Growth and Healing from African Teachings
The effects of slavery in America are well known. Although, the effects of this trade may be at times minimized the information regarding this phenomenon is within reach for those who wish to take a look. This includes but is not limited to human breeding, health defects, rape, genocide, assault, lynching, pedophilia, Prize fighting, self-hatred, etc. The list is endless. The American form of slavery may have been the worst form of slavery to have ever occurred on this earth. However, in many instances other African groups within the diaspora and/or who live in West/Central Africa have not yet reconciled with the damage rendered by colonialism and slavery.
The European, and to a lesser extent the Arabic slave trade, wreaked havoc on West African economies and Kingdoms (Niger, Ghana, Benin, Mali, etc). In places like Senegal, a third of the population was taken to The Americas in the form of free labor. In present day Angola, the Ndongo kingdom waged a 100 year long war against the Portuguese so as to stop this trade. Consequently, Ndongo lost over 1 million of its citizens to slavery in the process. This left the kingdom with a depletion of population, human capital, and fertile men. Many of us who were born in West Africa, and/or who are first generation Americans, believe that slavery and colonialism has no effect on us. While this is a great ideology to have so as to not limit ourselves within our endeavors it does not bode well when one seeks to HEAL oneself and one’s people.
Colonialism has thrust us into a cyclical political instability that we now inhabit. This instability will not be dismantled until we acknowledge the root causes of the problem. Culture as Igbos, Akans or as Hausas has been greatly altered by colonialism so much so that certain languages in West African society have perished. We must take into account a colonial ideology which would lead us to damage our own bodies so as to lighten our skin. We must reconcile an institution which has pitted us against a neighboring ethnicity solely for the gain of an outside entity. We must take into account the lack of COMPLETE ownership over our own resources or the entities which produce those resources. The one who pays the piper generally dictates the tune.
We also see this phenomenon in African/Afro Caribbean populations. The African/Afro/Black peoples who inhabit these island countries and principalities are very proud and rightly so. Some of whom will tell you that they were never slaves. But one must reconcile that if you are an African or black person in the Americas although your freedom may have been procured and subsequent affluence sustained, slavery and its effects to some extent touched your family tree, and this touch was not a brush but rather a thrust. A thrust so forceful that in your island country a sizable portion of your land is currently owned by groups of Asian, Middle Eastern and European descent. We also see this phenomenon with our brothers from Spanish speaking islands. Some of these peoples mistakenly confuse the name forced upon them with their ethnicity.
The cultures of the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico are rich with African culture and practices. Caribbean’s eat fufu, mofongo, plantains, and soups, while singing Yoruba praise songs in all white agbadas to Shango, Yemaya, or Oshun. However, the effects of slavery, and the self-hate which was necessitated to keep this economic institution viable caused Rafael Trujillo (a Dominican President of African descent) to massacre tens of thousands of Haitians and Black Dominicans simply due to their blackness. This same self-hate will cause one to say that she is not Black or African but rather Dominican. However, the two are not and never have been mutually exclusive.
It must be understood that we as people of the diaspora (U.S.A., Jamaica, Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Bahamas) are not wiped clean of our histories. In fact in some instances our cultures, and history are more West African than the cultures presently in West Africa. Although pan Africanism does have a place within the pantheon of black ideology, we can still respect each other’s cultures, while pulling from them in a respectful manner. For example I know many Yorubas who are practitioners of Islam, or European Christianity. As a consequence they have no understanding of the Yoruba Ife religion which inherently lends the names to the states in which they live in within Nigeria. Consequently, if these people were to learn about the culture, and history of Cuban Santeria, and Brazilian Candomble then they could seek to become whole within themselves and their culture.
In addition, there are Caribbean African Languages which mirror West African languages which are still practiced and/or have sense died out such as Jamaican and Surinam Kromanti which is a derivative of the Akan language within present day Ghana. In addition, there is no way that a Nigerian who is a fan of Fela Kuti can completely understand his music without understanding Funk, James Brown, The Black Panthers and The African American civil rights movement. In addition, as African Americans how can one eat Okra without understanding that Okra is an Igbo word (okwuru) for a West African crop or understanding where the people who staged the iconic Igbo landing in South Carolina actually come from in West Africa? In addition, how could one be a true practitioner of Santeria without having an understanding as to where Shango and Oshun actually come from? How can one be a practitioner of Candomble without having actually visited Yoruba land?
Not only will we learn about our culture we will learn about our struggle and as a consequence forge a better way to come from under the vestiges of this oppression. South African ethnic group
were enslaved for over a century and suffered under an apartheid that can only be comparable to that of which occurred in America. The same concentration camps that dotted Southern Africa also dotted Mississippi, AFTER the emancipation proclamation. These concentration camps killed tens of thousands of African peoples in The American South and in Southern Africa.
I give these examples to illustrate two things. Firstly, that the occurrences that are within our culture did not operate in a vacuum. Secondly, that we as peoples of the diaspora must not seek division but rather we must seek understanding of the other, as that will help us to understand ourselves and our own culture in order to grow and progress together economically and culturally, respectively within our own realms. In all honesty the distinctions are arbitrary, the blood is the same.
These cultures, although representative of different branches and experiences, emanate from the same root. One has to understand the connectedness of us as children of the diaspora. A Yoruba Woman may have been taken, and dropped off in Jamaica for ten years, and then sold to a Plantation owner in Louisiana. While that Yoruba Woman’s brother may have been taken to Brazil and then returned to Nigeria with his kids after the Bahia Muslim Slave Revolt. Consequently, to understand the other is to understand ourselves. Knowledge is power, so seek truth and find yourself.
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