1Africanisms in America

An intellectual debate persists surrounding African culturaltie-overs in America. Many believe, based upon the works ofsociologist Franklin E. Frazier among others, that theoppressive conditions of slavery in the United States separated Africans in America completely from their brethrenon the mother continent. Another group of scholars led byMellville J. Herskovitz exposed compelling cultural,linguistic, and social parallels to African culture, especiallythose cultures in West Africa, and African-American culture. Despite the claim that Africans could not retain their cultureafter a dramatic shift in living conditions, an evident culturallegacy suggests the opposite. Africanisms in America havenot only survived, but also continually evolve. The Americancultural fabric is intricately interwoven with the culture ofAfrica.

Language

Much of the research associated with Africanisms inAmerican speech focuses on the African survivals found inthe Gullah dialect of the Sea Islands. The impact of Gullahculture on the larger African-American population was notpronounced due to their relative seclusion. However, thereare examples of African linguistic links in common English. According to Dalby in Rappin and Stylin Out (1972), someresearchers have shown either direct African loans-wordsin American English or mixtures of meanings and soundswith origins in the languages of West Africa.

A partial list of some commonly-used African words orderivatives found in American or African-American English:

The English slang "funky", meaning strong odor, may bederived from the Ki-Kongo word for bad odor, lu-fuki. TheBakongo use of lu-fuki may be closer to meaning "funky"when used by jazzmen in America. Both use it to praisepersons for the integrity of their art.

"Goofer dust" in African-American culture literally meansgrave dust. Goofer may stem from the Ki-Kongo verbkufwa (to die).

Mandingo, Hausa, and Ibo words have also been found inspoken English. These include: cooter (turtle) fromManding; cola from Temne; okra from Akan and WesternBantu languages; mumbo-jumbo, a corruption of the nameof a Mandingo secret society; juju (fetish, amulet) fromHausa and/or Mandingo; buckra (white man) from Efi.

Other words that find their origins in these language groupsinclude: yam, gumbo, hoodoo, goober and pinder (peanut),okay, and tote.

The "toby" found in African-American culture to mean goodluck charm has its origin in the word tobe, the general wordfor charms for the Kongo.

bad (esp. in the emphatic form baad): as used in the sense ofvery good, extremely good found in Mandingo (Bambara)bad-mouth: slander, abuse, gossip (also as a verb); fromMandingo da-jugu and Hausa mugum-baki, which literallymean "bad mouth" in both cases.bamboula: vigorous style of dance; from Banyunbombulan and similar terms in other languages on thewestern coast of West Africa.banjo: stringed musical instrument; from Kimbundumbanza.bogus, bogue: fake or fraudulent; from the Hausaboko-boko deceit, fraud.boogie (-woogie): fast blues music; from the MandingobugB, to beat drums.cat: man, fellow; from Wolof Kat denoting person asfinal element in compound (e.g. hipi-kat, hep-cat).guy: fellow, person esp. as term of address; from Wolofgay.hip, hep: well informed, alert, aware, of what is going on;from Wolof hepi, hipi to open one's eyes, be aware of what'sgoing on"; hence hipi-kat means someone with his eyes open,aware of what is going on.rooty-toot: old-fashioned music; and rootin-tootin, noisy,boisterous; from Wolof ruti-tuti "rapid drumming sound."wicked: as used in the sense of "excellent, capable" found inMandingo (Gambia).zombie: ghost, raised corpse; from Kindundu nzumbi"ghost, phantom."

Artifacts

2Charm making is a phenomenon shared by Africans andAfrican Americans. A charm made from leaves, and otherspecific items, called the minkisi is an integral part of Kongocharm making. The American luckballs, anti-hex roots, andlove charms are all similar, formally, symbolically, andritualistically to the minkisi of Kongo.

According to Thompson bottle trees, trees decorated by glassbottles or objects, can be found only in Africa and America. These trees function to protect the household throughinvocation of the dead in Kongo culture. Such trees arefound from the Sabine River area in Texas to the coast ofSouth Carolina, with concentrations in Virginia, SouthernArkansas, Northern Mississippi, and Southeastern Alabama,where residents use them to "keep evil spirits away."

