Introduction
The diaspora culture is not a new area of modern research. A dominant culture or tradition usually resonates among people of the same ethnic background when they move to different settings. People take time to cope and adapt to an alien culture or the dominant community around them. This fact is because of huge differences between cultural perspectives of different communities. Traditionally, people used the idea “Diaspora” to refer to Jews who lived outside Palestine. However, the term has evolved to mean forced migration of other community clusters in the world. The word refers to the dispersion of Africans across the United States in the aftermath of the Atlantic slave trade.
The purpose of this paper is to present a comparison of African and contemporary cultural perspectives. The study examines the idea of the African diaspora and how cultural differences affect communities. The essay seeks to contribute to the literary body of knowledge and analyze literature that features African and modern perspectives. The research can also contribute to the development of literature and dialogues on diaspora issues and multiculturalism.
The African diaspora and modern cultural perspectives
African migrants form a large number of people that live outside their countries. They form a large scale transnational community with a unique form and ideals. The African diaspora also has different perspectives in relation to culture and other development issues.
Literary scholars have not conducted comprehensive research on the area of the African diaspora. The advent of slavery and the period of the trans-Atlantic trade had many implications in terms of the African migrant community to the Americas. However, the extent to which Africans were able to move with a majority of their social aspects is still not clear. Most Africans managed to transform their cultures to conform to the new contexts. Diverse theories explain the different perspectives of culture during the African diaspora. Literary experts argue that most Africans preserved their way of life after joining the American society.
Africans experienced ruinous disruption and trauma during and after the slave trade. The illegal trade in slaves decreased their chances of maintaining aspects of their culture. The transformation of the African culture in America had traumatizing effects on the Africans. Scholars advance that the Atlantic slave trade had detrimental effects on the African diaspora. It broke several social bonds that tied African cultures. In addition, Africans did not get sufficient time for socialization to promote the perpetuation of their culture. This idea predisposed African customs to the possibility of extinction. However, the threat created opportunities for other communities to be made. It also provided the Africans with the opportunity to pass their heritage to a new set of generation through cultural training. This perspective also led to significant erosion of unique features of African culture as new perspectives on culture were building in the diaspora. Africans started to interact with the Americans and the Europeans. Africans intermingled with these ethnic groups and integrated new features. Most of the aspects of African culture evolved into a new African American culture.
Literature has documented the remnants of the African diaspora culture following the migration of Africans to the Americas. The slave trade had detrimental effects on the Africans like physical separation from their families, outright prosecution, racial discrimination and imposition of the dominant culture. However, the desire for African cultural progression was an important part of the diaspora Africans. The perspectives of culture during the African diaspora were evident in the political, social, economic and literary agendas of Africans during the time.
Franklin Frazier notes that diaspora Africans and Native Americans have had a dysfunctional relationship in the past. They have had differences on superiority issues. Their relationship assumes the form of fears and differences in habits and hopes.
This study observes that the diaspora Africans derived a lot of behaviors from the Native American communities and cultures. The contemporary society appreciates the role of American culture in the development of Africans. Modern scholars like Molefi Ketu note that Africa’s survival can be attributed to foreigners. The different perspectives between cultural views during the African diaspora and today are evident across all aspects of life. The conflicting views feature even in fictional literature. These facts may be evident in the fictional works of Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison.
African diaspora perspectives showed a critical backlash of the growth of diaspora studies in America. In contrast, today’s perspectives have embraced the idea of foreign studies because they relate to the strategic way of improving Africa’s education levels. The African diaspora ties may be strong in the Caribbean than in the Americas. However, African heritage and views on cultural traditions remain diverse. The African diaspora views show a great interest in popular African cultural music and scholarly activities. In contrast, the contemporary society gains high popularity among people.
This paper reviews different perspectives on women during the African diaspora. Women did not play critical roles in society. Audre Lorde, a poet of “Sisterhood and Survival” notes that during a given period, African women held a conference to fight retrospective culture. The conference would empower women to claim their rights to land, heritage and find an identity in the African society and the world stage. However, writers and critics of the conference evaluated the role of women in enhancing a diaspora culture. This aspect was evident when a circular featured a logo of women holding hands in a circular dance. This effort was a display of cultural retention on aspects of African heritage. However, the essence of the conference created arguments among different scholars and critics.
