Maintaining Cultural Identity in the Face of Adversity "At the turn of the century, Sea Island Gullahs, descendants of African Captives, remained isolated from the mainland of South Carolina and Georgia. As a result of their isolation, the Gullah created and maintained a distinct, imaginative, and original African American Culture. Gullah communities recalled, remembered, and recollected much of what their ancestors brought with them from Africa…" - Prologue to Julie Dash’s "Daughters of the Dust" The people who settled in the United States from all over the world built the rich history of the country. Indeed, the U.S. is a country that has been built on immigration. The first non-indigenous arrivers were European and with them they brought to the United States all of the western ideologies of their homeland. This is true of all of the groups that immigrated here over the course of the next several hundred years. However, the initial settling of the Europeans in America created a standard by which other immigrants would have to compete against. Once a particular group saturates an area, it is difficult for diversified outgroups to bring their own culture and belief systems into a society that has already established itself. This rift in cultures is evident at the turn of the 20th century. There are communities of like-minded people carefully segregated in New York City, for example. The Italians, the Irish, and the Jews and the Blacks all had their own niche carved for themselves in the big city. These pockets of ethnic groups are created for several reasons. First, people are most comfortable with what they already know. Imagine coming to a new country for the first time. If you can go to an area where you know they will... ... middle of paper ... ...o that fact. The only way balance can be achieved, though, is if the past is not forgotten. African Americans must "recall, remember, and recollect much of what their ancestors brought with them from Africa… ." Bibliography Online; Internet. available at http://www.lik.berkeley.edu/MRC/africanambib2.html. Pabis, Dr. George S. "Sub-Saharan Africa Under Foreign Rule." Online; Internet. available at http://www.gpc.peachnet.edu/~gpabis/lecdoc1503/lec23-Africa_Foreign.htm. University of Georgia Press. "The Gullah People and Their African Heritage." Online; Internet. available at http://www.uga.edu/ugapress/newsite/books/shelf/0820320544.html. Members of Honors Religious Traditions of the African Diaspora 1997. "The Gullah People and Their Link to West Africa." Online; Internet. available at http://dickinsg.intrasun.tcnj.edu/diaspora/gullah.html.
Elizabeth Fernea entered El Nahra, Iraq as an innocent bystander. However, through her stay in the small Muslim village, she gained cultural insight to be passed on about not only El Nahra, but all foreign culture. As Fernea entered the village, she was viewed with a critical eye, ?It seemed to me that many times the women were talking about me, and not in a particularly friendly manner'; (70). The women of El Nahra could not understand why she was not with her entire family, and just her husband Bob. The women did not recognize her American lifestyle as proper. Conversely, BJ, as named by the village, and Bob did not view the El Nahra lifestyle as particularly proper either. They were viewing each other through their own cultural lenses. However, through their constant interaction, both sides began to recognize some benefits each culture possessed. It takes time, immersed in a particular community to understand the cultural ethos and eventually the community as a whole. Through Elizabeth Fernea?s ethnography on Iraq?s El Nahra village, we learn that all cultures have unique and equally important aspects.
-1990’s: people that live near the ravine and southeast areas of Somalia are descendants of Africans once enslaved by the Somalis
Every religious sect has its own traditions and historical rituals that they abide to. In religions, almost everything has significance to it. And anyone concerned about the future of his/her religion, will continue to ensure that these traditions are followed, to preserve their own way of life. Now, most countries have religious freedom clauses in their constitutions that state that anyone living on their soil has the right to practice the religion of their choice. Now this might seem a minuscule fact for someone of a common religion, but to someone of a minority religion, this is all the protection they have from the legal system. This paper is only a taste of the justices and injustices that Rastafarians have faced in legal systems across the globe. Some instances a loophole for the "misfortunate", others an outcry from the oppressed.
Lawrence, L. (2007). Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom. London: Sage Publishers.
