Running from Africa
 

Is it me or has anyone else out there notice how we in this country RUN from our African Heritage? In our customs(hair styles, clothing, music, speech) and even on the census, we claim everything else but our own. Are we THAT ignorant? Is Africa THAT BAD?
Has anyone else noticed that when you ask an Italian person what their nationality is, they always say "I'm Italian"; they don't even mention America. But we say: "I'm Black and...".

Man is identified by the land from which his forefathers come; where then, is this land called "Black"? Why don't we refer to ourselves as Africans living in America?

Original Ape, I have noticed this also. My latin friends are proud to say that they are Mexican or Puerto Rican, but most of us are appalled by the term African American. We all remember the term "African Booty Scratcher" from childhood.

I think a lot of this is attributed to the Eurocentric history lessons most of us are taught in school. As if to say that White people are the only people on the planet who have ever done anything worth mentioning. Most of our people actually think that Africans are savages who live in the jungle, or are starving in some famine stricken country.

After reading Maya Angelou's biographies, I learned so much about African culture, which is not so different from our culture here in the U.S. The one big difference between Africans and African-Americans is that they are not so prone to Black on Black violence the way some of us are here. In that respect, we have much to learn from them.

NO, NO, NO....you got it all twisted. We readily identify with being called black, as a bruh you should know that there is no disconnection from our African rootz. You need to rethink your point of view cuz i am personally well into Africa, as well as the west indies, and the dirty south(family, friends, bros, sorors and all OH MY!)... We all know this is a universal thang!

One.

I know very little about Africa. Therefore, it would be a misinterruptation for me to state that I agree that we are moving away from African culture. What I do know about is being Black in America.

It's not too late for all of us to learn something about Africa. I am sure we would be pleasantly surprised.

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We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.

Aesop c550 BC

This post is especially interesting to me...

It would seem so simple for African-Americans to just call themselves "Africans living in America" but then that would mean that slavery amounted to nothing more than a change in location. I think we all must understand that A-As ARE NOT Africans living in America. The culture is not the same, the language, the values, etc. Although some things have been retained through the years, much has been lost. And that unfortunate fact is what warrants the title "African-Americans" because although, we all come from Africa, being born and raised in the US, A-As have taken on characteristics that make them strikingly different from Africans.

(Just a thought)....Africa is a large, and very diverse continent, but no matter what, its just considered Africa. Why don't we refer to the specific countries themselves the way we refer to specific Asian and European countries?

That's an interesting perspective.

I think we're gonna have to if we want OUR place in the "New World Order".

When I say that I am Black, I use the term to incorporate all that we are as people of African descent throughout the Diaspora. The overwhelming majority of Blacks (the exception being 1st or 2nd generation immigrants) cannot say that they are Zimbabwean or Ghanian because we do not know from what country our ancestors came. We also have to keep in mind that the current political structure of the African continent is European-influenced (read about the carving up of the African continent into European colonies) and differs from what existed during the American Slave Trade and before. We cannot even say that our ancestors were Fulani or Twa because we don't know. I think we need to embrace all of our Blackness and progress forward and not get caught up in semantics and "others" perceptions of us.


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mccoyred

Dynamic
Salient
Temperate

I agree whole-heartedly with what you said. Did you know that the first president of Mexico was of African decent?

Everything you've said make sense. I believe in moving forward as well. I happen to believe WE need to define who we are; and this is very important to the process of uniting us.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by The Original Ape:
Did you know that the first president of Mexico was of African decent?

You learn something new every day! Thank you for that information.



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We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.

Aesop c550 BC

i've often thought about this topic, it seems all Americans are from somewhere else initially and have settled here thus the term Japanese American/Irish American. BUT they bring over a culture and tradtions with them which is why they still say Irish/Italian then American. We did not choose to settle over here, we all know how our ancestors got here, so due to this we lost the culture and tradition, so as ignorant as we are of our heritage we are still African Americans, but dang most of us are mixed with indian and white so we are African Irish Indian Americans http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif also if you want to get technical. Until Africa becomes a major world power African Americans will continue to get hated on because no one respects our homeland. You don't see Japanese kids for example in America getting picked on by cops because Japan ain't having that, they would put a hurt on this country. what world power is going to fight for us? no one.

