African American, African, Haitian Group and Heritage Presentation

Introduction

• The United States is made of different cultural groups.
• This presentation focuses on the African and African American cultural groups.
• It also addresses the African American and Haitian heritages.
• Haiti is a North American independent nation.
• Its culture is a fusion of the African, West Indian and French cultures.
• The African American is a group with an African descent (Kittler & Sucher, 2007).

Cultural Groups

African American

• This is a cultural group of the African ancestry and sub-Saharan decent living in the Americas.
• Their way of life, religion, and beliefs differ from others cultural groups.
• This cultural group is made up of the black people.
• This group has created a distinctive language (Smith, 2011).
• They have a unique traditional attire.
• This has been borrowed from the West Africa’s dress code.
• They practice rites of passage borrowing from their African roots.
• The ‘jump the broom’ is still an important ritual during their weddings (Smith, 2011).
• African Americans have different burial ceremonies.
• They provide spiritual and emotional support to the bereaved family (Robinson, Russell & Salzman, 2001).
• A weak African American nuclear family structure exists.
• Slavery made the strong bond between families to break.
• The African Americans have been assimilated into the American Cultural group (McLoyd, 2005).
• However, they still face racism and stereotypes.
• Their neighborhoods are commonly known as “Ghetto”.
• They have poor access to health care services (McLoyd, 2005).

African Cultural Group

• They are people in the African region.
• They have a very rich in terms of traditions.
• However, they have changed their culture due to modernization (African Cultural Group, 1962).
• Despite adopting modern religion, they have some traditional beliefs and taboos.
• Traditionally, they used to dress in animal skins.
• However, this has changed to modern clothes such as the West Africa’s kitenge.
• The African cultural group uses many languages to communicate.
• They have a strong nuclear family bond where the father as head of the family.
• The family is valued and a strong bond exists unlike in the African American group (African Cultural Group, 1962).
• Traditionally, they used herbal medicine and had medicine men.
• They practiced healthy eating as they ate natural foods.
• This was before the advent of modernism.
• Their song and dance is vigorous and captivating.
• They value this aspect of their culture.
• They bury their dead in accordance with religious practices.
• There are a lot of similarities between the two cultural groups.
• This is in terms of beliefs and other cultural practices.
• In addition, they live in poverty, and their health practices are poor (African Cultural Group, 1962).

Cultural Heritage

The African American Heritage

• The heritage of their experience and history in the American history is preserved in museums.
• Through art, they also preserve their culture.
• Major artists in this group include David Hammons, Eugene J. Martin, Charles Tolliver, and Kara Walker.
• They also have literally works in which they have preserved their culture.
• The literature has its roots to oral traditions that slaves told stories and fables.
• The African Americans observe holidays as a way of preserving their culture (Kittler & Sucher, 2007).

Haitian Heritage

• Haiti has preserved its culture through artistic work.
• The art work has won the hearts of many people across the world.
• The Haitian culture has been able to preserve its culture through music.
• The Haitians are Roman Catholics.
• There is also an ancient religion – Voodoo.
• The staple food is rice and beans.
• Haiti is a very rich nation in terms of culture (New York (N.Y.). Board of Education, 1996).

Conclusion

• The cultural heritage of people is very important.
• It educates people about their origins.
• It also enables people to understand their culture and traditions.
• There is a lot to learn from the rich culture of the cultural groups.
• This is especially for the people who study history and even the anthropology students.

References

African Cultural Group. (1962). The African Cultural Group present “African Symphony”: Featuring the music of FelaSowande M.B.E. (African composer) : Carnegie Hall … Friday, June 1, 1962, 8:30 p.m. in aid of an African Cultural Center. New York: The Group.

Kittler, P. G., & Sucher, K. (2007). Food and culture. Australia: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

McLoyd, V.C. (2005). African American family life: Ecological and cultural diversity. New York: Guilford Press.

New York (N.Y.). Board of Education. (1996). Haitians : a people on the move: Haitian cultural heritage resource guide. Brooklyn, N.Y: Board of Education of the City of New York.

Robinson, G., Russell, T., & Salzman, J. (2001). Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history: Suppl. New York, NY [u.a.: Macmillan Reference USA.

Smith, J. C. (2011). Encyclopedia of African American popular culture. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood.