The lecture this week was titled “Practices of Freedom and Justice: The Black Diaspora”, given by Professor Mark E. Mack. I really enjoyed this lecture because of its focus on not only the history of the Burial Ground and the influence the Diaspora had on it, but also the exploration of the science aspect of the site. Professor Mack showed us the four research points/questions that the excavation team used in order to further analyze the skeletal remains: the origins, the physical quality of life, the biological and cultural transformation from African to African American, and the modes of resistance (maintaining their own humanity). The main reason for digging up these remains was in order to learn more about the history of these Africans that were part of the Diaspora; the excavation was done in order to discover more about the “negroid” bone structure as well as their culture.
Things like teeth filing and waist beads that were found on the skeletal remains are ethnic identifiers; they are signs of the rites of passage ceremonies that were important to the African people. Though Africans were given the right to bury each other, by looking at the remains at the Burial Ground, there were clear indicators of European influence found. I think the most interesting thing that Professor Mack said was that African burial traditions were carried on no matter how hard the Europeans and Whites attempted to eradicate them. This is just another sign that African culture, even during the present time, were not completely wiped out and that the African people need more recognition than they get for things that are common in today’s culture.
After visiting the website, I learned that there was a re-burial of 415 ancestral remains that took place a few years ago as well as the return of 4 bodies that took an east coast tour. I got to learn about Akoma symbol, which looks like a heart, that represents love, goodwill, unity, faithfulness, endurance, patience, tolerance, and the unity of two hearts. According to the Igbo people of Nigeria, when someone is said to have a heart in his or her stomach, it means that the person is very tolerant. Akoma represents emotion and the need for patience in a time of frustration. The qualities that Akoma represents are used throughout the African Burial Ground. Tanit represents the African Muslims and the faith that they brought the country. The crescent is often used to represent the Islamic faith, though the crescent and star were originally used by the Turks – the most frequently represented Muslims in the Western world. The Islamic faith was practiced among some Africans in New York. At the Burial Ground, rocks encircle graves, a tradition found in Muslim West African states. The roots of Islam can be traced back to the African Burial Ground. Yowa, represent the spiritual and material world. The arrows represent the interaction and movement between the realms of the living and of the dead. Though separate, the cosmogram (derived from the word “cosmos”, which means “celestial world”) represents the idea that the realms are intertwined. The circle at the center of the symbol represents the core, where the dead and living mingle. The symbol is an example of the importance of nature and spirit to Africans. Sankofa, which means to learn from the past, is directly related to the proverb “look to the past to figure out the future”. It is sometimes illustrated as a bird that is moving forward and looking back. In both Ghana and New York, this African symbol can be found on coffins. Legba, guardian of the crossroads and the “trickster”, is part of the Yoruba (Nigeria) spiritual system.
Africans that came to America used all of their symbols as a way to adapt to the new culture. They continued to use symbols that represented different aspects of life despite how far away they were from Africa. The fact that these symbols can be found at the Burial Ground is a sign that Africans were attempting to re-build the life they once had; they were trying to make a place for their culture in the New World. Learning about this project definitely makes me want to become involved in the study of African culture and the African world, past and present. As someone interested in the sciences, this lecture was particularly interesting for me to hear, as it shows that now matter what field you are, there is African history to be learned and discovered.
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