The Gullah is a community that lives in the coastal parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia where they fish and farm. The ancestors of the Gullah trace back to Charleston, South Carolina, where there was a port for the Atlantic Slave trade, which was the most commonly used port in North America. Gullah is “more than simply the language and name of a people. It encompasses the essence of struggle, spirituality, perseverance and tradition” (South Carolina Business and Industry). Their relatives are West Africans who suffered many hardships and are honored and remembered by a rare preservation of African culture that the Gullah keeps alive. The Gullah truly live by the meaningful words that “If you don’t know where you’re going, you should know where you came from” (U.S. Department of State). They use African names, carry on African folktales, and create African craftwork. The Gullah have been able to maintain their African heritage because they are secluded from other influences because of the isolation of the Sea Islands.
Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta, is well-known for being one of the greatest travelers of his time. Battuta’s descriptive account of his travels to East and West Africa in the fourteenth century provides important insight into African Islamic life at that point in time. Although Battuta and the peoples in black Africa shared the same religion, he comes to realize that sharing a religion is not enough to completely relate to a different group of people. The story of Ibn Battuta in Black Africa illustrates the difficulties he faced in relating to these peoples due to the non-traditional role of women, different religious customs, and frequent misinterpretation of situations.
I was introduced to Gullah Geechee culture through a children's show named Gullah Gullah Island when I was in third grade. Later in high school, I came across a film about a Gullah family living off the coast of South Carolina in 1902 titled Daughter's of the Dust. Since then, I've read several books and watched documentaries about how this isolated community was able to retain several African cultural practices. I often suspect based on what many of my elder family members have said about the elders who have passed on (including my late grandmother), that there may be some connection to the Gullah Geechee through my great-grandfather. Like Prof. Walker, my family is from South Carolina and I've heard stories about the accent my grandmother
Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1991. Print.
A lot of people’s understanding of Rasta’s only goes as far as to think that Rasta’s are people that live in Jamaica, smoke weed, and have Dreadlocks. These people do not begin to think what is behind the movement. The idea that Rastafari is strictly Jamaican is also very wrong. Since the origination of Rastafari, the Rasta movement has expanded far beyond the island of Jamaica. Rasta’s now live all over the world. There are Rasta cultures in all parts of Europe, Asia, New Zealand, United States, and especially Africa. This paper seeks to explain Rastafari and to show it’s expansion by exposing Rasta’s culture from it’s most holy form in Ethiopia to one of it’s least holy in Dallas Texas.
From Slavery to Freedom: African in the Americas. (2007). Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Retrieved October 7, 2007 from Web site: http://www.asalh.org/
The core principle of history is primary factor of African-American Studies. History is the struggle and record of humans in the process of humanizing the world i.e. shaping it in their own image and interests (Karenga, 70). By studying history in African-American Studies, history is allowed to be reconstructed. Reconstruction is vital, for over time, African-American history has been misleading. Similarly, the reconstruction of African-American history demands intervention not only in the academic process to rede...
Azumah, J. (1986). Muslim Black Slavery. Islam Slave History of Black Africa. Retrieved May 23, 2010 from Website:
Khapoya, Vincent B. The African Experience: An Introduction. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. Print.
Cultural identity is a tricky thing. In Elise Trumbull and Maria Pacheco’s article “What is Cultural Identity, they wrote, “Most of the time, our own cultures are invisible to us…” An individual’s cultural identity cannot be determined solely on race or what he or she likes to do. To truly ascertain one’s own cultural identity, you have to look deeper into your being. What makes you you? That’s the question, and the answer will ultimately lead to the discovery of your cultural identity. A person’s cultural identity is developed by taking different aspects of your life into account, mixing them together to form a bubbling concoction of characteristics, experiences, values, and interests. My cultural identity is influenced by many different
Kenneth Jost. 2005. “Understanding Islam.” Annual Editions: Anthropology 11/12, 34th Edition. Elvio Angeloni. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.