Our African Culture has not left us

Dr. Mario Beatty presented a very interesting message this week in Freshman Seminar. The lecture, titled “Abandonment and Dismemberment: Something Torn and New” was one of the most interesting messages yet. Like all the previous lectures it unveiled some of the ways scholars identified some African concepts. In this particular lecture it considered African dismemberment, abandonment, and the idea that the African culture in America exists. (Beatty)

The definition of dismemberment, according to Dr. Beatty, is to be retched from something. An example of African dismemberment is the “Middle Passage.” Africans were taken from their families and their homes, without their consent, to another place where they were treated unfairly. In the lecture Dr. Beatty said, “[The Middle Passage was a] 1 to 3 month process of forcibly taking African people off the continent [and] transporting them to various parts of the New World.” The way scholars describe dismemberment by saying “blacks brought nothing with them to the new land” or “they lost their culture and heritage” makes it seem like there is no African culture in the African American community; if that were the case then there would be no difference between African Americans and Americans. If blacks were unable to preserve their culture then coming out of slavery and then progresses to where we are today would mean so little to us. In Africa we were royalty and in America we are slowly returning to our former glory. (Beatty)

            The definition of abandonment, according to Dr. Beatty, is to completely leave something behind. For example, scholars suggested that when Africans were taken from their homes they abandoned their culture. However, this theory is disputed by many books as well as things we see in black culture every day.

In the lecture, Dr. Beatty asked us for examples of some of the things that Africans brought with them to America; some things that were mentioned were dance, religion, food, music, kinship bonds, social structures, ethics, morals, beliefs, storytelling, and discipline. Exchanging our Country Marks by Michael Anglo Gomez is totally based on the concept of specific African ethnic groups coming to America and creating “something new out of something old.” That means Africans did not abandon their culture, they kept it alive and many things like the way we talk and the stories we tell started with our ancestors in Africa. (Beatty)

Works Cited

Beatty, Mario. “Abandonment and Dismemberment: Something Torn and New.” Howard University, Washington D.C. 13 September 2011.