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The African Diaspora In the New World
The study of cultures in the African Diaspora is relatively young. Slavery
and the trans-Atlantic slave trade brought numerous Africans, under forced
and brutal conditions, to the New World. Of particular interest to many
recent historians and Africanists is the extent to which Africans were
able to transfer, retain, modify or transform their cultures under the
conditions of their new environments. Three main schools of thought have
emerged in scholarly discussion and research on this topic. Some argue
that there are no significant connections between Africans and African
American communities in the Americas. Others argue that Africans retained
significant aspects of their cultures. Similar to this argument, some have
argued that Africans, responding to their new environments, retained and
transformed African cultures into new African-American ethnic units.
Detailed research done on slave communities in Surinam, South Carolina
and Louisiana allow us to look deeper into the stated arguments. Having
recently addressed the same issues using Colonial South Carolina as a case
study, I will focus largely on some of the arguments and conclusions drawn
from this study. The evidence from South Carolina, Louisiana and Surinam
supports the second and third arguments much more than the first. The third
argument, that of cultural transformation, is the argument I find to be
most valid.
John Thornton's analysis of this issue is extremely helpful. He addresses
the "no connections" arguments in chapters 6, 7 and 8. He outlines the
claims made by scholars Franklin Frazier, Stanley Elkins, Sidney Mintz
and Richard Price. Frazier and Mintz believe that the extreme trauma and
disruption experienced by Africans during the process of enslavement and
the middle passage minimized the possibility that they maintained aspects
of their cultures in the new world. They argue that this process "had the
effect of traumatizing and marginalizing them, so that they would became
cultural receptacles rather than donors" (152).
Mintz and Price have argued the slave trade had the effect of " permanently
breaking numerous social bonds that had tied Africans together..." (153).
Another element of the "no connections" argument claims that Africans did
not receive enough associational time with each other or with those of
similar ethnic backgrounds to ensure survival of cultural practices. Drawing
largely upon the study of Anthropology, Thornton attempts to outline conditions
for cultural survival and transformation. He contends these arguments stating
that opportunities existed for viable communities to be formed, that there
were prospects for passing on "changing cultural heritage to a new generation
through training of offspring" and that there existed opportunities for
Africans to associate with themselves (153). Thornton finds much more evidence
for cultural transformation than cultural "transplantation." He notes the
tendency of researchers to focus on specific "Africanisms" rather than
the cultural totality and stresses the fact that "cultures change through
constant interaction with other cultures..." (209, 207).
I agree with Thornton's analysis. As stated in a passage from our paper:
It would be naïve to think that after being enslaved and transported
across the sea to a foreign continent African slaves were able to physically
transplant their cultures in this new environment. It would be equally
naïve to believe no elements of African culture made their way to
this region... Africans were interacting with Europeans and other Africans
of different ethnic groups, adapting to the realities of their new environments
and transforming elements of both old and new into their own African-American
culture. (Bright & Broderick 10).
Evidence exists that shows Africans were allowed enough associational
time to form viable communities, that they maintained strong family structures
and that they exercised a large degree of control in the raising their
own children.
An example for the argument of significant retention of Africanisms
could be that of the Maroon communities in Surinam. In the film I Shall
Molder Before I am Taken, we saw examples of African descendants separated
from European masters, living largely isolated in the Jungle in a similar
manner to that of their ancestors. The community was strikingly similar
to the Asante communities described in the film Atumpan . There was much
ceremonial detail in addressing the chief or headman of the village. Just
as with the Asante, citizens and visitors had to address the headman through
an interpreter. Leadership was also determined through matrilineal lines
as in Akan societies of Ghana. In felling a tree, the Saramaka would explain
to the spirits how the tree was necessary for their survival and would
be used wisely. They concluded by thanking the spirits and the forest for
the tree and leaving an offering for its taking. The Saramaka also used
mediums such as song, dance and stories to recreate and teach important
elements of their history and culture. All of these practices can be almost
directly traced to their previous African societies.
Still, the Saramaka Maroons lend sufficient proof to the argument of
cultural transformation. Even after hundreds of years of isolation in the
jungle, the Saramaka showed significant examples of cultural adaptation
and borrowing. As witnessed in the Price Literature and Film, "everything
from botanical medicines to basketry and fishing techniques was learned
from the Native Americans" (Jason & Kirschensteiner 9). Inquiring about
the plants used by the medicine man to treat tendinitus, Price found that
much of the treatment of disease and knowledge of medical plants was learned
through Indians. The Maroon Creole language, consisting of a mixture of
English, Portuguese, Dutch and African languages, is also symbolic of the
cultural transformation that had taken place.