The African diaspora perspectives reveal a voiceless and submissive woman. The ancient culture did not allow women to express their prowess through different aspects like career development. This notion is evident in women literature in which the woman plays the role of family care. The society sees the woman as a tool for the progression of societies from generation to generation.
In contrast, today’s dimensions on culture consider a woman as a significant member of the society who can operate at the same level with a man. The society accords women equal opportunities to men. Modern views note that the role of child rearing cannot be left to the woman alone. It is the responsibility of the whole family to rear a child to full development. African approaches postulate that motherhood can be equated to womanhood. The role of the woman in the African society extends to the whole community at large. A woman is a symbol of continuity in the African traditional perspectives.
Most segments of the Africa- American culture are still intact in the Americas. The resilience of the African diaspora against domination of the American culture has safeguarded African culture in most parts of the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. However, this paper interrogates divergent national cultures in these areas like the Asante, Magubane and Holloway.
African diaspora women follow the traditional culture they acquired from their ancestors. The traditional African culture circulated in the Americas in the form of literature like songs, narratives, tales and legends (Rangel 28). The African community struggled to maintain generational progression because of family disintegration. However, the community maintained different aspects of their traditional culture through stories and various tales of their fate. Fork tales were essential in passing culture from generation to generation.
Racial divisions embody today’s perspectives on culture. However, this paper explores the emergence of mixed descendants from diverse ancestral cultures. Race and ethnic background tend to divide the modern society more than the ancient one. Today, race denotes a contentious issue in social life, politics and economics. The contemporary society is sensitive to issues of skin color and ethnicity.
Africans had adequate time to transform their cultures and interact with new people in the Americas. Most of the Africans formed new societies and family structures. They started a new life over which they exercised a considerable degree of control in terms of their practices and child upbringing. For example, the Maroon community testifies that the African diaspora retained a significant portion of its cultural aspects. The film,
“I shall molder before I shall be taken” showed that Africans adopted unique characteristics from their captors and masters. These Africans lived in large jungles in the same way their ancestral fathers did. The Maroon community showed characteristics that were similar to the Asante people of Ghana. For instance, the community performed ceremonies and had a clear structure of governance starting from the chief to other village administrators. The community respected its code of protocol. Communication had to pass through the head of the village and an interpreter before reaching community members. This fact could be likened to the style that the Asante communities used. In addition, the Maroon community’s leadership featured matrilineal lines. This practice was similar to that of the Akan communities of Ghana. In addition, the communities showed similar practices to the Saramaka society. For instance, the elders would appease the spirits prior to felling a tree. They would tell God to help them to put the felled tree into appropriate use.
The worshippers would thank the gods for giving them wisdom. They also paid tribute to the jungle for providing the tree. The elders would leave their offering in the jungle. The Saramaka people utilized various forms of oral renditions like songs and tales to pass on their cultural identities to other generations. Most of these practices came from the African Continent. These aspects of the Saramaka and Maroon communities provide concrete evidence of the retention of African culture in the diaspora. The approaches of these diaspora communities were similar to those of Native Africans. The lives of the Saramaka and Maroon communities have introduced a new argument about the nature of cultural change. These communities revealed clear aspects of cultural integration and adaptation despite several years of isolation in the forest.
For instance, they assimilated different aspects of basketry, fishing and botanical medicines from the ancient American people (Okolo 38). They started using botanical medicines through assessments of plants used for medicinal purposes. The original users of botanical medicines were the Indians who invented herbal cures. The other essential cultural change of these communities was the emergence of the Maroon Creole language. This dialect was a hybrid of African, English, Dutch and Portuguese languages. The language was a depiction of the cultural transformation of the Africans.
The area of Louisiana provided fascinating prospects for the African Maroon societies. The strategic setting of the area comprised of expansive marshes, complex river estuaries and thick forests that provided the circumstances for communities to evade detection and subsequent capture by their enslavers. The geographical aspects of the locality enabled the communities to make intricate relationships and bonds. This paper affirms that the African Maroons would take cover in the settings for long periods of time. They escaped their masters’ estates and plantations without discernment or arrest. The conditions of Louisiana led to the creation and development of new cultures like the slave culture.
