IllmaticDelta
Veteran
David Blackwell
David Blackwell fought racism; became world-famous statistician
David Blackwell fought racism; became world-famous statistician
Essential The Official African American Thread#2
- Thread starter Rhapscallion Démone
- Start date
David Blackwell
David Blackwell fought racism; became world-famous statistician
David Blackwell fought racism; became world-famous statistician
Word, you another fellow North Carolinian? We in here deep lolI'm from Reidsville and I never knew about this.
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
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Portraits of African born, Muslim slaves in the USA
Abdul Rahaman, 1828
Engraving of crayon drawing. A Muslim Fulbe, Rahaman was born in Timbuktu around 1762; as a child he moved to the Futa Jallon region in the present-day Republic of Guinea. Educated in Arabic and the Koran, in 1788/89, when around 26, he was captured during warfare and taken far from his homeland to the Gambia. Sold to the British, he was then taken to the Caribbean island of Dominica, where he briefly stayed, and from there to New Orleans, followed by Natchez. Enslaved for about 40 years in the U.S., mostly in Natchez, he was manumitted in 1828, and traveled to various parts of the eastern U.S. on his way back to Africa; he ultimately reached Liberia, where he died in 1829.
Omar Ibn Said (Sayyid), mid-19th cent.
A Moslem from the Futa Tora area of present-day Senegal, Omar Said was captured in warfare and shipped to Charleston, S.C. in 1806/07, just before the abolition of the slave trade. He spent about 24 years enslaved in South and North Carolina. He originally wrote his account in Arabic in 1831, at around the age of 61; an English translation appeared after his death in 1864.
Yarrow Mamout, 1819
Yarrow Mamout was born in Africa around 1736 and was a teenager when enslaved and brought to America, apparently no later than 1752. His African homeland and ethnicity are unknown, and although he was brought to the Virginia-Maryland area, little is known about his early years in America. He ultimately lived in Washington D.C. and during his old age was well known in the Georgetown area, where he was manumitted from slavery in 1797. He was known as a devout Muslim and hard worker, and was able to accumulate some property. He lived the rest of his life in Georgetown, where he died in 1823 at the age of about 88.
Job Ben Solomon, 1750
Engraved drawing. A Fulbe from the eastern region of present-day Senegal, Solomon was a Moslem and literate in Arabic. At around the age of 29, while on a trade mission (which included two slaves he was going to sell to the English), hundreds of miles from his homeland, he was captured, sold to the English, and shipped from the Gambia to Maryland. There he worked on tobacco farms for about a year, went to England, and ultimately found employment with the Royal African Company in Gambia, where he died in 1773 at the age of around 72.
Muhammad Ali ibn Said (North East Nigeria-Chadian)
Salih Bilali
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The First Muslim-American Scholar: Bilali Muhammad
An unfortunate misconception among today’s American Muslim community is that Islam has only been present in America for less than 100 years. Many American Muslims are children of immigrants who came to the United States from the Middle East and South Asia in the mid-nineteenth century, and thus wrongly assume that the first Muslims in America were those immigrants. The reality, however, is that Islam has been in America for far longer than that. Besides possible pre-Colombian Muslim explorers from al-Andalus and West Africa, Islam arrived on America’s shores in waves through the Atlantic slave trade from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. While hundreds of thousands of slaves arrived in America during this time, the stories of only a few have been preserved and are known today. One of the most enduring and unique is that of Bilali Muhammad.
The Slave Trade
A slave auction advertisement from Charleston, South Carolina in 1769.
As European nations began to colonize the New World in the 1500s, a demand for cheap labor arose. Plantations, mines, and farms needed workers throughout North and South America, and the native population of the New World proved unsuitable due to their lack of immunity to European diseases. As a result, European powers such as Britain, France, Portugal, and Spain looked south, towards Africa, for a source of slave labor they could exploit.
Thus, European slave traders began arriving at ports in Africa, looking to buy slaves. Generally, Europeans did not go and capture slaves themselves. Instead, they would commonly pay local rulers to go to war with other African states, capture warriors, and sell them to be taken to America. The African rulers would be paid commonly in weapons, which would further perpetuate the cycle of violence and enslavement. The entire system worked to handicap Africa’s social, political, and economic development, and the results of this genocide are still felt in Africa today.
Estimates vary, but over 12 million Africans were probably forcibly taken from their homelands to serve as slaves in America, with as many as 20% of them dying on the trans-Atlantic journey known as the Middle Passage. Since much of the slave trade was focused on West Africa, a large number of those slaves were undoubtedly Muslim. The savanna kingdoms of Mali and Songhai had long been centers of Islamic civilization in West Africa and a huge Muslim population existed in the region.
Bilali Muhammad
One of the many Muslim slaves taken to America was Bilali Muhammad. He was from the Fulbe tribe and was born around 1770 in the city of Timbo, in what is now Guinea. He came from a well-educated family, and received a high level of education himself in Africa before being captured as a slave some time in the late 1700s. He was fluent in the Fula language along with Arabic, and had knowledge of high level Islamic studies, including Hadith, Shari’ah, and Tafsir. How he was captured is unknown, but he was originally taken to an island plantation in the Caribbean, and by 1802, he arrived at Sapelo Island, off the coast of Georgia in the southern United States.
At Sapelo Island, Bilali was fortunate enough to have Thomas Spalding as a slave owner. While conditions across the South were horrendous for slaves, who were forced to work throughout the day and were commonly denied such basic necessities as clothes and stable shelter, Spalding gave certain freedoms to his slaves that were absent elsewhere. He did not push the slaves to work more than six hours per day, had no white slave drivers, and even allowed his Muslim slaves to practice their religion openly, a rare freedom in the deeply Christian South. Bilali was even allowed to construct a small mosque on the plantation, which very well may have been the first mosque in North America.
Because of Bilali’s relatively high level of education, he rose to the top of the slave community, and was relied upon by his owner to take care of much of the administration of the plantation and its few hundred slaves. Perhaps the most remarkable account of Bilali Muhammad’s leadership and trustworthiness occurred during the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom. Spalding reportedly left the plantation with his family, fearing a British attack, and put Bilali in charge of the plantation’s defense. He even gave Bilali 80 muskets to defend the island with, which were distributed among the plantation’s Muslim population. Bilali kept true to his word and managed the plantation while his owner was gone and turned it back over to Spalding after the war. The fact that a slave owner trusted his slaves so much as to give them control of the plantation along with weapons speaks volumes about the character and trustworthiness of Bilali Muhammad.
The Bilali Document
As a well-educated Muslim from West Africa, Bilali no doubt brought his Islamic education with him to America. This is evidenced by a thirteen-page manuscript he wrote and gifted to a southern writer, Francis Robert Goulding, before he died in 1857. The manuscript was written in Arabic, and was thus unreadable for most Americans for decades. It made its way eventually to the Georgia State Library by 1931, who attempted to decipher the manuscript, which was popularly believed to have been Bilali’s diary.
