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Are You An "African in America"?
 
Michael B. Moore offline
A1 · 14190 Forum Posts
 September 25, 2003 11:37 AM
There have been some debates in other threads about how we define ourselves. To that point, are you an "African in America"? Why? Why not? What does that definiton say that is different than "African American"?


There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life
that is less than the one you are capable of living. - Mandela

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Replies: 83
 
blaqfist offline
A1 · 1164 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 11:47 AM
I have wrestled with this thought for some time now. I have wondered about the term Black, Negro, African-American, and Afro-American.. All make sense w/ the exception of Afro-American.. Never saw the efficacy of naming ourselves after a hairstyle.

But I think African-American is fairly accurate. It does not necessarily have to have polical affiliations. I consider myself Afrikan-American but don't align myself w/ the American political structure. We are Americans by language, shared history, combined culture, folklore, musiq, ect.. We are also Afrikan by the same characteristics. It (Afrikan-American) is simply a ethnic nametag we use, w/ out regard to political affiliations.
ThaWatcher offline
A2 · 429 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 12:17 PM
"African-American" assumes that Africa is the only place that my ancestors came from. If that's the case then, everybody should be "African-American". I can't identify with that term because I'm not an African. If I must be categorized ethnically, then I'll take Black American....
blaqfist offline
A1 · 1164 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 12:36 PM
watcher if you are Black you are as African as you are American.
our language, musiq, hair style, relgion, beliefs, diet, and numerous other traints, all have identifiable afrikan characteristics.

Are you a Xtian watcher?
whatzgoingon offline
B4 · 163 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 12:37 PM
Red Facefftopic:

Transformers!! Damn, I miss being a kid. So much easier.

But anyway (sigh), I had a professor who told us why we should not take the label African American and made a pretty convincing argument, but I'll be damned if I can remember what it was now.

Something to the effect that it demeans the culture and circumstance what we as black people have created out of the adversity we have been put through here in America.

It wasn't meant as a slight against Africa or Africans, it was more of a sense of pride in ourselves than whites randomly lumping us with a contintent and a people we can never truly understand or truly be a part of because of the deliberate attempts of the slave trader to seperate us from African customs and traditions.

It's offensive to many African because most of us know nothing about Africa and make every attempt to distance ourselves from Africa and Africans, yet insist on being called African Americans. At least this is what was told to me by some African associates.

I'm not giving his argument justice, because I don't remember it too well, but I am more comfortable with black American than African American out of respect to my unique culture and to African culture. But I won't get bent out of shape if people refer to me as either, as long as it is done respectfully.
blaqfist offline
A1 · 1164 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 12:56 PM
whatzgoingon, I had the same experince in college. But as I said earlier we are as much African as we are American and it can be proven. We don't think we are Afrikan, because as you noted we don't KNOW what Afrikan IS.

What do you thin ebonix is? It is an attempt by Afrikan in Americans to Afrika-nize the English language. The subject-verb agreement in Afrikan languages, is the same as it is in ebonix.

Where do you think the popular korn roll hair style came from?

If you are a Xtain, during praise and worship you use a musciall technique called "call & response". Where did it come from?

Where did the sweet potato come from? It is not indigenous to N. America
The word goober, and the peenut are not native to N. America. Where did they come from?

We are as much Afrikan and we are American, we just don't know it.
ThaWatcher offline
A2 · 429 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 12:58 PM
I agree with whats...I don't speak an african language, wear african garb, or live in an african society within america....My ancestors hundreds of years ago might have been African, but ThaWatcher isn't in a "social" sense....If I have to be categorized by an ethnicty then count me as "Black American"....
blaqfist offline
A1 · 1164 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:04 PM
Black America is an Afrikan society so you do live in an Afrikan society.. What is Afrikan garb? Many Afrikans on the continent wear "western" suits and ties every day to work.. Are they anyless Afrikan? You are not really aware of all the things that make up culture..
blaqfist offline
A1 · 1164 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:06 PM
You have AI there under your name..
Those korn rolls of his.., did white people show us that?
ThaWatcher offline
A2 · 429 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:10 PM
Okay blaq...what makes someone african?...skin tone? melanin content?...what? Does it make sense for me to go up to someone and say "I'm West Indian" because I look like the people in that region?
whatzgoingon offline
B4 · 163 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:24 PM
Instincts and cultural similarities is not the same as true knowledge about Africa and brotherhood with Africans.

