African History, Slavery, and Afrocentric Identity in Hip-Hop

Introduction: An Afrocentric View of History

Franklin and Higginbotham (2011) provide an Afrocentric view of history — one that focuses on how Africa evolved in relation to Europe, and especially with regard to the slave trade. Salient points the authors raise 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 and European societies. From Slavery to Freedom offers insight into how the systematic exploitation of disenfranchised individuals creates wealth for capitalists, but the book is not focused solely on slavery or economics. Rather, it explores how people of African descent, both in the diaspora and on the continent, have made tremendous but often unheralded contributions to the arts, the sciences, philosophy, religion, and culture.

African Societies and the Origins of the Slave Trade

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 authority comes from divinity — exploit others without power. The exploitation of labor and forced servitude is slavery, and it was not unique to Africa. African societies, particularly the great kingdoms of West 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 quickly realized that slave labor would be the most economically feasible means of extracting the natural resources they found. Whereas slavery had typically manifested in African societies as an extension of a caste system, the new model of slavery became race-based. Race was not invented by the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but the trans-Atlantic slave trade ensured that race would forever define social class status, stratification, and hierarchy.

African American Music as Cultural Expression and Resistance

To illustrate unique aspects of African culture and the legacy of its major civilizations, Franklin and Higginbotham occasionally touch upon the power of music. On this point, their book provides a foundation for further research and understanding of works like Giddings's "Afrocentric Jay-Z." American music is essentially African American music. From folk songs and spirituals 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 the systematic exploitation of African people and their expressive arts. Almost without exception, a pattern emerges in which white Americans belittle and bemoan African arts and music, only to turn around and reclaim them as their own.

References

Franklin, J. H., & Higginbotham, E. B. (2011). From Slavery to Freedom. McGraw-Hill.

Giddings, G. J. (n.d.). Afrocentric Jay-Z.