1 Adeleke Israel Oluwaseun adelekeisrael@gmail.com 2015 Vernacular sermons: preaching the Black self and its techniques Definition, terminologies and origin One thing is significant in considering the African American history, culture. Culture defines the black identity and the black self of the relegated African Americans. This has contributed to the evolvement of the vernacular traditions. The vernacular tradition is the “black folk expression which has come to serve as the sign of black cultural identity” (Sanders, M.A 2007:96). These cultural practices have been referred to generally as the vernacular tradition which includes sermons, gospel music, the blues, jazz inter alia. It is significant to state here that these vernacular cultural practices and majorly expressive of the black self and black identity of profundity as against the white disparaging notions. “Sermon” which is our focal points in this part has a deep root in the African American vernacular tradition. The vernacular tradition originated from the African oral tradition. Therefore, the “black sermon” as popularly called derives its features the African oral tradition. Its rhetorical qualities, markers and other feature have been traced to the African orature. Historically, African Americans were banned from literacy during the