Most people who wear braids don't understand or want to understand the significance of braids or the call and response of our music, or the traditions that still exists in South inherited from their ancestors in Africa or anumber of other things. That why some Africans get offended by us calling ourselves African Americans, and after I thought about it, I can see their point.

Black Americans or African Americans or whatever you want to categorize us as are more than extensions of Africans, which is what I think this professor was trying to get us to understand. Being proud of our African roots is fine and necessarily, but don't let anyone discredit what we did to make our own culture.

Not arguing either way, because as long as you are showing me respect, I can live with either now.
henry38 offline
A1 · 1016 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:29 PM
quote:
Originally posted by ThaWatcher:
Okay blaq...what makes someone african?...skin tone? melanin content?...what? Does it make sense for me to go up to someone and say "I'm West Indian" because I look like the people in that region?
ThaWatcher, why do I get the feeling you have no clue what blaqfist is talking about? Let me make it simple for you. It is like asking a white person if they are (white Anglo Saxon person) WASP? I am sure in that context you know the answer the white man would give. You should know that it is obvious that blaqfist knows you are black and an American . What he is talking about is what identifies you? How does the world identify you? Black yes but from where, the moon?

_____________________________
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ThaWatcher offline
A2 · 429 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:32 PM
"Black yes but from where, the moon?"

Black-American...My point is this, being "African" is deeper than the color of your skin. Is a white man from Africa who immigrates to America an "African-American"?
Michael B. Moore offline
A1 · 14190 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:38 PM
Another question . . .

1. Our families were in Africa for thousands of years before the last few hundred in America.

2. There is no other place on Earth that produces black folks other than Africa.

Based upon the above, isn't our personal knowledge about the continent (or relationship to it) irrelevant as to whether we are a part of her or not? Doesn't the melanin in our skin and the spring in our step and the sound of our voice etc., etc. define us as "African"?


There is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life
that is less than the one you are capable of living. - Mandela
henry38 offline
A1 · 1016 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:46 PM
quote:
Is a white man from Africa who immigrates to America an "African-American"?
Again in the context of WASP you know what the white man's answer would be. He could be coming from Asia, South America or whatever but in the context of WASP he would identify with the origin of his fathers and that is what this identity thing is all about.

_____________________________
Is it just talk or are you for solutions? If you are GENUINELY interested in solving black problems? Then join us at http://www.theguidedog.com/index_nation.html
ThaWatcher offline
A2 · 429 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:46 PM
"Doesn't the melanin in our skin and the spring in our step and the sound of our voice etc., etc. define us as "African"?"

My answer to that question is NO. No matter how you slice it, only someone who was born in Africa and immigrated to the US has a legitimate claim to the term "African-American". I was born and raised in Boston, but the majority of my family is from Alabama. Am I an Alabamian, because my family (who share my skin tone, spring in step etc) is?
henry38 offline
A1 · 1016 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:50 PM
"Doesn't the melanin in your skin and the spring in your step originate from Boston or Alabama?

_____________________________
Is it just talk or are you for solutions? If you are GENUINELY interested in solving black problems? Then join us at http://www.theguidedog.com/index_nation.html
James Wesley Chester offline
A1 · 9823 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 1:57 PM
Like everyone else, I have been about the task of who I am for a long time. When we were "Negro", a professor of anthropoloty once told us that Africans in America were the fourth race of humankind. His position was that since the Africans of unknown ancestry did not demonstrate any one of the other three races with any predominance over the other two, and was a subcategory of any, they must therefore be a race unto themselves. Please note the man was postulating RACE. He was not addressing the question of identity, but rather the scientific discipline of RACE.

