Why are AA's the only group in the diaspora who are told get in tune with their culture?

[IllmaticDelta]

One thing that I always wondered in these conversations is how does one measure “Africaness” or African retention?


Because these conversations ALWAYS lead down this path but it’s never clear on how we’re supposed to define this.

What’s the scale? How do you break all of this down?

white people viewed african retentions in very small/stereotypical manner. To them any and everything they saw in the parts of africa where drumming dominated, that was the truest africa. This is why the oldschool white musicoligist had trouble placing the blues because they were looking in the wrong parts of west/west central africa. repost

The things...People look passed the part that Africa is a large and diverse continent, but not only that slaves were taken all the way from Senegal all the way down to Angola. First off most the Africans that came to America came DIRECTLY from Africa, just like any other place in the diaspora, I think people sometimes confuse the slave trader stopping in an island such as Hispaniola as a resting point to refuel, before heading to North America, with them dropping off all of the African slaves in the Caribbean, and taking the Caribbean born slaves to America, and such was not the case for the most part. And people also tend to forget that there were plenty of America born slaves(essentially AAs) that ended up in the Caribbean in the 18th and 19th century, but that's another story.

More importantly the thing African-Americans culturally and musically apart from Afro-descendants from Latin-America and the Caribbean is that our music and culture is Sahelian/Sudanic cultural influence. Like I said most slaves in North America can directly from Africa, because certain slaves were needed for their specific skill(not no damn selective breeding, but that's another story). More slaves in North America compared to other parts of the diaspora(like Brazil, Jamaica, Haiti,etc) came from Upper West Africa Islamic influenced Sudanic/Sahelian region. Why? Because the cotton, rice, and cattle culture and the landscape of North America. Thus slaves from this specific region in Africa were said to be more fit for the type of labor to be done in North America.

To add to this...


AA have a more distinct Senegambian/Sahel element than most Latin/South/Caribs which is why the we have the Blues (more string-lute based than drums with melissmatic vocal styles rather than chanting) and those areas don't.

Origins of slaves based on proportion

South America





USA





Carib






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 that the 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

 

[Ake1725]

Never really thought of this.

I think because AAs are the only group that dont have a land to retreat to, so people look at AAs as a lost people on some foreign land.

Other nations got their own wave going on... their own food.. their own music... their own land... their own governent... their own art etc

AAs got their own shyt too.

AAs have AA Culture which is recognized worldwide and monetized for millions and billions of dollars.

Afrolatinos also don't have their own land tho

 

[IllmaticDelta]

These are the works that is the foundation of post slavery African American life, expression, identity and outlook on the world.

Not food. Not music. Not celebrities.

No Japanese person gonna tell you anime and sushi is what defines them.

No Italian person is gonna point to Mafia movies and pizza and spaghetti as a defining their identity.

dude, usually when you want to explain what makes "your people" who they are, the quickest way is through the arts, food and music and after that history/historical figures

 

[AlainLocke]

dude, usually when you want to explain what makes "your people" who they are, the quickest way is through the arts, food and music and after that history/historical figures

I don' t do that...that's silly...

Anybody can make sushi or pizza or whatever...that's some liberal multi-cultural shyt...

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I don' t do that...that's silly...

Anybody can make sushi or pizza or whatever...that's some liberal multi-cultural shyt...

they can but it wouldn't make it THEIR culture

 

[Karb]

Never really thought of this.

I think because AAs are the only group that dont have a land to retreat to, so people look at AAs as a lost people on some foreign land.

Other nations got their own wave going on... their own food.. their own music... their own land... their own governent... their own art etc

AAs got their own shyt too.

AAs have AA Culture which is recognized worldwide and monetized for millions and billions of dollars.

That's only part of the story IMO. But I think it has more to do with the fact that AA's are American and people generally view American culture as inauthentic due to its proliferation. It's everywhere

Obviously there's more to AA culture than just what's marketed in the media, but most people are ignorant of that fact. Same way most people equate Africa with poverty and starvation even tho there's more to us than that

 

[Guile]

No one wants to feel indebted for being allowed to immigrate here and enjoy privileges trailblazed by AAs so its easier to dehumanize us.

 

[cjlaw93]

AA Gang or nothin
The most hated, the most imitated, and the least celebrated
We all we got

 

[BlackJesus]

AA's have retained less African culture than all of those groups mentioned in OP's post (Jamaicans, Brazilians etc). That's probably the biggest reason why. It was systematically stripped from them during American slavery.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

AA's have retained less African culture than all of those groups mentioned in OP's post (Jamaicans, Brazilians etc). That's probably the biggest reason why. It was systematically stripped from them during American slavery.

dude I just touched on this fallacy....