Many vestiges of African culture have come to the UnitedStates indirectly. Many black Hispanics that immigrated tothe United States after the end of World War II brought someAfrican culture. For example, the presence of Yoruba deitiescan be found in areas with high concentrations of Hispanicsfrom the West Indies like New York and Miami. TheElegba, an object of Eshu statuary, is prominent in NewYork. The Ogun bucket shaped iron cauldron can be seenthroughout New York City and Miami.

Slave artifacts also reveal a continuity of African culture inthe United States. Mats, rugs, and walking canes made byslaves all carry with them distinctly African traits. Virginianslaves made replicas of the quaqua drum and the Yorubagudugudu drum.

The patchwork of African Americans contains a distinctlyAfrican form. Work found in Vicksburg, Mississippi andDawson, Georgia suggests a trace of Mande visual influence. The symbolic use of deliberately mismatched items persists. One red sock and one white sock was worn to "keep thespirits away" in some African-American superstitions. InSenegambia it is considered important to randomize the flowof paths; evil travels in a straight line. The Mande alsocoded-in discretionary irregularities of design. Thompsonsuggests in Flash of the Spirit that Mande influences,individuality, and self protection suggested by rhythmitized,pattern-breaking textile modes, completes a history ofresistance to the closures of the western technocratic way.

Memorial

Though both Africans in America and Europeans usetombstones to memorialize the deceased, the symbolicsignificance for African Americans is clearly African,specifically Kongo-Angola.

The Kongo-Angola view the tomb as a charm for thepersistence of the spirit. In the context of Kongo religion a

charm contains a human soul, a spirit-embodying, and spiritdirection object. This symbol of the tomb as a mysticalrepresentation of the spirit was carried over to America.Both Kongo and African-American tombs are frequentlycovered with the last objects touched or used by thedeceased. Both groups believe this safely grounds the spirit,keeping it from harming the remains. Kanga Mfunya, the lastused objects, literally means tying up the emanations of aperson. Presence of this ritual has been observed at St.Helena, Georgia in 1919 and as recently as 1939 inBrownsville, Georgia. Some documentation substantiatesthat this ritual was much more pronounced and widespreadduring slavery.

The White Chicken (ususu mpembe) depicted on graves,symbolizes the presence of the dead within the honorificwhiteness of their realm. In Sapelo Island, off the coast ofGeorgia, it is customary to kill a white chicken on the gravecite. Pressed glass chickens can be seen on 20th centuryAfrican graves.

The use of seashells on gravesites to protect and honor theimmortality of the soul exists in traditional Kongo burialgrounds and African-American graveyards. Seashells can beseen on tombs from St. Louis, Missouri, through Algiers,across the Missisippi, to Jacksonville, Florida. An exampleof the use of seashells as a memorial is evident in theCarolina low country, where black soldiers who perished inVietnam are memorialized in such a way.

Humor

African-American humor and African humor havesimilarities. At the eight-day Apo ceremony the AshantiKing is ridiculed. The Avogan ceremony in Benin also hasa component of ridicule. More specifically, the Gusii ofsouthwestern Kenya insult each other's mothers as a form ofridicule. All of these groups tend to use an exaggerated formof humor. These ceremonies are predecessors to "thedozens" and other ridicule ceremonies found inAfrican-American culture.

Religion

Traditional African religions and religious systems alsobecame an integral part of the American culture. For everythesis, there is an anti-thesis. The two opposing forces createa synthesis. Such is the case with the fusion of European andAfrican religions in the New World since 1619. We seeelements of both religious systems in our modern day faiths. For example, African religions emphasize a circular order ofevents throughout ones life span. On the other hand,Christianity, a European religion, emphasizes a linear orderof events like the Chain of Being paradigm in which there isa fixed order of creators and ones destiny that is

3predetermined by God. The synthesis of these religiousphilosophies have created various faiths which display boththemes. This what goes around, comes around, theme is

apparent in todays American religions.

We see the beginnings of African religions in the New Worldwith Africans practicing their faiths in secret due to it beingprohibited by slaves masters. Many states passed laws in the1700's to outlaw the assembly of slaves for religiouspurposes. The practice of Christianity was allowed, yet it wasstill limited by authorities.