The Bilali Document of Bilali Muhammad
After years of effort that involved numerous scholars as far away as al-Azhar University in Egypt, scholars finally managed to decipher the manuscript. It turned out that it wasn’t a diary at all, but was actually a copy of passages from a treatise on Islamic law in the Maliki madhab written by a Muslim scholar of fiqh, Ibn Abu Zayd al-Qairawani in Tunisia in the 900s. The Risala of Ibn Abu Zayd was a part of the West African law curriculum prevalent in Bilali’s homeland in the 1700s when he was a student. When he came to America as a slave, he was of course unable to bring any personal belongings with him, and thus his copy of the Risala was written entirely from memory decades after he learned it in West Africa. This exemplifies the level of knowledge present in West Africa, even as it was ravaged by the Atlantic slave trade.
The Bilali Document is thus probably the first book of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) ever written in the United States. And while Islam slowly died out among the African American community in the United States in the nineteenth century, it is important to recognize and appreciate the stories of the the first American Muslims. They were not a small, inconsequential group. They numbered hundreds of thousands and despite almost insurmountable difficulties, they struggled to preserve their Islamic heritage under the oppression of slavery. The story of Bilali Muhammad is a perfect example of the efforts of this early American Muslim community, one that could inspire American Muslims of the present, whether they be of African descent or not.
The First Muslim-American Scholar: Bilali Muhammad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilali_Document
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
This is why the Blues is unlike any other music in the diaspora. It has more of a connection to "Griot" or "Sahelian" West Africa than the more drum dominated or the region which is dominated by asymmetrical timeline patterns.
A comparison between the Upper West African influenced Blues and the lower West/Central African drum based Cuban music
A comparison between the Upper West African influenced Blues and the lower West/Central African drum based Cuban music
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
Contributions of Enslaved African Muslims
Just as African Muslims brought their religion, technology and folk tales, they also brought their music. Jobson in the 17th century and Park in the 18th century remarked on the widespread presence of music in their travels among the Wolof, Mandingo and Fula. African instruments described by Jobson and Park included one-string fiddles, various types of lutes, flutes, harps, a xylophone (the bala), bowstrings (the string is blown on and struck with a stick—this is the American diddly bow), various drums and the clapping of hands, which appeared to constitute a necessary part of the chorus.[39] Virtually every village had a jilli (griot) who sang extempore songs in praise of chiefs and the ancestors as well as songs concerning important historical events. Other musicians were described as a class of devout Muslims who traveled throughout the land singing religious songs and performing religious ceremonies.[40] Some of these traveling musicians were actually Muslim traders who simply brought their music with them wherever they traveled.[41]
Senegambian/sahelian music like their counterpart in the Muslim world was a mixture of an old African tradition and a newly inherited Islamic-Arabic musical tradition, producing a new cultural manifestation that possessed elements of both. Influence went both ways because the Moors adopted many African elements as witnessed in the uniqueness of North African music, Southern Spanish music and traditional Portuguese music like the fado.
In trying to identify African influence in African American music, especially the blues, many scholars have come to agree with Paul Oliver’s early contention that “the blues was a product of acculturation, of the meeting of African (notably Senegambian) musical traditions with Euro-American (notably British) ones.”[42] (Oliver 125, see also Kubah, Coolen) By Senegambia, Oliver and others refer to the shared musical tradition of the Sahel crescent zone that stretches from Senegal/Gambia across Mali to Northern Nigerian and Hausa land.[43] The main elements of their argument that the main African influence on the blues stems from the Senegambia are as follows:
1. The ensemble of musical instrument in the Senegambia and the Sahel crescent, which consists of the long-neck lute, one-string fiddles and bones/rattles/tapping on a calabash, is remarkably similar to the fiddle, banjo and tambourines which dominated African American music from the 17th to 19th century. Various plucked lutes were prominent instruments among the Wolof, Mandingo, Fula, Soninke and Hausa. These instruments whether the five-strong halam of the Wolof, the three-string koonting of the Mandingo or the Hausa komo were most likely the grandfather of the banjo.[44] An early colonial slave song says that “Negro Sambo play fine banger, make his fingers go like handsaw.” (???) This Fula, Mandingo or Wolof Sambo was obviously an early master of the banjo.[45] (Kubah and Oliver, 57) A runaway slave notice mentions a Sambo who is an expert with the fiddle. (?) African fiddles whether the riti of the Wolof, the gogi or the Hausa or the gogeru of the Fula were common instruments in the Sahel crescent. The European fiddle was the most common instrument in the antebellum era and an African American who was familiar with the African fiddle would have been highly motivated in the acquisition of prestige and time-off to pick up the new European fiddle and master it.
The typical early black musical group of the Caribbean and South America included drums and gongs, scraps and voices which would correspond to an ensemble of the West African rain forest. “The early blues bands by contrast consisted very often of fiddle, guitars and sometimes homemade percussion, which would easily accommodate techniques learned in the savannah groups with their bowed goge, lutes and rattles.[46]
2. The blues tradition and much of other black musical forms which revolves around a solo performer accompanied by a plucked-string instrument does not have a parallel in the cultures of the West African rain forest and the Congo, but it does in the Sahel crescent. Griots and other traveling musicians of the Sahel performed like the blues men “in the midst of an active and noisy crowd that constantly comments on and dances to their music.”[47] “Musicologists generally agree that Africa’s black bluesmen have, in essence, reinstituted the high art of the African griot.” (?)
3. African American field hollers (a few melancholy, lonesome lines sung individually by a worker) and work songs are widely considered to be one of the predecessors of the blues. Hollers and work songs are rare among the people of the rain forest but plentiful in the Sahel crescent. A researcher found a match for a Mississippi prison holler performed by a man nick named Tangle Eye with a recording from Senegal. “When we intercut these two pieces on a tape, it sounded as if Tangle Eye and the Senegalese were answering each other, phase by phase. As one listens to this musical union, spawning thousands of miles and hundreds of years, the conviction grows that Tangle Eye’s forebears [sic] must have come from Senegal bringing this song style with them.”[48]
Scholars have found unique similarities between American work songs and work songs among the Hausa and cattle herding Fula,[49] so much so that some feel the field holler originated with African cattle herders.[50]
Senegambian peoples, many of whom were Muslims, were some of the first enslaved Africans brought to America. Many of these Senegambians were familiar with rice cultivation and as European settlers experimented with rice in the 17th century, these Senegambians passed on their knowledge, thus shaping the development of rice cultivation in America. Thereafter, planters in South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana preferred enslaved Africans from Senegambia because of their experience in rice cultivation. This would explain in part why Americans imported a relatively large proportion of Senegambians. In French Louisiana, a captain was instructed "to try to purchase several blacks who know how to cultivate rice."