I have been giving this topic some more thought. I think it's really pitiful that we know the histories of Ancient Greece and Rome, the Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, American History and contemporary European history, but we don't know jack about the history of our own people. We could easily say that our schools don't teach this information, but then again, we haven't been putting any pressure on our schools to do so. Why would schools decide on their own to become less racially biased in their history curriculum? We need to become more proactive in our quest for knowledge about the Motherland.

I don't think that waiting for the African nations to become world powers is a realistic idea. We need to know about our roots in order to defy the myths and misconceptions about our heritage. The only way to do this is with knowledge.


KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.....

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We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.

Aesop c550 BC

I'm on a mission.

www.pbs.org/wonders/

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We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.

Aesop c550 BC

I'm only going to address a part of what you said. It's true; many of us are multi-racial. I have been working on my own family tree and have discovered this. But, as Peter Tosh said: "No matta where you come from, as long as you're a Black Mon, You're an African!!!"

Not necessarily. Contrary to popular beliefs in this room, A-As are really the hardest nuts to crack. it only takes 2 or 3 generations for Italian, Irish, Chinese, Japanese-Americans to totally assimulate into the larger mainstream society. Italians in the US shy away from the traditional names and give there children American names. In fact, I remember a study of Mexican Americans that saids that by the 3rd generation, many of them have married outside of their ethnic group (mostly to whites) and no longer consider themselves to be Mexican Americans, but just Americans.

I think we don't give A-As enough credit. Even some of the most underprivelged Black youths will prefer to call themselves African over American anyday. ( I know because I work with them) Even the ones who cannot identify a sinlge African country would rather call Africa their "home" than the US.
The above example has far-reaching implications, but my basic point is that A-As are extremely resilient and resistant to change and especially assimilation.
We are the least resilient to marriage across racial lines, also.

But of course, with education, we can teach ALL Blacks to be proud of their heritage and optimistic about the future of the African continent.

I agree with we need to our history although
in my family that would mean a little bit of
everything. We need to start my knowing our
surrounding family. My mother was saying something about a cousin and I said who is that. The point, I don't even know my own cousins that live ten miles away. I am going to work on having better relations with my folk.

I need to study more, but I aspire to be like WEB DuBois, Kwame Toure and Notake Shange and especially Dr. Marimba Ani in their pursuit of their Pan Afrikan heritage...

If you want to put it bluntly, the Pan Afrikanist would call themselves, "Afrikans stuck in amerikkklan".

Read Dr. Marimba Ani's "Yurugu", it's a very powerful book. She breaks down our whole misunderstanding and misuse of our heritage and self-inflicted self hatred and mental slavery to the point where the neo-nazi's and the klan don't even have to do their job in our extinction...

The point is, the most indiscriminate and intricate parts our AfAm culture is all attributible an unchanging Afrika. We only discover this aspect of our "cultural asili" once the hatred barrier is broken down between African Americans and continental Africans. Once this barrier is broken, the immediate connection we make to them explains all the discrepancies of "our" doings that we may take completely for granted. We often wind up saying, "Oh, that's why we do that"... It's as if the Africans have found us--their lost children ripped and kidnapped from their land so long ago.

I warn you, once you start on this path of self-discovery thru an Afrikan-centered perspective, it will be very painful. There will be beliefs, actions and ideals that you will not be able to reconcile between your old self and your Afrikan centered self... Personally, I have not completed my process because I still have to gain something from the "kidnappers" and have to stay repressed for awhile longer. But once release, I will be able to pursue my dreams...

Once we free our self-imposed white supremacist attitude, we can break the chains of our Yurugu heritage and reach our 3rd eye of our unchanging cultural asili. (Just read "Yurugu", then you'll get what I'm saying).

So folx, we may think we are runing away from our Afrikan encoded DNA, but if we remain "true" to ourselves, we'll eventually come back to our Afrikan selves--centered.

I highly recommend seeing the movie, "Sankofa". It's on video. It's rather difficult to get so you may have to goto black websites to get a hold of it. However, if you're not crying at the end, you have completely missed the point of the story...

Just a little drop of our utamawazo...

thanks AKA_MONET!!!
Its good not only to talk about the problem but to provide solutions and areas of research.
I will definitely try to get a hold of Dr. Marimba Ani's "Yurugu". I was wondering if it was available through local bookstores, or should I try an online search first?

Thanks for the tip!

I highly suggest going to the African American bookstores and supporting them first. If you can't get the book there, then try the other bookstores.

Thank you AKA_Monet for the beneficial information. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif