“You remember your roots, Aliyah” she said “because one day, that’s all you’ll have left.” I remember my great-grandmother would chant this to me often, she’d usually do so before she’d unfold some story that illustrated the history of my culture. Rocking back and forth in her chair she’d witness to me, about the misfortunes of our ancestors, and the debasement of our race. She’d speak of things that were all result of the darkness of our skin, and how our strong complexion resisted being kept within the shadows of segregation and misunderstanding. She’d often refer back to Africa in these lectures, differentiating between nicknames for the sacred continent, names such as the “Motherland” and “Mama Africa”. This stuck with me, and although I hadn’t known a name for her gospel when I was younger, as I got older and obtained more interest I’d realized she shared the same views of those of an “Afrocentric” follower. This intrigued me to further understand the way she thought, and where she learned these things from. Amidst the uproar of what most people explain as pop music and culture, in the 1980’s the cultural ideology of Afrocentrism was emerging, and it was coming with full force. It was fitting to the events of the 80’s, being that racial issues of prejudice and discrimination brewed all over the U.S., Black Americans were lacking of any idea of how to express their discontent and were losing faith in their culture and education of their roots. During this time of weakness, the Black community was …show more content…
Despite constant criticism, Afrocentricity is gaining ground and many people throughout the world are now looking at things from an Afrocentric
The second edition of “African American Religious History: A Documentary Witness,” covers the religious experiences of African Americans—from the late eighteenth century until the early 1980s. My paper is written in a chronological order to reflect on the progress blacks have made during the years—by expounding on the earliest religion of Africans to black religion of today. Race Relation and Religion plays a major role in today’s society—history is present in all that we do and it is to history that African-Americans have its identity and aspiration.
In Brent Hayes Edwards essay, “ The Use of Diaspora”, the term “African Diaspora” is critically explored for its intellectual history of the word. Edward’s reason for investigating the “intellectual history of the term” rather than a general history is because the term “is taken up at a particular conjecture in black scholarly discourse to do a particular kind of epistemological work” (Edwards 9). At the beginning of his essay Edwards mentions the problem with the term, in terms of how it is loosely it is being used which he brings confusion to many scholars. As an intellectual Edwards understands “the confusing multiplicity” the term has been associated with by the works of other intellectuals who either used the coined or used the term African diaspora. As an articulate scholar, Edwards hopes to “excavate a historicized and politicized sense of diaspora” through his own work in which he focuses “on a black cultural politics in the interwar, particularly in the transnational circuits of exchange between the Harlem Renaissance and pre-Negritude Fran cophone activity in the France and West Africa”(8). Throughout his essay Edwards logically attacks the problem giving an informative insight of the works that other scholars have contributed to the term Edwards traces back to the intellectual history of the African diaspora in an eloquent manner.
The formation of the Africana Studies Project includes Knowledge, Power, and Humanity. This insurrectionary intellectual formation examines the worlds of meaning, thought, and expression of Africans, reconstructing new meanings and possibilities for humanity. Development of African American Studies has increased awareness of the contribution of African Americans to the civilizations of the world, using its many themes and concepts, while also displaying many issues. One main issue of this, is the lack of Africana knowledge. For African American discipline to advance, its focal point must be the production and utilization of knowledge, to develop solutions to various issues in our society.
Understanding the influential leaders and the various distinctions of the idea can help one recognize the vast effects it has had on nearly every aspect of black life. The influences are wide ranging from politics to everyday social life. The ever changing development of the movement and the many groups that were built upon the foundation of the idea has allowed the blacks to come a long way in their achievement of their rights. For instance, Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey would more than likely be astounded to see Barack Obama leading the United States. Unfortunately, recent events such as the Ferguson incident indicate that Black Nationalism may still be alive and well despite not being as prevalent as in the 1960s. In summary, Black Nationalism is a dynamic ideology built on the ideas of many individuals striving for the ultimate goal of a better life for the African American
...nd provided Black Amer¬ica with tal¬en¬ted con¬tem¬por¬ary lead¬ers who voiced the struggle they were facing. Its major impact comes from the fact that it has encour¬aged a pro¬found Nation¬al¬ism in Black America.” Today’s Hip-hop & Rap artist promote the culture with guns, dope, violence and sexism instead the manhood and womanhood, support of the struggles, prisoners, and good entertainment from the roots of Afro centric culture. There may be a few that still install Black Nationalism into today’s society, like Jay-Z and P. Diddy who have built empires that will lead others to want to succeed and follow their the success route. In today’s society the youth lacks the encouragement to stand up for their rights and decides to fight to get their points across. They don’t think about the self-determination, self-defense or self-respect its all about actions, no unity.
Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative provides insight into cultural assimilation and the difficulties such assimilation. The writer embraces several Western traits and ideals yet guards his African virtues jealously. In doing so however, he finds himself somewhere in between a full European and a displaced African. This problem of cultural identity Equiano struggled with is still present in modern American society. The modern day African-American appears to also be in the process of deciding the between two competing cultures and often being left somewhere in middle becoming a victim of cultural identity just like Olaudah Equiano some 250 years ago.
In African American Studies/Literature I walked in thinking that I could be told nothing about African American culture or history because I’m African American. In some ways I knew that racism existed but I learned how it has been subtle in control the way we think. We have learned that colonization has not ended and that in many ways we are still being oppressed. In this paper I’m going to show how African American has used hip hop and black hair are two ways in which African Americans embrace their culture and fighting oppression. However, as we have review in many classes oppression is not easily escaped. So in this paper I’m going to show how cultural appropriation is used as a way of oppressing black culture. So this paper will be an expansion of what we have learned in the
Next is John Henrik Clark, who refers to African America Studies as Africana Studies because he believes that Black tells you how you look, not who you are. He goes on to state that he calls African American Studies “a dilemma at the crossroads of history” (Clark 32). This is because European people knew history well enough to distort it and use it, as well as political weapons such as the gun and bible, to control the world. This is the reason why a look at African culture will show what Africana Studies are about or should be about. Africana Studies should embrace the Africans all around the world, in places like Africa, North and South America, the Caribbean Islands even those in Asia and the Pacific Islands. Clarke states that Africa is
In Stuart Hall’s “What is This “Black” in Black Popular Culture?” the historical implication of popular culture in the U.S is examined and the influence that blackness has in it is deconstructed. According to the text, the departure of European concepts of culture after WWII sparked a hegemonic shift as the United States emerged as a world power. Due to this, the U.S. became the epicenter of global culture production. However, since America has always had a large ethnic population due to slavery, the true face of American popular culture was black American vernacular traditions. Even today, slang that emerge from black ghettos and communities become highly popular with people of other races. In fact, much of black culture is not just our culture,
The people of the black culture need a motivating force behind their community. They need a black aesthetic to motivate them and incline them to support the revolution. The black aesthetic itself will not be enough to motivate the people; they will need black art to help them understand what they are supporting. The art in the black culture needs an aesthetic to get the message across to its viewers and allow them to understand the meaning behind pieces of artwork. One of Ron Karenga’s points is how people need to respond positively to the artwork because it then shows that the artist got the main idea to the audience and helps to motivate them to support the revolution. In “Black Cultural Nationalism”, the author, Ron Karenga, argues that
It must be noted that for the purpose of avoiding redundancy, the author has chosen to use the terms African-American and black synonymously to reference the culture, which...
“The end of the First World War in 1930 was followed by the inception of the cultural movement that ended in the middle of the Great Depression. It has been argued that the war formed an expansion of the economic opportunities in the Northern cities that had been characterized by industrialization, as well as a decrease of European immigration into the U.S.” (Harlem Renaissance, 2010). The Great Migration that was realized in the beginning of the 19th century played a major role in the creation of the cultural movement. The blacks in the Southern region saw this as an opportunity to escape from the Jim Crow laws, which were laws to constrict the behavior of blacks. “The lack of expression of their issues, and the lack of political voice prevalent with the hatred of the blacks made the blacks express themselves through artistic ways” (Wall, 1995).
The aspect of African-American Studies is key to the lives of African-Americans and those involved with the welfare of the race. African-American Studies is the systematic and critical study of the multidimensional aspects of Black thought and practice in their current and historical unfolding (Karenga, 21). African-American Studies exposes students to the experiences of African-American people and others of African descent. It allows the promotion and sharing of the African-American culture. However, the concept of African-American Studies, like many other studies that focus on a specific group, gender, and/or creed, poses problems. Therefore, African-American Studies must overcome the obstacles in order to improve the state of being for African-Americans.
Gabriel, Deborah. Layers of Blackness: Colourism in the African Diaspora. London: Imani Media, 2007. Print.
Kroeber, A. and C. Klockhohn, Culture: A Critical Review of Concept and Definition. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Kunhiyop, Samuel. A.W. & Waje. African Christian Ethics.