A RACE UNTO THEMSELVES. That was in the early 1960s. I never heard any other professional of any description approach that subject. I was unsure then. I am sure now. He was right.

As a people of African ancestry, remove from Africa by geography, by practice, tradition, by language, by religion, and by culture, we are something but it is no longer SIMPLY African.

Society would have us believe our color is all we are. That our color is who we are. I have refused to accept that. I stopped teaching that to my children, and grandchildren in 1994.

Africa is our ancestry. ALL OF AFRICA.

I chose to embrace the choice of great-grandfather who chose, or had no choice, not to go to African in the Colonization Movement of the early 1800s. My family information tells me our first arrivals were new to America, arriving as slaves in 1808.

I chose to follow the choices of my grandfather who was born a slave in 1855, and my parents (the first generation of our family born free in America) to not go to Africa in the "Back to Africa Movement" of the 1920s.

It seemed clear to me in 1994, and evem more clear today that I am not an American who is African. But clearly, I am an American of African ancestry. My heritage however, is imbedded in that safe haven developed for that unique group of black people born and living at risk in their native land. That safe haven is African America. I am of African America. It is the culture and structure of African America that enabled me to survive, to achieve, to protect and raise my family.

Obviously, I am an African American. African America is my heritage. America is my citizenship.

I am an African American-American.

I am enormously proud of both.

This is not something for us to argue about. Each of us comes to the table with his/her own protocols for guiding our lives. One is as honorable as the other, for it is the choice of the person. That' why this discussion is good. Sharing concerns about critical decisions.

PEACE

Jim Chester

You are who you say you are. Your children are who you say you are.
ThaWatcher offline
A2 · 429 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 2:01 PM
@Henry..."identity" is personal. I'm a Bostonian who's family happens to originate in Alabama. I never grew up there, I can't tell you what it's like down there, I don't have that southern drawl, and I don't eat the same cuisine (for the most part). I'm not distancing myself from my heritage by proclaiming my personal social upbringing. They are from Alabama, and I'm from Boston but we're still fam. If I say "I'm an African who lives in America" I'd be frontin'. The average individuals next question would be "Oh you're from africa?..which country/region?"...Is ThaWatcher an "african living in America"?...No...only an immigrant can make that claim. I'm a Black-American.....
henry38 offline
A1 · 1016 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 2:04 PM
Jim I agree with you 100 percent as that is a far better argument you are putting out. At least in your argument you know where you are coming from and where you are going. That makes perfect sense. Godd luck as you face the future with your new identity, only renmember this is only unique to you until everybody else catches up so don't be surprised when your actions impact us and vice versa.

_____________________________
Is it just talk or are you for solutions? If you are GENUINELY interested in solving black problems? Then join us at http://www.theguidedog.com/index_nation.html
Nmaginate offline
A1 · 12097 Forum Posts
September 25, 2003 at 2:05 PM
I agree with you MBM.

One, I have no aversion in associating myself with or as African.

  • It represents who I was...
    (in the sense of honoring the first Black Africans that made us apart of America)

  • It represents who I am...
    (in the sense of a developing awareness or a WorldView that is akin to African precepts)

  • It represents who I want to be...


    That last point is telling...
    It seems as if most people devalue our African heritage. It's funny but you don't see many if any European Americans being conflicted over their heritage to the extent of try to totally disassociate with their mother country.

    I guess I'll have to pull a BLAQFIST on this one. There seems to be some serious element of the slave-mentality at work.

    Again, I agree, MBM. We have such a long history as [Black] African people but for some reason we want to act like that is irrelevant and should be forsaken.