New Orleans is an example of an American city that hasreligious retentions as strong or as intense as Haiti whereAfricans are the majority. New Orleans voodoo survives asa conglomeration of various African rituals. Several ethnicgroups openly and covertly display these forms of worship. Voodoo was designated a bona fide religion in 1945,practiced by whites and blacks in America.

As early as 1961, Santeros (a derivative of Santeria which isa combination of African and European religions based onanimal sacrifice found in Cuba) was being initiated on theAmerican mainland. Several other African-Cuban religions are thriving in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, LosAngeles, Washington, Miami, and other major cities, since1981. Many Americans add such African religions to theirindividual systems of faith to serve their individual purposes.

Folktales

Many animal folktales such as the famous Uncle Remus talesare either direct or derivative forms of tale types found inAfrica. Many African-American folktales can be attributedto Native American and European influence. However, somefolktales do not readily correspond to European and NativeAmerican tale types. Some folklorists do not believe anyAfrican folklorist survivals exist, while others claim anoverwhelming African presence.

Food

Slaves were not just randomly put to work on fieldsthroughout the South for the production of wax, rice, cotton,millet, indigo, and tobacco. Masters were conscious of theskills and knowledge in the production of these cash cropsthat Africans brought to the New World. Specifically, theinfluence of Africans on American culture is present with thefoods of the New World. Directly and indirectly, Africansinfluenced the food production and variety of foods. Itappears that the strongest and fittest Africans arrived in theNew World with their culture intact. As a result, all theircultural aspects were especially transcended into the Americacultural fabric. Interwoven into the most important parts ofthat quilt, we see a profound affect on the food production

and habits of Americans.

After the horrifying middle passage, Africans were preparedpsychologically to be active participants in the New Worldsociety. Therefore, Africans were prepared technologically to contribute to the New World. Africans from UpperGuinea brought into colonial societies various skills in thedevelopment of rice cultivation. This is highly obvious inSouth Carolina where planters demanded Africans fromUpper Guinea. It is said that Africans became more familiarwith the tropical atmosphere of the Southern states than thewhite European planters did. Scholars in early Americanhistory have stated that slaves knew more about thecultivation of rice than their masters. The Gold Coast region,similar in environmental conditions to the South, was themain target site for colonial officials to study the productionof food. Reports documented how natives grew prodigiousquantities of rice, millet, and other crops. Officials reportedthat Africans would not alter the environment from whichthey obtained crops. Rather, they would suit their methodsaccording to the environment, unlike Europeans. WestAfricans manipulated crops and not the environment.Africans used floodplains rather than irrigation techniques.Therefore, rice in the delta regions was different from ricegrown in Sudan or Madagascar. According to Rice andSlaves by Danile C. Littlefield, rice grown in South Carolinais similar to rice grown in Madagascar. There were certainlymany Madagascar slaves in South Carolina and in Virginiatoo. During the 1670's and 1720's, many slaves from thisarea were imported. 43 percent of the Africans brought intoSouth Carolina during the eighteenth century came fromregions where rice was an important cropa largerpercentage than from any other region. It is clear that SouthCarolinians did place a positive emphasis on slaves fromrice-growing regions. In turn, rice became a main part of theAmerican diet. Little was it known that Africans contributedto the way we eat.

America was also influenced by the techniques that Africansused to cultivate. When fields were overused, Africanswould clear the land by burning it. This technique was alsolearned by planters and adopted in the New World. Someagricultural practices appear also to have been closer to thoseused in Africa than in Europe and, in particular, England. Africans allowed longer fallow periods for lands comparedto European techniques. This was possible in Africa due tothe relatively greater abundance of land. As Littlefieldexplains, it has been shown that while Englishmen inCarolina had no prior experience with rice cultivation andhad some difficulty inducing rice and other crops to grow,they evinced a willingness to avail themselves of the Africanskills of their slaves.