Colonial Louisiana also provided opportunities for viable African maroon
communities. The geographic environment of Louisiana with its bayous, thick
swamps and intricate river system, contributed to the ability of Africans
to evade capture and move about with relative freedom. Gwendolyn Hall depicts
how Africans created a network of "secret" communities in the cypress swamps
surrounding plantations. These Maroons would hide out "for weeks, months
and even years on or behind their master's estates without being detected
or apprehended" (Hall 203). Hall describes the creolization of Africans
and Europeans in Colonial Louisiana: "Conditions prevailing...molded a
Creole or Afro-American slave culture through the process of blending and
adaptation of slave materials brought by the slaves..." (159). Lower mortality
rates among slaves, levels of freedom gained through escape and survival
in the swamps and a relatively small white population led Hall to characterize
Louisiana as creating "the most Africanized slave culture in the Untied
States" (161). Creole culture came out of a consolidation of African, European
and Native American cultures. The dominance of African linguistic and cultural
patterns made this culture predominately an Afro-Creole culture.
Providing compelling evidence for the argument of transformations of
African culture is the study of slave life in Colonial South Carolina.
Africans contributed tremendously to the successful settlement of the Colony
and adapted and retained elements of their roots into unique African American
communities. These communities included unique family and religious structures.
Before the Stono Rebellion of 1739, slaves were allowed a considerable
amount of freedom to associate among themselves. They were also encouraged
to have families and allowed to exercise a large degree of autonomy in
raising their children. As noted by Peter Wood, slave families; similar
to African families, would serve an important function in passing down
cultural heritage to the young. In accordance with African tradition, South
Carolina slaves relied on folk tales as the primary vehicle for education
of young. Slaves modified these tales to fit their situation and environment
in South Carolina. The traditional "trickster", recurrent in West African
folk tales, was replaced by the rabbit.
In religious worship Africans adapted old traditions to their new situation.
Many slaves in Colonial South Carolina became Christians. This was not
done without adding elements of their previous beliefs systems. "Africans
in Colonial South Carolina worshipped their new Christian god with 'the
kind of expressive behavior their African heritage taught them was appropriate
for an important deity' " (Bright & Broderick 11). Slaves also used
African forms such as dances, chants, trances and spirit possession in
their practice of Christianity. The call and response pattern characteristic
of West African music was adapted to this new religion. Sundays were designated
as free days for South Carolina slaves and this day was often devoted to
family, religious and community activities.
In this process of transformation there was also an element of rebellion.
After having gained elements of community and family ethnic identity and
freedom, slaves in Colonial South Carolina would not become totally accepting
of their condition and would resist attempts to limit those freedoms they
did have. An element of African culture that was modified for the purpose
of rebellion was the use of poison. In the tradition of the West African
Obeah-man, powers could be used to cure or to punish enemies. In this respect,
poison could be used in a negative capacity. The use of poison as a form
of rebellion is visible in both the examples from Colonial South Carolina
and Jamaica. Cases of death by poison in Colonial South Carolina leading
up to the Stono Rebellion led to its inclusion in the Negro Act of 1740.
The Act made poisoning a felony punishable by death.
In conclusion, both significant African retentions and transformations
took place in the early European settlement of the Americas. More recently,
there has been a tendency to overemphasize or even romanticize the "Africanisms."
While acknowledging "Africanisms" did make their way into the Americas,
I find the evidence from accounts of early slave cultures and the Anthropological
background provided by Thornton on cultural transformation and change persuasive
in suggesting the formation of Afro- American rather than "Afro-centric"
communities. This approach to the slavery and the slave era is relatively
young and will have to be developed. A conclusion that is clear after studying
works of Peter Wood, Gwendolyn Hall and Richard Price, is that the early
arguments suggesting no connection of African heritage to the Americas
are entirely invalid.
Response to Question 3
The settlement and establishment of the Freetown peninsula as a colony
for freed slaves would come to represent one of the most unique settings
for coalescence of African and European cultures. The majority of Freetown
Africans had gone through the unusual experience of being enslaved in their
home countries, sold to be sent abroad and then; by chance and circumstance,
they were captured by the British manawars and unloaded in what was to
become a bold experiment in Africa's colonial history. The Africans described
in Phillip Curtin's book are an example of the diversity in background
of those settled in Freetown. Ali Eisami, a Muslim, was captured in the
Fulbe uprisings in Bornu in 1808 and made his way to Freetown after witnessing
much of the fall of the Oyo empire. Samuel Ajayi Crowther was captured
in Yoruba land, shipped for Brazil, and sent to Freetown after the slave
vessel was intercepted. He would later become a well known Anglican bishop.
Joseph Wright would end up in Freetown as a result of Egba crisis and defeat
in the 1820's. He would later become a prominent missionary for the Wesley-Methodist
Missionary Society.
This African diversity, coupled with European administration of the
company and eventual colony, would prove to be a source of conflict in
the Freetown Peninsula. The principal competition of cultures would come
over the practice of religion. The Peterson chapter and the group project
by Ms. Brewer, Mr. Keenan and Ms. Doerr outline this conflict well. The
main source of conflict and competition was between the British Church
and Wesley and Methodist Africans, and between Muslims and both of the
former groups. Peterson comments on early religion in Sierra Leone: "There
persisted within the church of Sierra Leone a strong element of prior,
non-Christian belief which tended to fuse with the religion of the European.