Why are AA's the only group in the diaspora who are told get in tune with their culture?

 

[IllmaticDelta]

this post make no sense

AAs in America are practically the only "race" who has been b*stardized by their own heritage.

AA's culture is just THAT, American.

it's afroamerican culture a subset/influence on/of american culture

Unless you can wholly trace your linage to a specific tribe/culture in Africa.

new world blacks are mixtures of africans and can't wholly trace their roots back to a single tribe

How can one exactly get in tune with their culture, when a majority of AA's can even pinpoint their origins to identify with said culture.

afram culture is in america from creolization, the same as every other new world black


From African to African American: The Creolization of African Culture

https://ssl.uh.edu/honors/Programs-.../african-american-slavery/obey-03-slavery.pdf

 

[truth2you]

AA's have retained less African culture than all of those groups mentioned in OP's post (Jamaicans, Brazilians etc). That's probably the biggest reason why. It was systematically stripped from them during American slavery.

Why do people act like every place that had slaves are so African in culture, except for Americans?

Jamaicans got a lot of their culture from Indians, and Britians. They call herb ganja which is Indian, they eat curry which is Indian, they use english terms, and certain other things from the Brits

Brazil got a lot of their culture from the Portugese, and Other latins got theirs from a mix of African, and Spanish. The food, to the music, to the religion

NONE of us who came to the west retained most of our culture, we kept some, mixed with others, and made our own thing

The problem is everyone else fronts like they are special when they are no different from us. And culture is not some holy thing, it changes, as times change. The only people who keep doing something for hundreds of years are people who never advanced. You should actually be ashamed to say you have been doing the same thing for that long, and never improved on certain things.

 

[BlackJesus]

Why do people act like every place that had slaves are so African in culture, except for Americans?

Jamaicans got a lot of their culture from Indians, and Britians. They call herb ganja which is Indian, they eat curry which is Indian, they use english terms, and certain other things from the Brits

Brazil got a lot of their culture from the Portugese, and Other latins got theirs from a mix of African, and Spanish. The food, to the music, to the religion

NONE of us who came to the west retained most of our culture, we kept some, mixed with others, and made our own thing

The problem is everyone else fronts like they are special when they are no different from us. And culture is not some holy thing, it changes, as times change. The only people who keep doing something for hundreds of years are people who never advanced. You should actually be ashamed to say you have been doing the same thing for that long, and never improved on certain things.

African Americans speak english, worship a white man's god (in white people's image). play the white man's instruments etc.

Afro-Brazillians, even whiter looking ones, basically worship African gods under the mantle of Catholicism. Their dance, martial arts, music, clothing is African. Carnival is African.

Jamaicans speak patois, which is African words mixed with English. Their dance, music and culture is heavily African.

They both have retained alot more.And if we're keeping it real AA's are under the thumb of whites. Other black groups have some measure of independence from whites. AA's are at the mercy of white people 24/7.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

African Americans speak english,

dude, every black person in the new world speaks the white mans tongue

french (french) west indies

latin america (spanish)

british west indies (english)

worship a white man's god (in white people's image).

unless im missing something new world blacks are overwhelmingly christians

play the white man's instruments etc.

all new world blacks do this

Afro-Brazillians, even whiter looking ones, basically worship African gods under the mantle of Catholicism. Their dance, martial arts, music, clothing is African. Carnival is African.

brazil is top 2 most african and even then they're heavily creolized with european influence in food, dance and music

Jamaicans speak patois, which is African words mixed with English.

jamaicans are english speakers

Their dance, music and culture is heavily African.

their music is heavily afram influenced from ska down to dancehall

They both have retained alot more.

brazil? yes

jamica? no

And if we're keeping it real AA's are under the thumb of whites. Other black groups have some measure of independence from whites. AA's are at the mercy of white people 24/7.

aframs live in pred white country but are foundational to american culture while also having their own distinct culture from white americans

 

[BigMan]

Not true actually...outside of brazil and cuba and haiti on a lesser level, everyone else has a level of creolization where one can debate the africaness. What's obvious and a point I mentioned before, if all these other "blacks" in the new world were more/had a deeper african well to draw from than aframs, how come the majority of these islands didn't create/produce the same level of folklore, tales, music etc as Aframs? To me it seems they were the ones lacking in africaness to pull from. Remember, even Jamaica wasn't even producing musically on global scale before they soaked up alot of Afram based culture

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common sense would tell you its because there's an infinite amount more people in the US than the Caribbean