    *----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*----*
    S A N K O F A : Return & Fetch It!
    Learn from and build on the past. It is not taboo to return and fetch
    what you have forgotten. You can always correct what went wrong.
    In the past, you find the future and understand the present.
    • Huey offline
    A1 · 4142 Forum Posts
    September 25, 2003 at 3:02 PM
    quote:
    Originally posted by blaqfist:
    I have wrestled with this thought for some time now. I have wondered about the term Black, Negro, African-American, and Afro-American.. All make sense w/ the exception of Afro-American.. Never saw the efficacy of naming ourselves after a hairstyle.

    But I think African-American is fairly accurate. It does not necessarily have to have polical affiliations. I consider myself Afrikan-American but don't align myself w/ the American political structure. We are Americans by language, shared history, combined culture, folklore, musiq, ect.. We are also Afrikan by the same characteristics. It (Afrikan-American) is simply a ethnic nametag we use, w/ out regard to political affiliations.


    ThaWatcher and both blaqfist have points about what an "African-American" or "Black American" is. But I know that more than a color and that I don't speak any African languages. So what am I?

    "Black American" is an easy escape door for an identity, but what about those who have black skin but aren't from the African continent nor have African ancestry like we descendants of slaves here? What should they call themselves if they move to America? Would the Australian aborigines call themselves 'black Americans?'
    blaqfist offline
    A1 · 1164 Forum Posts
    September 25, 2003 at 3:43 PM
    Nmaginate.. I'll take that as a compliment..

    Peace out.

    I luvz blaq peoples..

    Huey you bring up a good point.. Namely Africa is not even and "Afrikan" word.. There are numerous "black" cultures, as different from French is from English, on the Afrikan continent.

    We are really Nubians. It is the only name we created and used to describe ourselves.
    sunnubian offline
    A1 · 2209 Forum Posts
    September 25, 2003 at 3:56 PM
    I consider myself to be African American, as in an American of African descent. I did find out sometime ago that the word Africa is not an African word, but we are also Americans who speak English and hardly and words in English (or in Greek, Latin, etc.) are what they are in another language, so for now I don't think it matters that much that Africa is a foreign translation of the word Africans originally called the continent. I did run across the original name Africa was called by African once, but I cannot remember exactly what it was, I do remember that the word had at least 18 letters in it.
    NSpirit offline
    A1 · 10296 Forum Posts
    September 25, 2003 at 6:37 PM
    "...is a white man from african called an african-american when he immigrates to america?"

    why does this always come up in these discussions? How relevant can it really be when white men in africa (A) don't belong there and (B) never refer to themselves as africans, but rather aFrikaners, or british, or dutch or some such. Why would anybody seriously bring up what the white colonists of africa call themselves in a discussion about our identity?

    I have never seen so many children of africa try to deny the africa that runs through their veins...
    NSpirit offline
    A1 · 10296 Forum Posts
    September 25, 2003 at 6:38 PM
    I like the term "African-Diasporic/Afro-diasporic"
    blaqfist offline
    A1 · 1164 Forum Posts
    September 25, 2003 at 7:06 PM
    Sunnubian Africa is not a transliteration of another word that black people called Africa, Africa is a truncation of Africanus, as in Leo Africanus, the Greek expolere.

    The land we currently know as "Afrika" had many names: Kush/Cush, Abysinia, Ethiopia, Mizraim(Egypt), Nubia, Bilad Al-Sudan, and Al'keibulahn among many others.

    But what comes to mind right now is the fact that the word BLACK is in all of these words/phrases.. Kush literally means BLACK. Ethiopia= the land of the black or burnt skinned people. Bilad Al-Sudan=the land of the blacks..

    So whatzgoing on might have a point as regards to including the word black in our collective identity.

    The fact that some white people are born in African illustrates the limits of using regional classifications.

