THE EFFORTS of many black Americans to establish an African heritage are puzzling. One would think that a realistic appraisal of African involvement in the slave trade would be sufficient grounds for rejection of such a "heritage."
The African "heritage" of the slaves consisted of near-Stone Age subsistence in little villages far inland from the western coast. The prosperous and well-armed coastal tribes sent their raiders to central African villages where they killed everyone except the healthy teens and adults, and then dragged them, terrified and bereft of everything, to the coastal forts to be sold to English, Spanish and Portuguese traders.
The myth that Europeans conquered Africa and enslaved the people is false. The European conquest came after the slave trade was abolished. Only West African coastal kings captured and sold slaves.
Of the estimated 11 million slaves thus taken, only about 750,000 were brought to North America. Despite the rigors of their forced labor, these not only survived but they grew and multiplied into the generations of their heirs. The agricultural export economy of the 17th through 19th century America and most of the buildings, roads and canals of southern states were built by these enslaved people. The rest of the African slaves were taken to Caribbean islands or South America where they were wasted under the harshest system of absentee plantation owners.
The Kwanzaa celebration offers an example of the absurdity of pseudo-African "heritage." Invented by a college professor in California, the words used in the annual observance are Swahili. Virtually no slaves were brought to the Western hemisphere from east Africa, the home of Swahili. There is no authentic lineage from Swahili-speaking people to U.S. descendants of slaves.
Similarly, the adoption of Islamic separatism by some American slave descendants seems tragically contrary to their history. Islamic people from north Africa routinely enslaved sub-Saharan black Africans for centuries prior to the trans-Atlantic trade. Islamic coastal tribes in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, etc., were principals in the raids to capture and sell non-Muslim people into slavery.
Any moral connection between African cultures of the 17th and 18th centuries and the slaves taken to America during these centuries of the trade was shattered by the slaves being captured and sold by fellow Africans. It seems as odd for descendants of slaves to honor such connections as it would be for European Jews to honor their Lithuanian, Polish or German "heritage."
The notion behind both Kwanzaa and Islamic separatism suggests that the fractured ancestry of the American descendants of slaves caused them to "lose" their culture and that it needs restoration by imitating or inventing these African connections. It also assumes that we of other ancestry have no similar "lost" culture.
It seems as silly for modern American blacks to dress up and play African as it would be for me to demonstrate my "cultural heritage" by: 1. wearing German lederhosen and eating sauerkraut and sausage for six months a year; 2. putting on scratchy homespun Irish woolens and eating oatmeal and mutton stew five months a year; and 3. sporting a Seneca breechcloth and eating squash and venison in August. Although interesting (especially the Seneca part) my "heritages" are totally foreign to me.
All of our ancestors lost or abandoned their old world culture in order to develop a new life, although some groups have Americanized various customs. Indeed, the slaves retained and developed many of their practices and much of their language. Many elements of their culture have been mixed into American culture.
The best and truest cultural development of American descendants of African slaves is right here. It is one of hard work despite little promise of success; pride despite degradation; honor and patience despite a natural anger against the injustices suffered; and a joy of great music, good food and wonderful humor. Such cultural virtues need to be recognized, emphasized and honored. No one need look to imaginary or mythical cultures of separatism when our shared cultural heritage is here to enjoy and be proud of while we work to overcome its failings.
Ronald Bowers writes from Lutherville.