The shared cultural practices of the diverse West African ethnic groups brought to the United States through the middle passage had a powerful impact on the culture of enslaved African Americans, most evident in slaves' folklore, music, religion, rituals, and language.
Enslaved Africans left their cultural stamp on other aspects of American culture. Southern American speech patterns, for instance, are heavily influenced by the language patterns invented by enslaved Africans. Southern cuisine and "soul food" are nearly synonymous.
Despite these hardships, Africans in colonial America developed a vibrant culture that embodied a combination of resistance against their enslavers, adopted Christian worship, and customs from their native Africa.
A strong African influence pervades music, dance, the arts, literature, speech forms, and religious practices in Latin America and the Caribbean. Africans, whether as slaves or free immigrants, brought a variety of different cultural influences to the New World.
Africans exercised their tastes over cuisine whenever possible. Song and dance traditions comparable to African custom were commonly seen in the American South. Folk arts such as basket weaving followed the African model. Even marriage patterns tended to mirror those established overseas.
Black culture's influence on American culture doesn't end with its contributions to music. Fashion is also a category in which Blacks have made their own unique contributions, many of which have become noted milestones in the fashion industry. Fashion within Black culture began with church style in the South.
West Africa forms the westernmost region of the African continent. People have occupied the area for thousands of years, and its population is ethnically diverse though culturally relatively similar. The beliefs of native cultures include Islam, Christianity and various traditional African religions.
African Influences
While Europeans influenced Latin American music in terms of instruments and expressions, Africans came with their traditional beats and unique sounds that have always been part of their culture due to religious ceremonies and rituals that included drumming as well as music.
Although most of Latin America was colonized by Spain, the countries of Portugal and France also had major influences on the region. Due to war and disease, native populations were decimated.
On average, African Americans are of West/Central African with some European descent; some also have Native American and other ancestry. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American.
The slaves were unwilling participants in the growth of the colonies and they greatly contributed to economic and cultural development of the Americas. They brought expertise in agriculture as well as their own culture such as music, religion, and food to influence American societies.
In addition, slaves exerted a profound influence on all aspects of American culture. The American language is filled with Africanisms. Such words as bogus, bug, phony, yam, tote, gumbo, jamboree, jazz, and funky all have African roots. Our cuisine, too, is heavily influenced by African practices.
What are 3 aspects of African American life that had roots in African culture. 3. legends, folktales, stories and jokes told by slaves.
What effects do you think slavery had on the populations and cultures of West African countries? They made them angry. Hatred toward those who took there people an used/treated them in the way that they did.
The folding chair, gas mask, traffic signal, automatic elevator doors, potato chips and the Super Soaker childrens's water gun toy were all invented by Black innovators.
African Americans are largely the descendants of enslaved people who were brought from their African homelands by force to work in the New World. Their rights were severely limited, and they were long denied a rightful share in the economic, social, and political progress of the United States.
FROM AFRICA TO THE AMERICAS
In the 360 years between 1500 and the end of the slave trade in the 1860s, at least 12 million Africans were forcibly taken to the Americas - then known as the "New World" to European settlers. This largest forced migration in human history relocated some 50 ethnic and linguistic groups.
Before the arrival of Europeans in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the region was home to many indigenous peoples, a number of which had advanced civilizations, most notably from South; the Olmec, Maya, Muisca and Inca.
The two European countries who occupied the land were the Netherlands (1652-1795 and 1803-1806) and Great Britain (1795-1803 and 1806-1961). Although South Africa became a Union with its own white people government in 1910, the country was still regarded as a colony of Britain till 1961.
Slavery in practice
Over 70 percent of slaves in Latin American worked on sugar cane plantations due to the importance of this crop to economies there at the time. Slaves also worked in the production of tobacco, rice, cotton, fruit, corn and other commodities.
In Africa, music is a social activity in which almost everyone participates. Music highlights African values, with various traditions accompanied by a melody. Many events of importance are celebrated with music, whether it is a marriage, a birth, or a ceremonial rite of passage.
Latin American music, musical traditions of Mexico, Central America, and the portions of South America and the Caribbean colonized by the Spanish and the Portuguese. These traditions reflect the distinctive mixtures of Native American, African, and European influences that have shifted throughout the region over time.
The shared cultural practices of the diverse West African ethnic groups brought to the United States through the middle passage had a powerful impact on the culture of enslaved African Americans, most evident in slaves' folklore, music, religion, rituals, and language.
Many beautiful and symbolic textiles, sculptures, baskets, and masks were created in West Africa and have influenced our culture. Stamped fabrics, story fabrics, and 'kente' cloth are all representative of Western African culture.
Towards the beginning of the 20th century, traditional African sculpture had a powerful influence on European artists who formed an avant-garde for modern art. Early modernism's pictorial flatness, vibrant color palette, and fragmented Cubist shapes were all a result of this experience.