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Just curious...
Would it not be better to drop the hyphen and the colonial monikers and just call yourselves Indigenous or Aboriginal? I always thought Africans were indigenous to the planet so no matter where they went, they were home. This is what I learned in school. Perhaps I had a world culture teacher who was a little more advanced than most of her ilk.
I'm not black, but I am always intrigued by how post-colonial racial group names stand the test of time or morph into names that make reference to past oppression and not to actual nationhood or ethnicity. Correct me if I am mistaken. Great topic btw.
Great idea! We'll call ourselves the humans. How shall we refer to the rest of you?
I think Afro-Latinos are more culturally "African" than Afro-Americans. You can see it in their religious rituals.
I think this had much to do with which Europeans Africans were enslaved under and what the slave master's version of Christanity was.
Basically Africans enslaved under Spanish,Portugues and French slave masters were able to keep many African customs intact because those Europeans were less hostile to their slave's African culture in comparison to the British slave masters of the U.S. Also by the Spanish,Portuguese and French slave masters being catholic the Africans had saints to use to disquise their African deities behind. Slaves in protestant countries couldn't do this as much.
What I'm saying can explain why New Orleans had a tradition of vodu because of the French,Spanish and catholic heritages there.
I think this had much to do with which Europeans Africans were enslaved under and what the slave master's version of Christanity was.
Basically Africans enslaved under Spanish,Portugues and French slave masters were able to keep many African customs intact because those Europeans were less hostile to their slave's African culture in comparison to the British slave masters of the U.S. Also by the Spanish,Portuguese and French slave masters being catholic the Africans had saints to use to disquise their African deities behind. Slaves in protestant countries couldn't do this as much.
What I'm saying can explain why New Orleans had a tradition of vodu because of the French,Spanish and catholic heritages there.
To expand upon that, a quick survey of any of the former British colonies in the Americas and you will find the same cultural disconnect as you do in the U.S. as opposed former Catholic dominated former colonies.
As for you comment about Louisiana, New Orleans which remains largely Catholic remained one of the most racially complex areas in the country due in no small part to the absence of Anglo-Protestant notions of culture and race. African culture, particularly music, dance, and religion remained vibrant in New Orleans until the Louisiana Purchase.
Interesting...
I'd be interested to see the proof you have that it is "pseudo anthropology"
Sertima was not an anthropologist and he made claims that were not in his area of expertise. He is the one that didn't not provide real proof for his outlandish claims. In the end all he did was create misinformation and another weird theory that only nut jobs believe.
I am Caribbean black (I am considered black in my country but as I said race doesn't denote my culture where I live). If I migrated to the US and was called black yes I would have a problem with it if people assumed black is a culture and that my culture is African American. Simply because I'm not African American.
If you migrated to the USA you would see that on many occasions you are in the same boat as African Americans. While you will not consider yourself to be African American, and might differ in many respects from them, you will see in many instances that an alliance with them makes sense.
And yes there are similarities in the "black" experience throughout the Americas. At some point not that long ago, we were all assigned a seat at the bottom of society, largely because of our experience of slavery and its aftermath and the wide spread racism against those of predominantly African descent. The bleaching phenomenon in Jamaica shows that the scars of this haven't been entirely eradicated.
As luck will have it in the Anglophone Caribbean blacks are the majority population every where except Trinidad, Guyana and Belize. Even there blacks aren't a small minority group attempting to make their way in an oft hostile white dominated world. So we have succeeded to the point where ethnoracial identities are meaningless, except of course in Trinidad, Belize and especially Guyana.
Don't think that as a black Caribbean immigrant to the US the experience of the black American will be without meaning to you. The larger society will see you as no different than they will see your black American peer.
Indeed the vast majority of the truly affluent blacks who I know, and I live in NYC with a high Caribbean population, are black Americans! They will be very eager to pull down any black immigrant who feels by virtue of not being African American, that they are better.
Too many of us black immigrants wallow in gross ignorance about the broad range of experiences that being black American is. Or thinking that because we are immigrants, out kids will be immune from the pathologies of the ghetto.
The point being that blacks living in the USA will need to understand each other across the various black ethnic boundaries, because there will often be times where we will have to work together. And if you doubt me just check out the vast numbers of young black Caribbean males who have been stopped and frisked on the streets of NYC while walking through majority CARIBBEAN neighborhoods!
To expand upon that, a quick survey of any of the former British colonies in the Americas and you will find the same cultural disconnect.
I wonder where you got that from African culture is very visible in the English speaking Caribbean. From the creole dialects, through to the food, through to the music, and dance, through to the mannerisms, and yes, even in various rituals from the Shango Orisha Of Trinidad, kwekwe wedding ceremonies of Guyana, Kumina, and Pocomania rituals Jamaica.
As some would said African culture is expressed in many different ways. The high use of seasonings used in preparations in Jamaica compares with the blander food preparation used, even by Cuban blacks, is West African in origin.
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