Distinct characteristics of Afromerican Blues music that are found in Senegambian/Sahel music that aren't found in Carribean/West Indian or Afro-Latino music.
"The absence of polyrhythm and asymmetric time-lines and the presence of emphasis instead of off-beats in blues and early jazz are also characteristic of Sahel music. On the other hand, the music of the rain forest and the Congo with its heavy emphasis on drumming is characterized by polyrhythms and asymmetric time-lines and its influence is reflected in the black music of the Caribbean and South America.[52] Arguments that the drum was prohibited in the U.S. and that enslaved Africans lived in closer proximity to whites are not persuasive because drums are not the only means to express polyrhythms and the cultural impulse for polyrhythm would not have been totally stifled by the influence of white culture. A more plausible answer is the influence of Sahel culture in the development of African American music"
Like the blues, Sahel music typically uses pentatonic scales that allows inflections and shadings of notes (the blues notes) as well as the use of a central tone reference, often a drone stroke which renders it "out of turn" around which the melody revolves.[54] The blues tonality is not found in rain forest and Congo music or in Latin American music"
"In 1968 he [the Mali musician Ali Farka Toure] heard a recording of John Lee Hooker and was entranced. Initially he thought Hooker was playing music derived from Mali. Several Malian song forms—including musical traditions of the Bambara, Songhay and Fulani ethnic groups—rely on minor pentatonics (five note) scales which are similar to the blues scales"
"The blues and jazz style of bending notes, melisma (ornamental phrasing of several notes in one syllable which is typical of the Muslim call to prayer), slurs, and raspy voices are all characteristics of music in the Sahel zone. These aspects of Sahel music are undoubtedly a direct influence of Arab/Islamic music. Billy Holiday was master of this style"
As sung by her [Billy Holiday] a note may (in the words of Glen Coutler) begin 'slightly under pitch, absolutely without vibrato, and gradually be forced up to dead center from where the vibrato shakes free, or it may trail off mournfully; or at final cadences, the note is a whole step above the written one and must be pressed slowly down to where it belongs.' Coincidence or not, all these features are found in Islamic African music and hardly at all in other styles
MANA - Muslim Alliance in North America
Mother and son in 1860s-1870's Georgia..the son is playing an African fiddle!
Just as African Muslims brought their religion, technology and folk tales, they also brought their music. Jobson in the 17th century and Park in the 18th century remarked on the widespread presence of music in their travels among the Wolof, Mandingo and Fula. African instruments described by Jobson and Park included one-string fiddles, various types of lutes, flutes, harps, a xylophone (the bala), bowstrings (the string is blown on and struck with a stick—this is the American diddly bow), various drums and the clapping of hands, which appeared to constitute a necessary part of the chorus.[39] Virtually every village had a jilli (griot) who sang extempore songs in praise of chiefs and the ancestors as well as songs concerning important historical events. Other musicians were described as a class of devout Muslims who traveled throughout the land singing religious songs and performing religious ceremonies.[40] Some of these traveling musicians were actually Muslim traders who simply brought their music with them wherever they traveled.[41]
Senegambian/sahelian music like their counterpart in the Muslim world was a mixture of an old African tradition and a newly inherited Islamic-Arabic musical tradition, producing a new cultural manifestation that possessed elements of both. Influence went both ways because the Moors adopted many African elements as witnessed in the uniqueness of North African music, Southern Spanish music and traditional Portuguese music like the fado.
In trying to identify African influence in African American music, especially the blues, many scholars have come to agree with Paul Oliver’s early contention that “the blues was a product of acculturation, of the meeting of African (notably Senegambian) musical traditions with Euro-American (notably British) ones.”[42] (Oliver 125, see also Kubah, Coolen) By Senegambia, Oliver and others refer to the shared musical tradition of the Sahel crescent zone that stretches from Senegal/Gambia across Mali to Northern Nigerian and Hausa land.[43] The main elements of their argument that the main African influence on the blues stems from the Senegambia are as follows:
1. The ensemble of musical instrument in the Senegambia and the Sahel crescent, which consists of the long-neck lute, one-string fiddles and bones/rattles/tapping on a calabash, is remarkably similar to the fiddle, banjo and tambourines which dominated African American music from the 17th to 19th century. Various plucked lutes were prominent instruments among the Wolof, Mandingo, Fula, Soninke and Hausa. These instruments whether the five-strong halam of the Wolof, the three-string koonting of the Mandingo or the Hausa komo were most likely the grandfather of the banjo.[44] An early colonial slave song says that “Negro Sambo play fine banger, make his fingers go like handsaw.” (???) This Fula, Mandingo or Wolof Sambo was obviously an early master of the banjo.[45] (Kubah and Oliver, 57) A runaway slave notice mentions a Sambo who is an expert with the fiddle. (?) African fiddles whether the riti of the Wolof, the gogi or the Hausa or the gogeru of the Fula were common instruments in the Sahel crescent. The European fiddle was the most common instrument in the antebellum era and an African American who was familiar with the African fiddle would have been highly motivated in the acquisition of prestige and time-off to pick up the new European fiddle and master it.
The typical early black musical group of the Caribbean and South America included drums and gongs, scraps and voices which would correspond to an ensemble of the West African rain forest. “The early blues bands by contrast consisted very often of fiddle, guitars and sometimes homemade percussion, which would easily accommodate techniques learned in the savannah groups with their bowed goge, lutes and rattles.[46]
2. The blues tradition and much of other black musical forms which revolves around a solo performer accompanied by a plucked-string instrument does not have a parallel in the cultures of the West African rain forest and the Congo, but it does in the Sahel crescent. Griots and other traveling musicians of the Sahel performed like the blues men “in the midst of an active and noisy crowd that constantly comments on and dances to their music.”[47] “Musicologists generally agree that Africa’s black bluesmen have, in essence, reinstituted the high art of the African griot.” (?)
3. African American field hollers (a few melancholy, lonesome lines sung individually by a worker) and work songs are widely considered to be one of the predecessors of the blues. Hollers and work songs are rare among the people of the rain forest but plentiful in the Sahel crescent. A researcher found a match for a Mississippi prison holler performed by a man nick named Tangle Eye with a recording from Senegal. “When we intercut these two pieces on a tape, it sounded as if Tangle Eye and the Senegalese were answering each other, phase by phase. As one listens to this musical union, spawning thousands of miles and hundreds of years, the conviction grows that Tangle Eye’s forebears [sic] must have come from Senegal bringing this song style with them.”[48]
Scholars have found unique similarities between American work songs and work songs among the Hausa and cattle herding Fula,[49] so much so that some feel the field holler originated with African cattle herders.[50]
Senegambian peoples, many of whom were Muslims, were some of the first enslaved Africans brought to America. Many of these Senegambians were familiar with rice cultivation and as European settlers experimented with rice in the 17th century, these Senegambians passed on their knowledge, thus shaping the development of rice cultivation in America. Thereafter, planters in South Carolina, Georgia and Louisiana preferred enslaved Africans from Senegambia because of their experience in rice cultivation. This would explain in part why Americans imported a relatively large proportion of Senegambians. In French Louisiana, a captain was instructed "to try to purchase several blacks who know how to cultivate rice."