4In Africanisms in American Culture by Joseph E. Holloway,a clear description is established with respect to thisparticular influence. The annual north-south migratorypattern followed by the cowboy is unlike the cattle-keepingpatterns in Europe but analogous to the migratory patterns ofthe Fulani cattle herders who live scattered from theSenegambia through Nigeria and Niger to the Sudan. Earlydescriptions of Senegambian patterns strikingly resemblelater descriptions of cattle herding in the South Carolinahinterland. Texas longhorns and African cattle were broughtto America with Fulani slaves. Many details of cowboy lifework, and even material culture can be traced to Fulaniantecedents, but there has been little work on the question byhistorians of the west.

Southern cuisine is very much influenced by Africa. Friedchicken, gumbo, okra, and other dishes common in the Southshowed obvious African influence. The word gumbo is ofAfrican origin. Louisiana has gained fame for its famous fishstews and gumbo. The seasoning of southern dishes also hasAfrican roots. Okra is a crop native to West and CentralAfrica. Okra is a widely eaten food of all races in thesouthern United States. Deep fat frying, so common inhomes and restaurants all over the United States, has beencalled a cooking technique, which Africans introduced toAmerica.

Music

When most people think of Africas influence on America,many think of music. Musical influences derived from Africahave dominated the music of America. The music traditionestablished by slaves evolved over centuries in response tochanging environmental circumstances. During the 1600'sand 1700's, blacks carried their tradition through work songs,field songs, and folk spirituals. Then in the 1800's, RuralBlues, Rag Time, and New Orleans Jazz emerged in blackcommunities. At this time, American culture as a wholestarted to embrace such art forms. In the 1900's, Africanmusic reached its peak in influence with Transition Bands,Swing Bands, Traditional Gospel, Rhythm and Blues, andBebop. A direct offspring of Rhythm and Blues was Rockand Roll. Also in the 1960's, we see Soul and Modern Jazz.In the Modern-Day Era, the African musical rootstransformed into Disco, Rap, Funk, House Music, and Go-Go.

All cultures and ethnicities embraced African-influencedmusic. However, many non-blacks did not want to see it asan African art form. Nevertheless, the creators andinnovators of the music--blacks--have often used this art formfor political purposes. African music is not only meant forascethic reasons, but also translate the everyday experienceinto living sound.

In addition to Rock and Roll, Africa has created other formsof music that were primarily adopted by non-blacks inAmerica. Country music, with its use of the banjo, anAfrican instrument, has African origins. Whites in Appalachia played the instrument similar to Senegambians,who played the banjo centuries before the Appalachians did.

In the past decade, Rap and Hip-Hop have replaced Rock andRoll as Americas top-selling and most consumed music ofchoice. With African music in America, the traditioncontinues.

Popular CultureCattle herding was a skill that colonial officials knew thatAfricans were highly skilled in, which in turn increasedtheir demand. Most people are now aware that manycowboys of the American West were black, contrary totheir usual portrayal in the movies and on television. Whites that assigned black males the title of boy, nomatter how old they were coined the term cowboy. Theprefix of cow was added since cows were the main dutyof these slaves. Let us recognize the extent to whichcowboy culture had African roots.

Bibliography

Bascom, William. African Folktales in the New World Bloomington:Indiana Univeristy Press. 1992

Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in theAntebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press. 1979.

Dalby, David. The Afircan Element in Black American English, inThomas Kochman, ed., Rappin and Stylin Out. Urbana: University ofIlinois Press. 1972.

DuBois, WEB. Black Folk, Then and Now. New York: Kraus-ThomsonOrganization. 1990.

Herskovits, Melville J.The Myth of the Negro Past. Boston: Beacon Press. 1958

Holloway, Joseph E. Ed. Africanisms in American Culture. Bloomington: The Indiana University Press. 1990.

Littlefield, Daniel C. Rice and Slaves. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.1981

Thompson, Robert Farris. Flash of the Spirit. New York: Vintage Books.1984

Turner, Lorenzo. Africanism in Gullah Dialect. New York: Arno Press. 1969.

Stuckey, Sterling. Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundation ofBlack Culture New York: Oxford University Press. 1987

Whitten, Norman. African-American Anthropology. NewYork: FreePress. 1970.

5__________________________________________________ Researched by Maurice Mitchell and Carrie Solages, Interns-

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