    So we need to develop a working criteria of what it means racially to be black.
    Initally it must include melanin% and blood type..
    sunnubian offline
    A1 · 2209 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 9:04 AM
    Maybe after reading so much differing information by different authors with different agenda's over the years and my reaching is only from memory is why I just narrowed in for a short post. I know that the continent is/has been called by many names. I do not perport to know all of them. I was just trying to losely us an example to convey that I feel that African American is okay for NOW - as in I also believe that as time goes on and we or more of us come to know more about Africa, our history, Africa's history, I see that what we will come to call ourselve changing again in the future. Now I see being called African American no different from a person who's ancestors are from South America being called a South American or someone who's ancestors are from Canada being called a Canadian American. In the broad description of African American, I am not expecting that my self description will actually pinpoint the exact region, country and village that my African anscestor originate from, just merely that I am of the so called "race" of people who ORIGINATE from the continent of Africa. I am open to the fact that what we should finally decide on our so called "race" being called should mean black and whatever the most original word universally called by our "African" ancestor that means "Africa." i.e., for now African American, finally, I personally just don't know for sure, yet. - I'm learning on this forum.
    P.S.: I thought that Africa was Greek for the African word for the continent. - I'm not claiming it as truth, just what I remember reading. (See, now it hard to even speak of the continent and its inhabitents and descendants without using the word Africa without knowing exactly what word should replace it).
    sunnubian offline
    A1 · 2209 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 9:13 AM
    Also, I have seen us go from Negro,or/and colored to Black to African American. I once saw a comedian make a joke about it, saying something to the effect of, they don't care (whites), because we only know what we should be called, but would we just pick a name and stick with it.
    ThaWatcher offline
    A2 · 429 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 9:29 AM
    @sun
    The initial question that was posed is "Are You An "African in America"?...the word "Are" is the present indicative of the word "Be" and it conveys the present tense. Your explanation accounts for your distant past and not your current cultural affiliation. The only person who has a legitimate claim to the title "African-American" is someone who's immigrated from Africa. the term "African-American" sounds regional, while "Black-American" is cultural....
    sunnubian offline
    A1 · 2209 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 10:45 AM
    Only problem I have with your view is that I don't see that it matters when you or your father/mother, grandmother/grandfather, and so on and so on migrated. What difference does it make if my ansestors migrated to American 400 years ago or 40 years ago or 4 years ago; wouldn't it still be the same? For example, I know a Nigerian couple who had their first child in London and their second child in America, thy feel as if their second child is Nigerian and African American or African American? If she stays in America, marries, haves children and never returns to Africa/Nigeria, then would her descendant be African Americans only for that reason or would they be African Americans because she was an individual of African descent who is also an American?
    Diamond offline
    A1 · 629 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 1:58 PM
    I wonder if there is still an African among us. For example, in Jamaica there were African slaves that escaped into the forest and setup their own community. They are considered to be of pure African ancestory. What about here in America? Do you believe there is still an African among us who descended from slaves and was untouch ethnically by white, Indian, French, Spanish, etc - to still today be pure African?
    James Wesley Chester offline
    A1 · 9823 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 2:10 PM
    henry38:

    It would be fantastic if/when others like me make the same claim and declaration. I am not seeking personal uniqueness, but declaring uniqueness of us, Americans of unknown African ancestry, as a people.

    Thanks.

    PEACE

    Jim Chester

    You are who you say you are. Your children are who you say you are.

    [This message was edited by James Wesley Chester on September 26, 2003 at 02:19 PM.]
    EbonyRose offline
    A1 · 16570 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 2:21 PM
    Nope, I don't consider myself an African in America. The way I see it, an African is an African because he/she was born in Africa. It is their citizenship. I, on the other hand, was born in America, and that is my citizenship.

    My heritage is African. My ancestry is African. My culture is something else ... a mixure of things, very much like my bloodline -- cause as Diamond has so eloquently pointed out, my bloodline is (obviously from the carmel-color of my skin) no longer purely African. My culture is that of a Black (or African, if you equate one with being the other) American. My way of life is American. My learning is American. My teachings are American. My upbringing is American.

    Right now, at the very base level, I would say I am American and I am Californian. That's where I was born and bred. Pretty much like an African immigrant may be African and Ghanian ... or African and Nigerian. But someone born on African soil but now lives here is no more American and I am African. Unless there is a change of citizenship.