Distinct characteristics of Afromerican Blues music that are found in Senegambian/Sahel music that aren't found in Carribean/West Indian or Afro-Latino music.
"The absence of polyrhythm and asymmetric time-lines and the presence of emphasis instead of off-beats in blues and early jazz are also characteristic of Sahel music. On the other hand, the music of the rain forest and the Congo with its heavy emphasis on drumming is characterized by polyrhythms and asymmetric time-lines and its influence is reflected in the black music of the Caribbean and South America.[52] Arguments that the drum was prohibited in the U.S. and that enslaved Africans lived in closer proximity to whites are not persuasive because drums are not the only means to express polyrhythms and the cultural impulse for polyrhythm would not have been totally stifled by the influence of white culture. A more plausible answer is the influence of Sahel culture in the development of African American music"
Like the blues, Sahel music typically uses pentatonic scales that allows inflections and shadings of notes (the blues notes) as well as the use of a central tone reference, often a drone stroke which renders it "out of turn" around which the melody revolves.[54] The blues tonality is not found in rain forest and Congo music or in Latin American music"
"In 1968 he [the Mali musician Ali Farka Toure] heard a recording of John Lee Hooker and was entranced. Initially he thought Hooker was playing music derived from Mali. Several Malian song forms—including musical traditions of the Bambara, Songhay and Fulani ethnic groups—rely on minor pentatonics (five note) scales which are similar to the blues scales"
"The blues and jazz style of bending notes, melisma (ornamental phrasing of several notes in one syllable which is typical of the Muslim call to prayer), slurs, and raspy voices are all characteristics of music in the Sahel zone. These aspects of Sahel music are undoubtedly a direct influence of Arab/Islamic music. Billy Holiday was master of this style"
As sung by her [Billy Holiday] a note may (in the words of Glen Coutler) begin 'slightly under pitch, absolutely without vibrato, and gradually be forced up to dead center from where the vibrato shakes free, or it may trail off mournfully; or at final cadences, the note is a whole step above the written one and must be pressed slowly down to where it belongs.' Coincidence or not, all these features are found in Islamic African music and hardly at all in other styles
MANA - Muslim Alliance in North America
Mother and son in 1860s-1870's Georgia..the son is playing an African fiddle!
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
"Jumping The Broom," a short history | African American Registry
Jumping the broom.
not a 'Leap of Faith'
Date:
Thu, 1700-07-15
"Jumping the Broom," is celebrated on this date.
This is an African American phrase and custom for marriage.
The significance of the broom to African-Americans heritage and history originates in the West African country of Ghana. During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, most of Ghana in the 18th century was ruled by the Asante of Ashanti Confederacy. The Asante’s urban areas and roads were kept conspicuously clean according to visiting British and Dutch traders with the use of locally made brooms. These same brooms were used by wives or servants to clean the courtyards of palaces or homes. The broom in Asante and other Akan cultures also held spiritual value and symbolized sweeping away past wrongs or removing evil spirits.
This is where the broom comes into play regarding marriage. Brooms were waved over the heads of marrying couples to ward off spirits. The couple would often but not always jump over the broom at the end of the ceremony. Jumping over the broom symbolized the wife's commitment or willingness to clean the courtyard of the new home she had joined. Furthermore, it expressed her overall commitment to the house. It also represented the determination of who ran the household. Whoever jumped highest over the broom was the decision maker of the household (usually the man). The jumping of the broom does not add up to taking a "leap of faith."
The irony is that practice of jumping the broom was largely discarded after Emancipation in America which was consistent with the eventual fall of the Ashanti Confederacy in Ghana in 1897 and the coming of British customs. Jumping the Broom did survive in the Americas, especially in the United States, among slaves brought from the Asante area. This particular Akan practice of jumping the broom was picked up by other African ethnic groups in the Americas and used to strengthen marriages during slavery among their communities.
Jumping the broom was not a custom of slavery, but is a part of African culture that survived American slavery like the Voodoo religion of the Fon and Ewe ethnic groups or the ring shout ceremony of the BaKongo and Mbundu ethnic groups. With slavery over and superficial hints of racial integration allowed, African-Americans could now have European-style marriages. Jumping the broom had nothing to do with Whites. Once Blacks could have weddings with rings that were recognizable by anyone as a symbol of marriage, the broom ceremony wasn't required. During this time, jumping the broom fell out of practice from the stigma it carried, and in some cases still carries, among African Americans who wanted nothing to do with anything associated with that era. The practice survived, and made a resurgence after publication of Alex Haley's book "Roots."
Currently, many African and African American couples include jumping the broom at the end of their wedding ceremonies as a tribute to tradition. And even couples who do not actually jump a broom when they get married, often refer to, or at least recognize, the phrase to be synonymous with getting married in the same way most Americans associate "tying the knot" with getting married.
Broom jumping is also practiced by non-Black groups and in different religions around the world with some variation. Wiccans and Gypsies are among some of the groups who developed their own broom-jumping tradition.
Reference:
Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
The fall of the Asante Empire:
The Hundred-Year War for Africa's Gold Coast
Robert B. Edgerton
Jumping the broom.
not a 'Leap of Faith'
Date:
Thu, 1700-07-15
"Jumping the Broom," is celebrated on this date.
This is an African American phrase and custom for marriage.
The significance of the broom to African-Americans heritage and history originates in the West African country of Ghana. During the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, most of Ghana in the 18th century was ruled by the Asante of Ashanti Confederacy. The Asante’s urban areas and roads were kept conspicuously clean according to visiting British and Dutch traders with the use of locally made brooms. These same brooms were used by wives or servants to clean the courtyards of palaces or homes. The broom in Asante and other Akan cultures also held spiritual value and symbolized sweeping away past wrongs or removing evil spirits.
This is where the broom comes into play regarding marriage. Brooms were waved over the heads of marrying couples to ward off spirits. The couple would often but not always jump over the broom at the end of the ceremony. Jumping over the broom symbolized the wife's commitment or willingness to clean the courtyard of the new home she had joined. Furthermore, it expressed her overall commitment to the house. It also represented the determination of who ran the household. Whoever jumped highest over the broom was the decision maker of the household (usually the man). The jumping of the broom does not add up to taking a "leap of faith."
The irony is that practice of jumping the broom was largely discarded after Emancipation in America which was consistent with the eventual fall of the Ashanti Confederacy in Ghana in 1897 and the coming of British customs. Jumping the Broom did survive in the Americas, especially in the United States, among slaves brought from the Asante area. This particular Akan practice of jumping the broom was picked up by other African ethnic groups in the Americas and used to strengthen marriages during slavery among their communities.
Jumping the broom was not a custom of slavery, but is a part of African culture that survived American slavery like the Voodoo religion of the Fon and Ewe ethnic groups or the ring shout ceremony of the BaKongo and Mbundu ethnic groups. With slavery over and superficial hints of racial integration allowed, African-Americans could now have European-style marriages. Jumping the broom had nothing to do with Whites. Once Blacks could have weddings with rings that were recognizable by anyone as a symbol of marriage, the broom ceremony wasn't required. During this time, jumping the broom fell out of practice from the stigma it carried, and in some cases still carries, among African Americans who wanted nothing to do with anything associated with that era. The practice survived, and made a resurgence after publication of Alex Haley's book "Roots."
Currently, many African and African American couples include jumping the broom at the end of their wedding ceremonies as a tribute to tradition. And even couples who do not actually jump a broom when they get married, often refer to, or at least recognize, the phrase to be synonymous with getting married in the same way most Americans associate "tying the knot" with getting married.
Broom jumping is also practiced by non-Black groups and in different religions around the world with some variation. Wiccans and Gypsies are among some of the groups who developed their own broom-jumping tradition.
Reference:
Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
The fall of the Asante Empire:
The Hundred-Year War for Africa's Gold Coast
Robert B. Edgerton
FEBRUARY 16, 2009 ISSUE
That Motown Sound: Berry Gordy, Jr. and the African-American experience
David E. NantaisFebruary 16, 2009
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Throughout 2009 Motown Records is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a series of special events and performances that kicked off on Jan. 12. Motown’s extraordinary accomplishments include an unprecedented 63 number-one hit songs from 1961 to 1971 by artists that make up a Mount Rushmore of pop music: Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas and The Four Tops, among many others.
The music Motown created, which symbolizes coming-of-age and celebration, is timeless and still important to many. Motown placed African-Americans firmly in the pop music pantheon and created a new sound that appealed to people of all races.
Hitsville, U.S.A.
In 1959 Berry Gordy Jr. started Motown Records in Detroit with an $800 loan from his family. Four years after Brown v. Board of Education cleared the way for racial integration and four years before Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Gordy, an African-American, initiated a pop music revolution in the United States. He modeled Motown Records on the automobile assembly line he had worked on earlier in his life. He aimed to turn out hit songs, create top-of-the-line artists and present a polished image that could be marketed to a general audience. Gordy recruited several songwriters to churn out records. The most famous team was Holland-Dozier-Holland, who penned dozens of popular songs for Motown, including “Please Mr. Postman,” “Where Did Our Love Go?” and “How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You).” Gordy’s model succeeded and Motown became the country’s first “hit factory.”
Motown was more than a music studio, however. It was also a school for the singer-performers, many of whom were local teenagers from less than privileged backgrounds. Diana Ross, for example, lived in Detroit’s Brewster-Douglass projects before getting her big break with Motown. Gordy employed instructors to help his performers choreograph their acts and to teach them proper poise and etiquette. The record company drew heavy criticism, however, for what some believed was a disgraceful practice of making black singers palatable to a white audience. During the 1967 Detroit riots, Motown Records received a number of threatening phone calls.
Ready for a Brand-New Beat?
The success of Motown came largely from what is referred to as the “Motown sound,” which flowed from three sources. First, the Funk Brothers, the Motown house band, made a major contribution to this unique sound. These musicians performed on most of the Motown hits from 1959 to the early 1970s, but, unjustly, were seldom credited on the album covers. The Funk Brothers were responsible for the consistency and groove of the Motown sound.
Second, the Motown sound used a primitive but effective method of generating a “reverb” that helped make some songs sound as if they were recorded live on stage. The music and vocals were broadcast from Motown’s famous Studio A to the attic of the building (known as the echo chamber) through a hole cut in the ceiling. The sound bounced around in the vacant space, was picked up by a microphone and recorded. Years before synthesizers and computerized recording, this was an ingenious method of creating a unique sound.
Third, the performers also made liberal use of the tambourine. Black church gospel choirs often played a tambourine to keep a dynamic rhythm steady and excite a congregation. Motown borrowed this idea for a number of its hit records. The tambourine was simple to play, easy to record in the studio and, as it turned out, more pleasing to the ear when the music was played on small transistor radios, which were popular during Motown’s peak years.
Make Me Wanna Holler
Motown Records served an important role in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Their “Spoken Word” series held the exclusive right to record the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. In June 1963, two months before the March on Washington, Motown recorded King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as he delivered it in Detroit.
The company was also an active participant in the improvement of the city of Detroit, and it hired local African-Americans for prominent jobs. As the leader of the largest black-owned business in the country, Berry Gordy himself was a role model for young African-Americans, which was no small thing at the time.
In addition to its fun, bouncy hits, Motown also produced socially conscious pop music. Marvin Gaye’s classic 1971 album “What’s Going On,” one of the last Motown albums recorded in Detroit before the company moved to Los Angeles, is a perfect example of music that shines a light on justice issues like inner-city poverty, racism, war, environmentalism and drug abuse.
While Berry Gordy initially opposed Gaye’s desire to record this album because of the serious nature of the lyrics, Gordy eventually conceded. It became one of the biggest selling Motown albums of all time. The title song also paved the way for later artists to highlight social concerns. Contemporary rock, soul and R&B artists of all races still cite “What’s Going On” as a major influence.
While the music of Motown did not change race relations either quickly or singlehandedly, of course, it was the first popular music in the United States marketed to people of many races. Ironically, many today note the joy and innocence associated with the music, but the back story is that during a disgraceful time in U.S. history, when blacks were being beaten on the streets of urban America, Motown stars were performing to the delight of white audiences, slowly chipping away at racist attitudes. In this anniversary year, fans are celebrating the music of Motown—and more than that. For its fans, Motown also became a symbol of hope.
That Motown Sound: Berry Gordy, Jr. and the African-American experience
That Motown Sound: Berry Gordy, Jr. and the African-American experience
David E. NantaisFebruary 16, 2009
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Throughout 2009 Motown Records is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a series of special events and performances that kicked off on Jan. 12. Motown’s extraordinary accomplishments include an unprecedented 63 number-one hit songs from 1961 to 1971 by artists that make up a Mount Rushmore of pop music: Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas and The Four Tops, among many others.
The music Motown created, which symbolizes coming-of-age and celebration, is timeless and still important to many. Motown placed African-Americans firmly in the pop music pantheon and created a new sound that appealed to people of all races.
Hitsville, U.S.A.
In 1959 Berry Gordy Jr. started Motown Records in Detroit with an $800 loan from his family. Four years after Brown v. Board of Education cleared the way for racial integration and four years before Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Gordy, an African-American, initiated a pop music revolution in the United States. He modeled Motown Records on the automobile assembly line he had worked on earlier in his life. He aimed to turn out hit songs, create top-of-the-line artists and present a polished image that could be marketed to a general audience. Gordy recruited several songwriters to churn out records. The most famous team was Holland-Dozier-Holland, who penned dozens of popular songs for Motown, including “Please Mr. Postman,” “Where Did Our Love Go?” and “How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You).” Gordy’s model succeeded and Motown became the country’s first “hit factory.”
Motown was more than a music studio, however. It was also a school for the singer-performers, many of whom were local teenagers from less than privileged backgrounds. Diana Ross, for example, lived in Detroit’s Brewster-Douglass projects before getting her big break with Motown. Gordy employed instructors to help his performers choreograph their acts and to teach them proper poise and etiquette. The record company drew heavy criticism, however, for what some believed was a disgraceful practice of making black singers palatable to a white audience. During the 1967 Detroit riots, Motown Records received a number of threatening phone calls.
Ready for a Brand-New Beat?
The success of Motown came largely from what is referred to as the “Motown sound,” which flowed from three sources. First, the Funk Brothers, the Motown house band, made a major contribution to this unique sound. These musicians performed on most of the Motown hits from 1959 to the early 1970s, but, unjustly, were seldom credited on the album covers. The Funk Brothers were responsible for the consistency and groove of the Motown sound.
Second, the Motown sound used a primitive but effective method of generating a “reverb” that helped make some songs sound as if they were recorded live on stage. The music and vocals were broadcast from Motown’s famous Studio A to the attic of the building (known as the echo chamber) through a hole cut in the ceiling. The sound bounced around in the vacant space, was picked up by a microphone and recorded. Years before synthesizers and computerized recording, this was an ingenious method of creating a unique sound.
Third, the performers also made liberal use of the tambourine. Black church gospel choirs often played a tambourine to keep a dynamic rhythm steady and excite a congregation. Motown borrowed this idea for a number of its hit records. The tambourine was simple to play, easy to record in the studio and, as it turned out, more pleasing to the ear when the music was played on small transistor radios, which were popular during Motown’s peak years.
Make Me Wanna Holler
Motown Records served an important role in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Their “Spoken Word” series held the exclusive right to record the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. In June 1963, two months before the March on Washington, Motown recorded King’s “I Have a Dream” speech as he delivered it in Detroit.
The company was also an active participant in the improvement of the city of Detroit, and it hired local African-Americans for prominent jobs. As the leader of the largest black-owned business in the country, Berry Gordy himself was a role model for young African-Americans, which was no small thing at the time.
In addition to its fun, bouncy hits, Motown also produced socially conscious pop music. Marvin Gaye’s classic 1971 album “What’s Going On,” one of the last Motown albums recorded in Detroit before the company moved to Los Angeles, is a perfect example of music that shines a light on justice issues like inner-city poverty, racism, war, environmentalism and drug abuse.
While Berry Gordy initially opposed Gaye’s desire to record this album because of the serious nature of the lyrics, Gordy eventually conceded. It became one of the biggest selling Motown albums of all time. The title song also paved the way for later artists to highlight social concerns. Contemporary rock, soul and R&B artists of all races still cite “What’s Going On” as a major influence.
While the music of Motown did not change race relations either quickly or singlehandedly, of course, it was the first popular music in the United States marketed to people of many races. Ironically, many today note the joy and innocence associated with the music, but the back story is that during a disgraceful time in U.S. history, when blacks were being beaten on the streets of urban America, Motown stars were performing to the delight of white audiences, slowly chipping away at racist attitudes. In this anniversary year, fans are celebrating the music of Motown—and more than that. For its fans, Motown also became a symbol of hope.
That Motown Sound: Berry Gordy, Jr. and the African-American experience
The Top 20 Superstitions Black People Live By
The Top 20 Superstitions Black People Live By
African-American superstitions originate from a mixture of ancient African religion, Native American traditions, and European folklore.
Growing up do you remember hearing that an itchy palm means you are going to receive money soon? Or stepping on a crack can break your mother’s back? Or dreaming of fish means someone you know is pregnant?
In our technologically savvy times some of these are regarded as foolish wives tales, but superstition was part of a legitimate belief system during slavery. There are many recorded instances of slave masters who stated they saw Black magical conjurers that healed the sick, performed spells and curses, and taught others these superstitions.
Although many typically won’t admit they are superstitious, there are many superstitions black people believe in because of how deeply ingrained they are in Black culture.
I have compiled a list of 20 superstitions that many black people pass on generation upon generation.
1. Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.
I remember learning this rhyme as a child, and always thought of it as an innocent childish game, but feared the repercussions of stepping on that infamous crack in the pavement. I recently learned that the original rhyme was far from innocent: “Step on a crack and your mother will turn black.” It is believed to come from the late 19th century racism. Who would have known?!
2. If your ear is ringing someone is talking about you.
I know many people who believe this one. This superstition creates paranoia in many because nobody wants to find out someone is talking about them behind their back.
3. Don’t cut a baby’s hair before his/her first birthday.
If you do so they will have “bad” hair or bad luck. This wives tale may hold valid reasoning. African American hair naturally changes consistency and texture many times throughout their lifetimes, and methods of hair cuts can affect the look or texture. This old wives tale originates from the fear of coarse, “harder to manage” hair many refer to as “bad” hair, along with a recorded history of babies who have gotten sick because they did not have hair to help in keeping them warm. I’d probably research more before I tried it on my child.
4.Sunshine,Raining, and Thunder at the same time: The devil is beating his wife.
This is called a Sunshower when the sun is shining and it is raining and/or thunder and lightning at the same time. Sun showers are very rare occurrences. Does that mean that the devil keeps his wife happy typically?
5. If you keep making funny faces, one day it will get stuck that way.
As a child I always believed this one. I remember seeing a man with very big eyes, and believed that the condition was self-inflicted. It is a humorous superstition, although we all know that your face will not really get stuck.
6. If your palm is itching that means that you are coming into some money.
An itching in the right palm means coming gain; in the left, coming loss.
Whenever my mom’s right palm would itch, we would go buy lottery tickets. We have yet to win, but the itchy palm superstition is one of my favorites to this day.
