This landmark book shows how five African civilizations—Yoruba, Kongo, Ejagham, Mande, and Cross River—have informed and are reflected in aesthetic, social, and metaphysical traditions (music, sculpture, textiles, architecture, religion, idiogrammatic writing) in the United States, the Caribbean, and South America.

“A wonderfully enthusiastic book.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Centuries of racist assumptions go packing it in Flash of the Spirit.”—The Village Voice