Africana Spiritual Life
Alafia. Sawubona. Welcome.
Africana Spiritual Life at Tufts welcomes undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends. People come into our shared spaces by way of many traditions, among them: Ifá and Lucumí Orisha traditions, Espiritismo, Haitian Vodou, West African Vodún, Las 21 Divisiones, Candomblé, Umbanda, Obeah, and Hoodoo/rootwork. We also welcome Africana Christianities, and Black Jewish, Black Muslim, and Black humanist and freethought traditions. You do not have to arrive with definitive answers. You do not have to arrive with a single tradition to belong here. You only have to be responding to life itself.
Community Leadership
Anthony Cruz Pantojas, M.A.T.S., M.A.L.S., BCC
Anthony Cruz Pantojas, MATS, MALS, BCC, serves as Tufts’ Humanist Chaplain and Director of Humanist Life and Africana Spiritual Life. They joined the team in 2021 and support ethical inquiry, identity development, leadership, and civic engagement through collaborative projects with the campus community. Anthony is a board-certified chaplain and scholar whose work centers perspectives from the Global South. During their time at Tufts, they have expanded the visibility and impact of Humanist Chaplaincy and helped secure national recognition and awards for its innovative programming.
Questions, ideas for gatherings, or a conversation: contact Anthony Cruz Pantojas: https://scheduler.zoom.us/acruzp
Anthony is a confidential resource on campus.
Potential offerings
- The Table Remembers
- A place of co-creation and designing where Africana traditions are centered through culturally relevant foods.
- Calling the Names
- Remembrance as a communal act and responsibility
- Hands that know
- Practice as knowledge and inheritances as method.
Living questions
What do our inheritances ask of us now?
How do we tend to grief and joy as communal practices rather than private burdens?
How do we honor one another's opacity, welcoming what we cannot fully know in each other while weaving a shared fabric of care?
That fabric includes those who came before us and those yet to come.
Our relational ethic is transgenerational and collaborative. We honor the plural ways Africana peoples have preserved memory and crafted more liberatory futures. We invite you into deep relation as you journey at Tufts.