FROM THE GROUND UP By, Leilani Fu’Qua With one of the nation’s most popular clothing and footwear stores, Urban Outfitters, selling sage sticks for only $11.00 US dollars, the accessibility to spiritual practices have spiked in younger demographics, especially in Black adolescents in an effort to recenter themselves on Afrikan-based spiritual paths. Spirituality and nature in Black communities have deep roots from the motherland, but many of the tra-
ditions were forbidden and lost during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade or diluted over the enforcement of Christianity in American slavery. With the advanced access to the spiritual practices of our ancestors and detailed historical evidence, many Black youths have distanced themselves from the limitations of major religions and began to include a connectedness to nature into their established devotions. A study from the Pew Research center shows a major percentage point change between 2009 and 2018/2019 in people in the United States who identify as “Black, non-Hispanic” and their affiliation with Christianity. Since 2009, the Christian affiliation has dropped by eleven points, and unaffiliated has grown by 7 percentage points. Nature has been the focus of media and charitable giving, specifically regarding the deteriorating state of the environment. It has also reemerged as the focus of a Black spirituality resurgence, using rituals and jewelry from Africa in combination with meditation to connect with Earth and higher powers. First-year African American Studies major Justin “STR33T” Scott said, “I use nature to ground me, re-center myself, refocus, and connect with ancestry. Nature is as important as anything else in life.” Scott practices nature spirituality in concurrence with his devotion to Islam. He has a small garden of flowers and succulents growing in his dorm room, wears bracelets and rings from Ghana, and practices meditation in solidarity with prayer further his
