New Africa

New Africa


I posted YouTube for all of you that want to see a video similar to this story.


Andrea Lee


This story takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 1960’s and is about a very religious family, whose religious values drive them to pray in church every Sunday. Sarah, a young black girl shows her rebellious nature to the church and the way the rest of the family prays during her brother, Matthew’s baptism at the New African church. While her father Reverend Phillips is baptizing her brother, Aunt Betsy tells Sarah to go on down where Matthew is so she can be baptized for next week. Sarah not having the same feelings the rest of her family has of Jesus does not want to follow the family’s acceptance of Jesus and the religion. She finds it old fashion and boring. Although Sarah has taken the opposite belief of the family and truly shows her individualism, the elders in Sarah’s family did not get mad at her. They respected her beliefs and let her make her decisions. Sarah continues to be bored but shows respect for her family and goes to church until the death of her father. At that point she feels released of her obligations and never goes to church again.















Here is a similar picture of a priest baptizing
someone.


Theme
The theme of this strory is that you should stay true to your own convictions of life. Even though Sarah's entire family and ancestors had this deep religious c
conviction and practiced it every Sunday, she would not allow them to push her into their habits. She stood by her convictions and maintained her integrity even though they were the direct opposite of the family. She wanted to live her life not theirs.

Characters
Sarah
Matthew
Reverend Phillips
Aunt Betsy
Aunt May
Aunt Ema
Aunt Lily

Response...
I thought this book was very interesting because Sarah did not want to be like her elders or siblings. She wanted to eb an individual and stand up for what she wants to do as she said " No I'm not!" in reference to not going up and accepting Jesus.








An actual baptism...



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6115727135655560088&q=baptism&total=6451&start=20&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=9