“If we think about the importation of Africans into the New World as a whole, rather than strictly into the United States, the most apparent difference that can be seen is that Africans throughout the rest of the Americas were much slower to become Westernized and "acculturated." All over the New World there are still examples of pure African traditions that have survived three hundred years of slavery and four hundred years of removal from their source. "Africanisms" are still part of the lives of Negroes throughout the New World, in varying degrees, in places like Haiti, Brazil, Cuba, Guiana. Of course, attitudes and customs of the non-continental Negroes were lost or assumed other less apparent forms, but still the amount of pure Africanisms that have been retained is amazing. However, in the United States, Africanisms in American Negroes are not now readily discernible, although they certainly do exist. It was in the United States only that the slaves were, after a few generations, unable to retain any of the more obvious of African traditions. Any that were retained were usually submerged, however powerful their influence, in less recognizable manifestations. So after only a few generations in the United States an almost completely different individual could be born and be rightly called an American Negro.”
—Amiri Baraka (Blues People: Negro Music in White America)
So after only a few generations in the United States an almost completely different individual could be born and be rightly called an American Negro.
That last sentence is so key to me. It also one of the primary reasons why I get so heated by Black Americans’ appropriation of any and all African cultures in addition to constantly steeping on and other Africans and what they should do in their own countries because they believe all opinions about anything happening in the continent are equal because they belong to the African Diaspora.
It’s also why while I would never pretend that I’m not part of the African Diaspora, I never classify myself as African. I say this as someone who has an entire half of his family from the Caribbean (and I mean that like my father and his sisters were the first to be born in the US) and maintains a lot of the aforementioned Africanisms.
A Commentary: African Cultural Retentions in Louisiana
louisianafolklife.orgThe thread which binds the quilt of Louisiana culture is African. Food, folkways, music, dance, religion, ritual, language, and style of creativity are among the many areas where this influence is evident.
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Good article.
“I love Nigeria because, although I, like so many in the Diaspora, am not in Nigeria, Nigeria is in us. I was taught very early that Africa is the mother of civilization and with that understanding ,it was clear to me that the world’s cultures originate from Africa. As a child I was raised in a spiritual temple in South Florida. I was always intrigued by spirituality and watching the elders work magic. It was through Afro Cuban Yoruba practitioners in our community that I became aware of the fact that many of my family’s spiritual practices were, in fact, from our West African ancestors. The babalawo identified many of the spiritual practices of my stepfather as ancient customs and traditions inherited from his Nupe ancestors. Many of these same practices were taught to him by his Yoruba ancestors in Cuba. Although we were not consciously practicing African spirituality, as far as we were concerned, we were spiritualists practicing metaphysics. My mother is from the Gullah Geechee area of the US in the Carolinas. The Geechee originally from the Mende and Yoruba tribes of Sierra Leone, have preserved their distinctively African traditions despite centuries of existence in the USA. My late mother’s employment in the travel and tourism gave me an opportunity to fly across the globe and have direct exposure to culture at my discretion. Florida is the capital of the Diaspora and since my childhood I have seen Africanisms expressed through the Caribbean carnivals in Miami, like those in Salvador, Brazil, the Bahamian Junkanoo and Moko Jumbie stilt walkers from Trinidad, like the Egungun dancers of Nigeria. These are all Africanisms that were present in my life as I grew up. We celebrated sacred spiritual days, watchnight services to bring in the new year, feast of the Epiphany on January 6 where we would devour delicious home-cooked Southern meals prepared by men and women members of our temple. We observed ceremonies to welcome newly born babies into our families and community. Our coming of age was marked by ceremonies with family and friends present. Culture has always been engraved in my consciousness. It’s what we live, eat and breathe. My first love in my adult life was Nigeria, it’s through her that I made a direct connection to my roots.”
—Nigeria’s cultural traditions preserved by survivors of slavery -Chief StylesRebranding Africa; La Negritude
youtube.com
if we stand tall it is because we stand on the shoulders of Giants
And so I write this for my brothas on the corner.
Love you cause you my brother so I feel I got to warn ya.
This shit ain’t set up for a young brother to advance.
On that note, you brothas playing right into their hands.
Damn, better get yourself some goals, you brothas better dream.
I know the hood raised you but there’s bigger better things!
~J.Cole
