Article: http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/06/03/cultural-influences-africans-american-culture/
The Middle Passage was a trade route where, among many other goods, Africans were brought over from their homeland to be sold off as slaves. Like anything in history, there is both a positive and negative side to events. While certainly the negatives of the Middle Passage (slavery, horrible conditions, mistreatment, ect) are staggering and inexcusable, one result of the Middle Passage was the exposure of African culture to the Western world and vice versa.
The article above presents many contributions African culture provided to America and the rest of the western world (which were unfortunately ignored by American history). African contributions include folktales, soul food (deep fried foods, gumbo, ect), and song and dance including the blues and spirituals. It is nice to see that even when forced to abandon their old homes and customs, the Africans brought through the Middle Passage were able to preserve some of their culture and leave an impact on America and the rest of the western world.
Now the opposite also happened as a result of the Middle Passage. Olaudah Equiano, through his journey as a slave, was introduced and converted to Christianity. Equiano adopted himself fully into this western religion, attending church and praying throughout his life. Many years later, Jay Z's song "Oceans" explores both his history as a black man dealing with the Middle Passage and the negative effect it had on his people, and the present where "blood has been mixed", pure ancestral boundaries have been destroyed and the irony of a black american engaging in the luxuries of a celebrity in the western world.
Ultimately it is interesting to see how both cultures influenced and were influenced by each other. It is unfortunate that this interaction was achieved through the exploitation of the African people, but that is regrettably an ugly reality of history, a reality that hopefully one day we as humanity can overcome.
I really enjoyed reading your post! As a music major I'm going to comment on the African music portion that you mentioned. When most people think about classic American music two genres often come to mind- Jazz and Blues. It is interesting how both of those have deep roots in African music. Both of these style were really a lifestyle and a way of thinking for African Americans of the early 20th century. Diving in deeper it isn't too difficult to see how other American genres of music and dance then evolved from these original two categories. Genres like Soul, Hip Hop, and Rock N Roll all come to mind. But if it wasn't for the interaction between Africans and Americans in the middle passage, I'm not sure if there would be such a thing as "American music." Maybe there would be but it wouldn't have much groove or soul or anything.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Will! The type of music that most people listen to today has some form of African American music. One of the most popular types of music today is Hip-Hop. Many people listen to this popular genre of music, but without the Middle Passage and the mixing of the two cultures, I don't think that we would have any of the same music today.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point, one that Dr. Mark Anthony Neal did as well in his "Will You [Tweet] About Me?" presentation. Both the article you discussed and Dr. Neal provided examples of contributions to American culture by slaves and other black Americans that do not receive credit where credit is due. The article mentions food and folktales originating in African culture that was appropriated by white Americans. This also ties into Dr. Neal's discussion on positive and negative adaptations of black culture, in which he mentioned how MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice used things from what he calls the "archive" to advance themselves and not contribute, whereas artists such as Eminem have contributed to the archive and not used it for his own personal gain. The article discussed in your post provides many examples of negative uses of the archive, in which white Americans stole aspects of traditional African and black American culture and claimed it as their own.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post, it was very informative. I liked how you talked about both the positive and negative sides of the Middle Passage. The contributions from African culture still is very present today. Folktales, soul food, songs, and dance from African cultural are still around today. People tell the folktales of African culture and people still eat soul food, like fried foods, and people still listen to the blues and spirituals music.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I actually just learned the Middle Passage this semester in my history class, but I never thought that it also brought the African culture to the other part of the world, especially the music. that's a very good point.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about the Middle Passage in this sense. Isn't it crazy, through all the horrible things done during this time it also created growth and change? Without the Middle Passage we wouldn't have the same music, stories, food etc.
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