African Diaspora Essay

Artwork has been an imperative part of Black culture, and many artist share their inspirations coming from African origins. From the beginning of slave societies to present day, African America artwork has contributed to large parts of United States artistic collection. Beginning in the early 1600 to 1800 “black art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States. These artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa.” The significance of the

“Berlin, Ira. The Making of African America The Four Great Migrations. By Ira Berlin. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Pp 289”

The Africans captured during the Middle Passage encompassed a variety of ethnic groups that did not identify as a singular unit, but slavery in the Americas forced them to see themselves as such, and further isolated them from their individual identities and brought them closer to the institution of slavery. This is exemplified in the attempt to repatriate African-American slaves in 1787 in the United States. It was unsuccessful because of the fact that these African-Americans no longer belonged to simply one ethnic group/tribe/nation. Rather, they were a multifaceted composition of a wide array of various groups in Africa. The attempt at repatriation was disastrous because of the extensive cultural differences between the ‘returnees’ and the

In The Southern Diaspora, James N. Gregory tells the story of migration between the whites and blacks of the south. He focuses on how the whites and blacks moved from the south to the north. Gregory illustrates how two completely different races come together to uplift the American society. Not only does he illustrate the unity of blacks and whites, he also focuses on how the two races had to adapt to a new way of living. Gregory concentrates on how this particular migration recreated the social and political perspective of America.

The Atlantic Slave Trade lasted between 1450 and 1750 and drastically impacted the lives of both European and African people. During this time, the Europeans, such as the British, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Dutch, traveled to Africa in search of labor workers. In total, over twelve million slaves were taken, mainly because they workers to make money, but it also had to do with their race, religion – as they were not Christian – and to civilize them because the Europeans did not believe that they were humans. Due to these European beliefs, the Europeans saw themselves as the most powerful group and viewed slave trade as a business. The Africans, on the other hand, had a harder time transitioning into slavery. Many of them were taken from their homes and forced to accept a new life working as a slave. These events did not come without many sacrifices from the African people. One of the major reasons the slave trade was so expansive is due to the low life expectancy of the slaves after their capture. While the Europeans believed that they were helping the African culture, as well as themselves, the African society as a whole suffered the most.

During the European Renaissance, the immigration of African individual to Europe were mostly for economic purposes which, indirectly caused an increase in cultural diversity within Europe. However, a vast majority of Africans during the European Renaissance were slaves. European’s definition of “civilization” was to classify aliens and divide them into two class, “civilized” and “the barbarian”. To be considered civilized, it depended on a number of factor regarding hierarchical structure, social organisation, and descendant history. This label allowed European to distinguished themselves apart from Africans by labeling them uncivilized. Their notion forecasts the relationship with Africans in the Renaissance. Throughout the European Renaissance, not much was known about Africans due to the European's poor documentation of them. Recovering pieces of Africans’ history, especially the relationship with European, is vital because more knowledge of their past will demystify any misconceptions.

Bowles, M. (2011). A history of the United States since 1865. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

It is essential to note that the term African Diaspora does not describe any single event, group of people or set of customs. It represents a current state of being for many citizens of the world and provides context for understanding the social structures and intercultural relationships of the world we live in today. Collin Palmer provides great insight into the context of diaspora. He writes that there have been several movements, massive migrations of people, throughout history. There is no single “diasporic movement or monolithic diasporic community” to be studied, but rather a confluence of people, events and ideologies that span thousands of years, across every continent. Each period of movement, each diasporic stream, happened for different reasons. Palmer’s approach to the African Diaspora begins with a look nearly 100,000 years into the past. He identifies five major streams, with the first African diaspora that occurred as a

The title, "On Being Brought from Africa to the America" is nearly as frank as you can get. This poem is clearly about the writer’s thoughts about being transported as a slave from Africa such as, Gambia or Senegal areas that were not considered to be Christian land by America’s standards. The identification additionally makes known the concept of suggestion, or change. Phyllis makes use of metaphorical dialectal within the poem, and just as, she become converted from being a pagan to a Christian. The title tells us about being moved from one area to another. One would have observed that the word, brought is utilized and implemented not words such as, kidnapped or stolen. There were no other phrases utilized or implement to indicate the struggle that slaves persisted as they had been taken far away from their place of birth. Phyllis clearly uses a positive tone. “On Being Brought” is the passive form that Wheatley utilizes, in order to make a direct statement. She associates her coming to America as

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olandah Equiano provides a view of Africa and the rest of the world from the perspective of either an African taken into slavery early in his life or a slave of African descent born in the British colonies. Olandah Equiano’s narrative reveals more about the African Diaspora than it does African history itself, particularly with his birthplace called into question. If he was born in Africa as he claims, Equiano’s narrative provides a primary source for the history of the slave trade in Africa and Nigerian history. If he was born in South Carolina, his narrative provides a secondary source for these areas. In either case, Equiano’s narrative accurately reveals the horrors of the Atlantic Slave

1. The pottery Seated Male Figure from Mali is an example of a non- frontal figure. This Sculpture displays a man sitting with his right leg bent and his left leg pulled up into his chest. He has his right arm over his heart and his left arm across his shoulder. There are many raised bumps on his body. His face id shifted slightly to the left and he appears to be concentrating. The caption explains that he is communicating with the gods.

Thus, the concept of Diaspora has different meanings to different people according to their different circumstances. For instance, when the Jews were exiled from the Babylon, they were uprooted from their own homes and they had to rebuild their community and culture all over again, for them the diaspora had different meaning since it was forced. But today the meaning of Diaspora could be limited to any community of a particular nation outside its own country, sharing some common bonds that eventually give the community a new identity within their existing identity, it is notable that this kind

Who are African Diasporas, do we refer to people who were forced to disperse to the Americans and Caribbean during the 1500s to 1800s, or we refer to native Africans moving abroad to settle down. Any of these group falls under the name African diasporas, the culture and values of the African people brought down from generation to generation might have been forgotten by the Africans been forcefully dispersed, but for the native Africans settling in parts of Europe and America, it a question of how to preserve one’s culture in a foreign land. . This diaspora, this African diaspora started in the 16th century, included an estimated 10.7 million forced migrants—about 2 million had died during the Middle Passage—from West, West-Central, and Southeastern

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African diaspora signifies to the societies throughout the world that have resulted by lineage from the movement of individuals from Africa primarily to the Americans and among other regions across the world. The phrase has been historically pertained in general to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were enslaved and transported to the Americas through the Atlantic slave trade. The term of diaspora originates from the Latin word “diaspeirein” meaning “disperse”. Therefore, the term African Diaspora refers to the “dispersal” of Africans beyond mainland Africa. The concluding usage of the term is therefore a support term to define a variation of personalities and groups, who can be labeled as members of the African Diaspora. We acknowledge the depth of the diverse assemblies under the term “African Diaspora”, who may have come from conflicting ends of the continent, have left under different circumstances, and may be integrated into their communities to different extents.In the beginning fifteenth century, Europeans seized or acquired African slaves from west Africa and transported them to the Americas and Europe. The Atlantic Slave Trade terminated in the nineteenth century, while the Arab Slave Trade concluded in the middle of the twentieth century. The dispersal concluded slave trading signifies the prevalent involuntary migrations in human history. The commercial effect on the African continent was devastating, as originations were taken from their