This fact related to the process of integrating and assimilating Africans into the new slave lifestyle when they became subjects of the Europeans and the Americans (Kinzer 10). The era of slavery had salient merits. The epoch recorded minimal death rates, increased levels of freedom among slaves, habitation in the water sites of Louisiana and a reduced number of whites. In addition, the Creole culture arose during African diaspora.
The Creole culture grew due to the interaction of African, American and European people. The dominance of the African dialects and activities informed the assimilation of the Creole people into Africans. In essence, experts termed it the Afro-Creole culture.
Africans played a central role in the success of the new world. They preserved various attributes of their culture in the midst of difficult circumstances. They maintained close familial bonds until the onset of the Stone Revolt that to a given extent led to their disintegration in 1739. The African populations grew immensely. The family was the only unit in which the Africans made independent decisions. Slave families were essential in transferring African culture to other generations. For example, slaves in South Carolina depended on narratives, songs and folk tales as critical media for educating children about African culture. This practice happened in accordance to African traditions. Most slaves would change these narratives; songs and folktales to suit their predicaments and settings in South Carolina.
In religious culture, African worship featured ancient traditions of prayer. Several slaves in South Carolina converted into Christianity. However, the African converts into Christianity did not discard aspects of their original belief systems. For example, the African Christian worship in South Carolina featured the style of ancient African worship. African Christians worshipped in a manner similar to their traditional expressive characteristics inherited from Africa. In addition, they included aspects of traditional African culture like dances, spirit possession and trances during Christian worship (Edwards 18). The new African Christians adopted certain aspects of Western African music. In contrast to ancient African diaspora approaches, today’s culture focuses on different aspects of society. People tend to share the same ideas and values of development. Culture can be designed to enhance development and improve the standards of living of people across the globe. Governments lay a lot of emphasis on peace initiatives across the world and aspects of human rights. These aspects may be contemporary factors that continue to shape the face of today’s culture.
Modern culture seeks to create a balance between development and sustainability. These issues did not exist in the African diaspora cultural views (Echemeta, 16). This paper underscores the need to assess the impact of globalization and the rise of international terrorism.
Today’s cultural perspectives focus on meeting the objectives of organizations and companies. They emphasize on the need to meet the demands of jobs and development agendas. This fact is contrary to diaspora cultural dimensions that emphasized on promoting African heritage to future generations.
In certain instances, this paper observed similarities between African diaspora cultural views and today’s way of life. Both cultures developed to respond to the challenges that the world presented. In addition, the cultures worked towards enhancing people’s development.
Conclusion
In conclusion, perspectives of culture in the African diaspora may be different from modern ones. The approaches may still be a subject of further cultural investigation. However, the dimensions relate to the massive numbers of Africans who moved to the new world during the trans-Atlantic trade. The American slave masters transported thousands of Africans from Western and Central Africa to different regions in America and the Caribbean.
The slave masters took Africans to areas full of by alien cultures, and they had to adapt to the new way of life and integrate foreign attributes. The American and European cultures started to shape the African dimension. However, the African diaspora community retained significant aspects of their origins. Most sections of the African diaspora remained defiant to the American way of life (Art and Jervis 16). In contrast, today’s culture embraces modernity and values that promote economic development rather than social growth. This paper has succeeded in analyzing the various views of culture in the African diaspora and how they relate to contemporary life. The research underscores huge differences between the two cultural settings under interrogation.
Works Cited
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Echemeta, Buchi. The joys of motherhood. London: Allison & Busby, 2007. Print.
Edwards, Sebastian. Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Print.
Kinzer, Stephen. Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Northern California: Times Books, 2008. Print.
Okolo, Chukwudum. African Social and Political Philosophy: Selected Essays. Nsukka: Fulladu Publishing, 2011. Print.
Rangel, Carlos. The Latin Americans: Their Love-Hate Relationship with the United States. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 2008. Print.