Research Catalog

Title

The African presence in black America / edited by Jacob U. Gordon.

Author

Gordon, Jacob U.

Publication

Trenton, N.J. : Africa World, 2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Gordon, Jacob U.

Description

409 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

• It is generally accepted that Africa is the "ancestral homeland" of Black Americans. They came at different times, and most of them were brought against their will. Recent scholarship reveals that some Africans came before Columbus, while others came "after the Mayflower" as new immigrants in search of the American dream.
• However, the question of the extent to which African way of life was transplanted and preserved in the New World has been the subject of scholarly debate for many years and two schools of thought have emerged. Some scholars contend that nothing existed in Africa that approached civilization and that there was therefore nothing for Africans to bring with them to the New World. They also argue that the severity of the plantation system and the acculturation processes of the slaves destroyed any Africanism in the New World. On the other hand, some scholars have insisted that the African cultural heritage can still be seen in many aspects of the American life and thought today.
• This volume revisits the debate by probing several questions including what aspects of the African way of life and value systems were transplanted and preserved in America, what the significance of African contributions is to American civilization, what role Africa played in the Black American struggle for freedom and equal justice, what aspects of the African cultural influence black identity in the black communities, and what the future of African impact is on American culture. The volume is divided into three major parts: Africa in African American life, African survivals in the black community, and lastly, Africanisms in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Subject

• African Americans
• African Americans > History
• African Americans > Social life and customs
• African Americans > Intellectual life
• African diaspora
• United States > African influences
• Africa > Civilization

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Part 1. Africa in african american life. Africanisms in african american life and history / Jacob U. Gordon -- Africanisms in african american music / Portia K. Maultsby -- African or american? a dialectical analysis of jazz music / John H. McClendon III -- African cultural retentions in lousiana and beyond / Dorothy Jean Vick Smith -- The african background of medical science / Charles S. Finch III -- Part 2. African survivals in the black community. Passages / Paul Hill, Jr. -- Some major african american ancestral sites: their anthropological, historical, and political significance / Velestra Jenkins -- Ancestral communion in contemporary african american literature / Kamau Kemayo -- An african cultural renaissance on the sea islands / Tracey Snipe -- Part 3. Africanisms in the civil rights movement / Africa in the black diaspora struggle: paradigms and perspectives / Tunde Adeleke -- The pragmatics of afrocentric communication patterns: some implications for african americans / Christopher Atang -- African diunitality in the discourse of Martin Luther King Jr.: the case of "I have a dream" / Dorthy Pennington -- Penn school: an enduring enterprise in black education, 1862-2000 / Jacob U. Gordon -- Toward educational justice: africanisms in american education / Charles C. Jackson.

ISBN

1592210783

OCLC

52057652

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library