How were blacks in American slavery formed, out of a multiplicity of African ethnic peoples, into a single people? In this major study of Afro-American culture, Sterling Stuckey, a leading thinker on black nationalism for the past twenty years, explains how different African peoples interacted during the nineteenth century to achieve a common culture. He finds that, at the time of emancipation, slaves were still overwhelmingly African in culture, a conclusion with profound implications for theories of black liberation and for the future of race relations in America. By examining anthropological evidence about Central and West African cultural traditions--Bakongo, Ibo, Dahomean, Mendi and others--and exploring the folklore of the American slave, Stuckey has arrived at an important new cross-cultural analysis of the Pan-African impulse among slaves that contributed to the formation of a black ethos. He establishes, for example, the centrality of an ancient African ritual--the Ring Shout or Circle Dance--to the black American religious and artistic experience. Black nationalist theories, the author points out, are those most in tune with the implication of an African presence in America during and since slavery. Casting a fresh new light on these ideas, Stuckey provides us with fascinating profiles of such nineteenth century figures as David Walker, Henry Highland Garnet, and Frederick Douglas. He then considers in detail the lives and careers of W. E. B. Dubois and Paul Robeson in this century, describing their ambition that blacks in American society, while struggling to end racism, take on roles that truly reflected their African heritage. These concepts of black liberation, Stuckey suggests, are far more relevant to the intrinsic values of black people than integrationist thought on race relations. But in a final revelation he concludes that, with the exception of Paul Robeson, the ironic tendency of black nationalists has been to underestimate the depths of African culture in black Americans and the sophistication of the slave community they arose from.
An updated edition of the highly acclaimed contribution to African-American scholarship, 'Slave Culture' considers how various African peoples interacted on the plantations of the South to achieve a common culture, tracing of the roots of ...
Going Through the Storm covers the entire spectrum of African American culture, presenting a new look at the foundations of black culture and the civil right movement within the context of slavery and slave music.
The story of the influential Black nationalist organization and its leader, the man who invented Kwanza.
Ron Eyerman explores the formation of African American identity through the cultural trauma of slavery.
The Ideological Origins of Black Nationalism
In this book, Kling traces the story of how specific biblical texts have emerged to be the inspiration of movements and collective responses that have changed the course of history.
This is the first comprehensive collection of writings by Martin Delany, one of the nineteenth century's most influential African American leaders.
In addition, the tunes and texts of twenty-five shout songs performed by the McIntosh County Shouters are transcribed by ethnomusicologist Johann S. Buis.Shout Because You're Free is a fascinating look at a unique living tradition that ...
In 1874 W. A. L. Campbell, a minister at the African American Congregational church in Macon, Georgia, wrote prior to his dismissal that he had become disillusioned with the conduct and “semifetishism” of members of his congregation.
In rethinking and reframing the American national narrative in a wider context, the contributors to this volume ask questions about both nationalism and the discipline of history itself.