Abandonment and Dismemberment

This week's lecture described African Diaspora in a different way than the other lectures. Dr. Beatty explained the move from Africa as a form of "abandonment and dismemberment". When I think of dismemberment, I think of the way a body may be broken or dismantled. That's exactly what happened to Africa. It was a body of people, cultures, and ideas that was broken apart by the hands of other countries.

As Dr. Beatty stated, there were about six million people entering the New World from 1492 to 1776. Five out of six of those people were Africans. The means of dismemberment from Africa was called the Middle Passage. Africans were unwillingly introduced to a new world and new living conditions. Unfortunately, they were not allowed to openly contribute their culture to the new setting. The question posed in relation to this by Dr. Beatty was, "does physical dismemberment equate to cultural dismemberment?"

The answer to this question is both yes and no. Africans were adamant about holding on to their culture. They did not come to America as one ethnic group. There were many distinct ethnic groups from Africa that came with their own languages, customs, and ideals. Over time, they blended and combined customs to survive their new social conditions. At the same time, their collective African culture combined with that of the Europeans. However, the combination erased a bit of African culture and put the main focus on European traditions.

Africans resisted European tradition in a number of ways. One way was to set up maroon societies throughout various parts of the Americas. They had their own social structures to uphold, and could not carry them out under the thumb of American social structures. Self-governance and resistance was the African's way of reconnecting to the homeland. Through maroon societies, Africans had the ability to overcome cultural dismemberment.

The idea of rewriting history to emphasize African presence and impact is something that has been reiterated in each lecture. Dr. Gbadegesin stated the same idea in context with transforming knowledge to better serve the community. I believe that through these lectures, every student has the opportunity to emphasize African presence so that the world can know the truth. It is our imperative as Howard University students to refresh and renew the ties of African history to that of the world as a whole.