following report indicates, the elaborate emulation of middle-class standards in this respect is a further illustration of the importance to certain sections of the community of white bourgeois behaviour.

“When I arrived at the church at 2 o’clock a large crowd of women, white and coloured, holding their babies, was standing outside. A number of children, boys and girls, were whiling away the time by chasing each other up the stone steps which lead to the porch. Ten minutes later, the church door was opened by the caretaker, who took the opportunity to shoo away a bunch of 6-year-olds who were yelling at the tops of their voices, and to kick off a mongrel dog. 2.15 saw the arrival of the groom (coloured, aged about 21) and the best man (white, about the same age). These were dropped along with two ushers, one white and one coloured, from a hired motor car. The car drove away, and returned presently with another hired car and two private cars, from which a number of guests descended. The hired cars drove off again, and returned five more times with further guests whom they had apparently picked up at their homes.

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