Messianism

Messianism is, among other things, the belief in a savior. African American history has provided researchers and theorists with fertile ground for the discussion of messianism among the oppressed. The term messianism is borrowed from Christian theology, but it is often used in the context of the African American condition, where suffering, pain, and degradation have underscored the need for a deliverer. Thus, the history of African Americans may be written as the history of the many attempts to find someone who would answer all of the questions surrounding the existence of an oppressed people. It is possible to look at the great deliverer tradition as producing the panoply of David Walker, Nat Turner, Henry Highland Garnett, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.

Accompanying this tradition, which is basically secular, has been a religious tradition rooted in the idea of spiritual deliverance. Thus, personalities such as Father Divine, Elijah Muhammad, Daddy Grace, and Louis Farrakhan often appear larger than life because they seem to have the answers to the issues confronting the community. Messianism is not simply the belief in a savior; it is sometimes also the acceptance of that mantle by an individual who assumes that he or she has special or unique powers of deliverance. The study of leadership in the African American [Page 330]community has revealed their tendency to believe in messiahs who often are characterized by dogmatism, strict codes of conduct, and a sense of infallibility.

Racial redemption seems to be an esoteric component of messianism. In effect, it is the role of the messiah to defeat evil, to overcome racial exclusion, and to bring in a new day when equality and justice will be the calling cards of society. Messianism's appeal in the African American community is based on its logic of defiance and its magnetic character. The messiah is automatically a person of charisma, one who believes that change can come, particularly if human beings would only listen to what the messiah has to say.