In addition, Islam was to be found flourishing in the villages and in Freetown"
(230). The British movement to free slaves also had a paternalistic element:
"to the Briton...the conversion of the heathen was as much a part of the
settlement's collective purpose as was the wish to civilize the so-called
barbarian" (230). Many of the Africans on the Freetown peninsula did not
embrace Christianity and most of those that did committed to Wesley or
Methodist faiths inherited by the Nova-Scotians.
The British authority did not welcome any of these religious practices;
instead, they sought to have a church "monopoly" of Africans practicing
the "proper" faith. In 1822, angry with the second class status given to
them within the church structure, Nova-Scotian settlers broke with the
British church and formed their own dependent church called the West African
Methodist Society (232). The Society, led by Anthony O'connor, quickly
grew to include 2,000 members and forty-three preachers. The new church
would eventually gain endorsement form the British Colonial Government.
Of particular concern to many British Christians and colonial administrators
was the integration of traditional African beliefs and ceremonies with
Christianity and the practice of Islam in Freetown and surrounding villages.
There are a number of documents of British missionaries voicing their concern
over the use of such things as wake ceremonies, belief and use of gri-gri
charms and the offering of libations to deceased by African Christians.
One Revd. J.F. Schon even went so far as to attempt to halt a wake ceremony
only to be rebuffed with the response, "We born in another country, this
fashion we learned from our fathers. What they did we do" (237). The use
of wakes by African Christians prompted the attempt to outlaw them by creating
the punishment of expulsion from the Wesley church by any member found
participating or attending a wake. Despite the attempts of the British,
African forms of Christianity persisted.
Both the British and African Christians clashed with Muslims. Muslims
in Freetown were often treated as second class citizens and generally lived
in separate sections of town. The Colonial Government attempted to suppress
Muslims in the 1930s. The Governor, Richard Doherty, expressed his dislike
for Muslims and a desire for a policy of "discrimination for recaptives"
(240). He claimed he was "offended by their polygamy and wanted to break
up their communities and have them pushed beyond the colony borders" (Brewer,
Keenan & Doerr 10). In the late 1830s the Foulah town Mosque was destroyed
by fire. This discrimination is one of the reasons Muslims tended to withdraw
themselves to separate areas in Freetown or to the surrounding villages.
Missionaries also expressed their disliking for Muslims and some of
this transferred to African Christians. This enmity would change though
and association between African Christian and Muslims would lead to the
permanent establishment of a unified, diverse Creole culture with the formation
of the Creole association. Begun in 1889, the movement was a call to unify
against increased concern for conflict with Africans of the interior. The
association was made up of both Christians and Muslims and had traces of
African nationalism. At one meeting Muslim leader Mohammed Sanunsi announced
that "both Mohammedans and Christians of this country are of one race..."
(248). At another meeting a speaker made a call for the "redemption of
Africa" and called for all to "unite for the Salvation of Africa..." (Peterson
248). From this point on Muslim and Christians would be integrated into
a distinct Creole society. This society exists still today.
In relation to African-American communities, the emergence of Creole
culture was similar in that it too was formed out of interaction among
various African cultures with themselves and Europeans. Liberated Africans
on the peninsula, as in the Americas, found themselves living with both
members of their own African ethnicity and others of different origin.
Similar to African American communities, Creole culture in Freetown created
its own distinct language, and religious structures reflecting both African
tradition and European influence. They also showed strong community ties
as evidenced in the prevalence and practice of benefit and welfare societies.
Sharp differences in the emergence of these communities would come inevitably
from structure. Excluding British Colonial paternalism, Liberated Africans
of Freetown were free of the control, restrictions and brutality of slavery.
In the development of mixed cultures the amount of freedom for voluntary
association becomes important. Liberated Freetown Africans had more opportunity
for cultural interaction and associations and the development of their
communities was often encouraged. They were safe to develop their communities
and cultures with a great deal of freedom and personal control as opposed
to African American communities that were often forced to develop in secrecy
and seclusion. They were also in an African environment.
The most significant difference in the development of these communities
was the that of education. Education of Africans, largely along European
lines, was encouraged and supported in Freetown. Fourah bay was one of
the first Universities established in West Africa and by the end of the
1830s it was already producing teachers such as Samuel Crowther. The British
Government established schools in villages "with the purpose to educate
re-captives..." (Brewer, Keenan & Doerr 4). This stands in contrast
with the Americas were education of slaves was discouraged and outlawed.
All of these factors gave Liberated Africans on the Freetown peninsula
much more freedom in developing their Creole communities. Compared with
African American communities, this development took place with more independence
and structure and within an African environment.
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