7. Don’t talk on the phone or turn on the TV while it is thundering and lightning.
Apparently you can get struck by lightning. I always thought of this as a superstition, but recently found out that this one was true. If you are using a landline telephone, you can be shocked by a lightning bolt. There have been lightening related deaths, due the lightning hitting a home and the current passing through wires. Preventative measures have been implemented into most home appliances, but the risk still exists.
8. Don’t put your purse on the floor or you’ll stay broke.
I think this superstition is used to teach people accountability. A magic curse may not be the reason you’re broke if you put your purse on the floor, but it might be the issue if you’re not paying attention to your purse and the valuables inside of it. Although I don’t believe this superstition, I avoid removing a woman’s purse off of the floor at all costs. It would be disrespectful on one hand, and wouldn’t want to be blamed for “cursing” someone to be broke.
9. Don’t go to the zoo when you are pregnant.
Your baby will come out looking like an animal, particularly a monkey.
This superstition sounds like it was also created from racist notions. I was unable to find the origin of this superstition, while there has yet to be a baby who has transformed into an animal. I am sure this superstition keeps pregnant women away from the zoo.
10. Fish dreams means that someone is having a baby.
A friend from college once received a call from her grandmother, asking her if she was pregnant. Her grandmother had a dream of fish. Believe it or not, my friend was pregnant. Call it mothers intuition, or mysticism, it is a very interesting superstition.
11. Animals know when you are pregnant.
This superstition is somewhat true. Some scientists believe that a dog’s keen sense of smell allows it to notice a hormonal difference in a woman when she’s pregnant. This phenomena is not completely explainable, but does happen.
12. If you break a mirror, you will have 7 years of bad luck.
Luck is a funny thing. We avoid things that can create bad luck, and believe that we can use lucky items to change our bad luck to good luck. I’ve broken a few mirrors in my life, possibly the reason I have yet to win the lottery.
13. It’s bad luck to cross a black cat’s path.
This is a timeless myth that originates from multiple cultures. Black cats seem to be mystical, sneaky, and even evil. It is always creepy to cross paths with a black cat at night when you are walking alone. It kind of makes you wonder what might happen next.
14. Never buy your boyfriend or husband shoes as a gift. Because he’ll walk out your life with them.
I know many women who believe this superstition. I never heard of anyone who this has happened to, but I can imagine there are people who can lay claim to this.
15. You will catch a death of cold by walking around with wet hair.
This one is true. Your head releases most of the heat in your body. If your hair is wet and you are in cold temperatures, you are putting your body at risk of getting a cold.
16. Girls are carried high; boys are carried low.
This is a myth about predicting the gender of a baby during pregnancy. Doctors have proven that this superstition is not true. In fact the way the baby is carried depends on muscle tone or the way the baby has positioned itself in the uterus. It is fun to speculate or guess the gender, but this one isn’t scientifically true.
17. If you allow children to sweep the floor, they will sweep up unwanted guests.
I have heard this one before and believe there is some truth to it. Children typically take a long time to do mundane tasks like cleaning, so I can imagine that any guests who arrive during your cleaning process are “unwanted.”
18. When you cross the railroad tracks you touch a screw for safe crossings.
I never listened to this superstition as a child. I always thought it was better luck to get across the tracks as fast as you could.
19. Never put your hat on a bed, or you will have bad luck (or worse die).
I have been guilty numerous times of putting a hat on a bed, and never thought twice about it until I saw a superstitious friends’ reaction. The worst consequence I can remember was when someone laid down on my hat. Poor hat.
20. Splitting the Pole Gives you bad luck.
If you are walking with someone, never let a pole, sign, or scaffold, break the plane between the both of you. After a bad experience, I always take heed to this superstition. One day during the winter I was walking down the street with a group of friends towards a pole. My friends warned me not to split the pole, and said I should walk on the same side of the pole they were walking on. I ignored them, and after a few steps, slipped and fell on black ice. From now on, I don’t split poles at all, or I say “bread and butter” to protect myself from the ensuing bad luck.
The Top 20 Superstitions Black People Live By
African-American superstitions originate from a mixture of ancient African religion, Native American traditions, and European folklore.
Growing up do you remember hearing that an itchy palm means you are going to receive money soon? Or stepping on a crack can break your mother’s back? Or dreaming of fish means someone you know is pregnant?
In our technologically savvy times some of these are regarded as foolish wives tales, but superstition was part of a legitimate belief system during slavery. There are many recorded instances of slave masters who stated they saw Black magical conjurers that healed the sick, performed spells and curses, and taught others these superstitions.
Although many typically won’t admit they are superstitious, there are many superstitions black people believe in because of how deeply ingrained they are in Black culture.
I have compiled a list of 20 superstitions that many black people pass on generation upon generation.
1. Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.
I remember learning this rhyme as a child, and always thought of it as an innocent childish game, but feared the repercussions of stepping on that infamous crack in the pavement. I recently learned that the original rhyme was far from innocent: “Step on a crack and your mother will turn black.” It is believed to come from the late 19th century racism. Who would have known?!
2. If your ear is ringing someone is talking about you.
I know many people who believe this one. This superstition creates paranoia in many because nobody wants to find out someone is talking about them behind their back.
3. Don’t cut a baby’s hair before his/her first birthday.
If you do so they will have “bad” hair or bad luck. This wives tale may hold valid reasoning. African American hair naturally changes consistency and texture many times throughout their lifetimes, and methods of hair cuts can affect the look or texture. This old wives tale originates from the fear of coarse, “harder to manage” hair many refer to as “bad” hair, along with a recorded history of babies who have gotten sick because they did not have hair to help in keeping them warm. I’d probably research more before I tried it on my child.
4.Sunshine,Raining, and Thunder at the same time: The devil is beating his wife.
This is called a Sunshower when the sun is shining and it is raining and/or thunder and lightning at the same time. Sun showers are very rare occurrences. Does that mean that the devil keeps his wife happy typically?
5. If you keep making funny faces, one day it will get stuck that way.
As a child I always believed this one. I remember seeing a man with very big eyes, and believed that the condition was self-inflicted. It is a humorous superstition, although we all know that your face will not really get stuck.
6. If your palm is itching that means that you are coming into some money.
An itching in the right palm means coming gain; in the left, coming loss.
Whenever my mom’s right palm would itch, we would go buy lottery tickets. We have yet to win, but the itchy palm superstition is one of my favorites to this day.
7. Don’t talk on the phone or turn on the TV while it is thundering and lightning.
Apparently you can get struck by lightning. I always thought of this as a superstition, but recently found out that this one was true. If you are using a landline telephone, you can be shocked by a lightning bolt. There have been lightening related deaths, due the lightning hitting a home and the current passing through wires. Preventative measures have been implemented into most home appliances, but the risk still exists.
