In 1968 James Brown released his recording of “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud.” Was James attempting to bond us to our associations between our people and our ancestral past? Was the song intended to illustrate how African Americans have retained links with our African past through the horrors of the middle passage, slavery and segregation?
What did it represent to you? Did it propose to you that we should be actively researching, analyzing and scripting our own histories?
There is so much we do not know or have forgotten of our birthright, customs and traditions, because what little history there is of our ancestors is often vague or distorted.
The accurate records of education, culture, diet, faith and religion were long disregarded by the writers of American history textbooks. While we were in the grips of the Jim Crow South, experiencing racial discrimination in housing and schools, not too many focused on the self-motivated activities of peoples of African descent who were remaking themselves and their worlds. Very few focused on the academic achievements of our people. But there were many.
By the 12th century, Timbuktu (in West Africa) had three universities (Sankore University, Jingaray Ber University and Sidi Yahya University) and 180 schools. This was the golden age of Africa. Books were not only written in Timbuktu, but they were also imported and copied there. Mansa Mussa’s pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 had made Mali known worldwide
African-American history starts in the 1500s with the first Africans coming from Mexico and the Caribbean to the Spanish territories of Florida, Texas and other parts of the South. And as early as 1526, Africans rebelled and ran away in South Carolina.
Enslaved Africans were not permitted to marry, thus they created their own ritual to honor their nuptials. To symbolize their commitment, slaves jumped the broom as if to sweep away the old and bring in the new. Africans continued the jumping the broom ritual as a way to maintaining a tie to their culture and homeland. Depending on where Africans lived, there were many different variations of wedding rituals in addition to jumping the broom.
In Yoruba communities in West Africa, couples performed a Yoruba Tasting Ceremony, also known as the Tasting of the Four Temperaments. The Yoruba Ceremony involves tasting four elements which illustrates the experiences that a couple is expected to go through during their marriage. The elements include bitter, sweet, sour and hot. Water is used to cleanse the palate and represent a way of moving forward.
Asserting our right to worship, our ancestors who were not Muslim were attracted to the Baptist and the Methodist faiths. Their messages of personal salvation gave black slaves a spiritual escape from their hardships on Earth. These messages inspired them to share a personal relationship with Christ, as knowing and believing in a loving heavenly Father gave them the hope of a having a much better future, spending eternity in heaven with Christ.
The cultures of black migrants from the South, the Caribbean, Haiti and Africa have had an extraordinary impact on American arts and culture. Today’s African Americans are heirs to all the migrations that have formed and transformed African America, the United States and the West.
In the movie industry, we have come from Birth of a Nation to Death of a People with such silver screen atrocities as Menace II Society, New Jack City, Boyz in the Hood and Juice.
Now, we must develop a new interpretation of African-American history and culture. We must again form our own survival skills and efficient networks. We left the plantations and have settled in the urban centers, but now we are killing ourselves and each other with guns and preventable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and HIV/AIDS.
June is Black Music Month and James Brown stated it well: “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud. Or are we?
Please listen the Bernie Hayes radio program Monday through Friday at 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. on WGNU-920 AM or www.wgnu920am.com. Please watch the Bernie Hayes TV program Saturday Night at 10 p.m. and Friday Morning at 9 a.m. on KNLC-TV Ch. 24. I can be reached by e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net.
