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Franklin & Higgenbotham (2011) provide an Afro-centric view of history, albeit one that focuses on how Africa evolved vis-a-vis Europe and especially with regards to the slave trade. Salient points F&H point out include the diversity, richness, and complexity of African societies and their relationships with one another as well as with outside traders from Europe and the Middle East. Social stratification, hierarchy, and patriarchy all characterized the most powerful and important African societies. The slave trade, both trans-Atlantic and across the Mediterranean, transformed both African societies and European ones as well. The F&H book offers insight into how the systematic exploitation of disenfranchised individuals creates wealth for capitalists, but the book is not focused on slavery or economics. Rather, From Slavery to Freedom talks about how people of African decent, in the diaspora and on the continent, have made tremendous but often unheralded contributions to the arts, the sciences, philosophy, religion, and culture.
To illustrate unique aspects about African culture and the legacy and merit of some of its major civilizations, F&H occasionally touch upon the power of music. On this note, the F&H book provides a foundation for further research and understanding of articles like Giddings’s “Afrocentric...
From folk songs and spirituals in feeding the emergence of the blues, to jazz and early rock and roll, and finally including hip-hop, the most quintessentially American musical forms are African in origin and expression. Often these musical forms have been co-opted or appropriated, for financial gain. The arrogance of racism has enabled systematic exploitation of African people and their expressive arts. Almost without exception, a pattern emerges in which the whites in American society belittle and bemoan African arts and music, only to turn around the reclaim them as their own.
Slavery has existed since the earliest sedentary civilizations arose in Africa and elsewhere in the world. As soon as wealth can be accumulated in the form of surplus goods, people in positions of power—such as landholders or those who claim their power comes from divinity—exploit others without power. The exploitation of labor and forced servitude is slavery and was not unique to Africa. African societies, particularly the great kingdoms in Western Africa, practiced slavery just as the great civilizations of the Middle East did. During the age of exploration, imperialism, and colonialism, Europeans recognized the inherent value of New World lands and…
References
Franklin, J.H. & Higgenbotham, E.B. (2011). From Slavery to Freedom. McGraw-Hill.
Giddings, G.J. (n.d.). Afrocentric Jay-Z.
African-American Studies Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance is a cultural movement that began during the second decade of the 20th century, also known as the "New Negro Movement." The Harlem Renaissance came about as a result of a series of changes in American society during the time. One major turning point during this period of American history was the significant changes in the American population. Reconstruction was over; the country began its
African-American History (Chicago Citation) Robert Purvis was an important member of the abolitionist community in the United States during the mid-1800's. Originally from South Carolina, Purvis was only 1/4 black, and although he was light skinned enough to pass for white, chose to present himself as a black man. Purvis was important for his association with a number of abolitionist causes including the founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Young Men's Antislavery
The simultaneous convergence of these leaders, groups, and movements, is easy to understand when one considers the environment of the Harlem area during the early 1900s. With vast numbers of new African-American citizens having come from the racist south, the area was ripe with social, political, and cultural concepts that come with new found freedom. In such a charged atmosphere, leaders such as Garvey had an audience ready to listen,
Furthermore, as a result of these conditions there was a general failure of black business and entrepreneurships. "Black businesses failed, crushing the entrepreneurial spirit that had been an essential element of the Negro Renaissance." (the Great Depression: A History in the Key of Jazz) However this did not crush the general spirit of the African-American people and there was a resurgence of black culture and enterprise in area such as
African-Americans History And Culture The false and misleading notion that "African-Americans created themselves" completely ignores and invalidates the rich history of those whose ancestry lies in the great African continent. While African-Americans have adopted and incorporated many cultures into their own (not unlike any other cultural group in America) that in no way signifies that African-American's have no culture or history of their own. "Black people have no history, no heroes, no
Thus, the New Negro Movement refers to the new way of thinking, and encompasses all the elements of the Negro Renaissance, artistically, socially and politically (New). The Harlem Renaissance changed the dynamics of African-American culture in the United States forever, for it was proof that whites did not have a monopoly on literature, arts and culture (Harlem). The many personalities of the era, such as composer Duke Ellington, dancer Josephine