8. Don’t put your purse on the floor or you’ll stay broke.
I think this superstition is used to teach people accountability. A magic curse may not be the reason you’re broke if you put your purse on the floor, but it might be the issue if you’re not paying attention to your purse and the valuables inside of it. Although I don’t believe this superstition, I avoid removing a woman’s purse off of the floor at all costs. It would be disrespectful on one hand, and wouldn’t want to be blamed for “cursing” someone to be broke.
9. Don’t go to the zoo when you are pregnant.
Your baby will come out looking like an animal, particularly a monkey.
This superstition sounds like it was also created from racist notions. I was unable to find the origin of this superstition, while there has yet to be a baby who has transformed into an animal. I am sure this superstition keeps pregnant women away from the zoo.
10. Fish dreams means that someone is having a baby.
A friend from college once received a call from her grandmother, asking her if she was pregnant. Her grandmother had a dream of fish. Believe it or not, my friend was pregnant. Call it mothers intuition, or mysticism, it is a very interesting superstition.
11. Animals know when you are pregnant.
This superstition is somewhat true. Some scientists believe that a dog’s keen sense of smell allows it to notice a hormonal difference in a woman when she’s pregnant. This phenomena is not completely explainable, but does happen.
12. If you break a mirror, you will have 7 years of bad luck.
Luck is a funny thing. We avoid things that can create bad luck, and believe that we can use lucky items to change our bad luck to good luck. I’ve broken a few mirrors in my life, possibly the reason I have yet to win the lottery.
13. It’s bad luck to cross a black cat’s path.
This is a timeless myth that originates from multiple cultures. Black cats seem to be mystical, sneaky, and even evil. It is always creepy to cross paths with a black cat at night when you are walking alone. It kind of makes you wonder what might happen next.
14. Never buy your boyfriend or husband shoes as a gift. Because he’ll walk out your life with them.
I know many women who believe this superstition. I never heard of anyone who this has happened to, but I can imagine there are people who can lay claim to this.
15. You will catch a death of cold by walking around with wet hair.
This one is true. Your head releases most of the heat in your body. If your hair is wet and you are in cold temperatures, you are putting your body at risk of getting a cold.
16. Girls are carried high; boys are carried low.
This is a myth about predicting the gender of a baby during pregnancy. Doctors have proven that this superstition is not true. In fact the way the baby is carried depends on muscle tone or the way the baby has positioned itself in the uterus. It is fun to speculate or guess the gender, but this one isn’t scientifically true.
17. If you allow children to sweep the floor, they will sweep up unwanted guests.
I have heard this one before and believe there is some truth to it. Children typically take a long time to do mundane tasks like cleaning, so I can imagine that any guests who arrive during your cleaning process are “unwanted.”
18. When you cross the railroad tracks you touch a screw for safe crossings.
I never listened to this superstition as a child. I always thought it was better luck to get across the tracks as fast as you could.
19. Never put your hat on a bed, or you will have bad luck (or worse die).
I have been guilty numerous times of putting a hat on a bed, and never thought twice about it until I saw a superstitious friends’ reaction. The worst consequence I can remember was when someone laid down on my hat. Poor hat.
20. Splitting the Pole Gives you bad luck.
If you are walking with someone, never let a pole, sign, or scaffold, break the plane between the both of you. After a bad experience, I always take heed to this superstition. One day during the winter I was walking down the street with a group of friends towards a pole. My friends warned me not to split the pole, and said I should walk on the same side of the pole they were walking on. I ignored them, and after a few steps, slipped and fell on black ice. From now on, I don’t split poles at all, or I say “bread and butter” to protect myself from the ensuing bad luck.
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
How a Mende song survived the journey from West Africa, in the 19th century to the US, today.
A Gullah Song in Mende
A Gullah Song in Mende
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
Face Jugs: African- American Art and Ritual in 19th-Century
Milwaukee Art Museum | Exhibitions
Georgia Museum of Art to show 19th-century African American face jugs
A History of American Face Jugs
Face Jugs
A Brief and General History of the Face Jug
http://www.kuehnpottery.com/facejughistory.htm
Kongo in the Americas Workshop: Face Jugs in South Carolina
Milwaukee Art Museum | Exhibitions
Georgia Museum of Art to show 19th-century African American face jugs
A History of American Face Jugs
Face Jugs
A Brief and General History of the Face Jug
http://www.kuehnpottery.com/facejughistory.htm
Kongo in the Americas Workshop: Face Jugs in South Carolina
Black Lightning
Superstar
Afeni Shakur feeding baby Tupac
Black Lightning
Superstar
Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the American South.
Black Lightning
Superstar
Oscar Micheaux, in full Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (born January 2, 1884, Metropolis, Ill., U.S.—died March 25, 1951, Charlotte, N.C.), prolific African American producer and director who made films independently of the Hollywood film industry from the silent era until 1948.
While working as a Pullman porter, Micheaux purchased a relinquished South Dakota homestead in 1906. Although he lost the farm because of family entanglements, his experiences became the subject of a series of self-published books, including The Homesteader (1917), which he sold door-to-door. In 1917 he was approached by an African American film company for movie rights to The Homesteader. He refused the offer but liked the idea and made his own film version, thus launching his career as an independent filmmaker.
Between 1919 and 1948 he wrote, produced, directed, and distributed more than 45 films for African American audiences, who watched these “race” (all-black) films in the 700 theatres that were part of the “ghetto circuit.” Micheaux was one of the few black independents to survive the sound era, and he did so largely because of his tenacity, personal charisma, and talent for promoting his work. While on promotional tours, he used his completed films, which he often distributed by hand to waiting theatres, to secure from personal investors the financing for his next project.
Micheaux’s features emulated familiar Hollywood genres, and he used a modest version of the studio star system to lure audiences to his movies. His gangster films, mysteries, and jungle adventures featured Lorenzo Tucker (called the “coloured Valentino”), Ethel Moses (the “black Harlow”), and Bee Freeman (the “sepia Mae West”), among others. Despite Micheaux’s understanding of certain Hollywood conventions, his films reveal a consciousness of race as a force in the lives of African Americans, and some deal directly with racial issues; these include his examination of white prejudice (Within Our Gates, 1920), interracial romance (The Exile, 1931), and skin-tone issues within the African American community (God’s Step Children, 1937).
Micheaux’s necessarily low budgets forced him to cut costs and resulted in technically inferior films with poor lighting, little editing, flubbed lines, continuity problems, and poor sound. Yet he treated issues that were important to his audience, offered an alternative to the stereotyping of blacks by Hollywood, and successfully operated outside the mainstream film industry during the powerful studio era.
@IllmaticDelta and @Black Lightning, I tried to rep y'all but the powers that be told my ass I had to slow down. You both are two of, if not, the best posters on this site.