    Now, I have and am learning the ways of Africa to fortify my heritage and my ancestry, because if you go down the line before me, I have history there. I can't really go all the way back to my roots, as I have no idea where they were planted as far as my heritage and my ancestry goes. But I can solidify and strengthen what is of my past (which is African) as I live with and cultivate that that is my present (American).

    And being proud of my past, of my history, of my heritage and of my ancestry and trying like hell to be proud of my present (but with this current administration in place and what I know of some of my country's trangressions, it's really kinda hard!! Big Grin) incorporating the two is what makes me be able to call myself an African American. If there were not two separate identities to try to consolidate, there would be no need for someone to use that term to describe themselves. One or the other would be enough. Roll Eyes

    BLACK by NATURE, PROUD by CHOICE.
    Free your mind, and the rest will follow.
    James Wesley Chester offline
    A1 · 9823 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 2:22 PM
    I wrote this very early in the morning, but have trouble accesssing the board until now. I think it is still relavant.


    Africa is my ancestry.

    Until 1808, or thereabout, it was the continent in/on which my ancestors lived. That had been their home forever. That changed in 1808. For reasons not their own, they were forced out of Africa, against their will. They were brought to a place where others like them had been taken for 200 hundred years. Strangely, no one from Africa came to help those earlier people. No one came to help them. I'm sure there were good reasons for that no happening. But, in the early years, it wasn't because of poverty. It wasn't because of being powerless. It wasn't because of not knowing. Fifty-seven years later, in 1865, my grandfather was freed, at the age of 10 years, from chattel slavery when involuntary servitude was made against the rule of law for the country into which his ancestors had been brought. But no help had come. Three years later, my grandfather was made a citizenship of the land in which he was born. He was made, he was acknowledged as, an American.

    My grandfather had no knowledge of his grandfather's language, religion, clan, tribe, or nation. Maybe his father did. My grandfather wasn't told. Certainly, my father wasn't told. The same history was shared by my mother and her family. They stood alone in a hostile land into which they had been born. All they knew of WHO they were their parents, and those before them. But they knew their ancestry was African. They bore the knowledge with shame. It is what they were taught. They had no knowledge to enable them to believe otherwise.

    My grandfather, my parents, and I, watched simultaneously while an Emperor, Haile Salasi of Ethiopia, came to the United States repeatedly. He never said anything about the repression being practiced against "Africans" in the United States. It was like we weren't even there. And Africa was our ancestry. It was reminiscent to the reports of kings from western Africa who came to North America in the 16th and 17th centuries to see how their business market was faring. Nothing happened.

    I say all that to make it absolutely clear that Africa my ancestry. I embrace all, and I do mean all, of Africa, from 35th parallel to 35th parallel. From the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean Sea. From Cape Verde to Madagascar. All of it.

    But I am not African. I am however of Africa. Out of Africa. I am, and all others like me are, of unknown African ancestry, wholly or in part.

    I, and all of my family's ancestors have lived for the past 200 years in a place developed as a safe haven for us, and all others like us. It has enabled us to survive in a hostile land. It gave us social structure. It gave us protection. It gave us religion, language, culture, tradition and suffrage. It gave us identity, regardless of color, when everyone around us told us we had none. It was, and still is, African America.

    I am not an American who is simply African. I am an African American I am an African American who is American.
    I am an African American-American.

    PEACE

    Jim Chester

    You are who you say you are. Your children are who you say you are.
    James Wesley Chester offline
    A1 · 9823 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 2:25 PM
    As an after thought, I also wrote this.


    What Can We Do for Africa?

    Someone once asked here on the board, "What is it that America, African America, can do for Africa.. I am becoming more, and more convinced the answer is a declaration of identity for Americans of unknown African ancestry. It has been said within this thread that we, in America, maintain a "distance" from Africa. That is undoubtedly true. But it comes from centuries of Africa "maintaining a distance" from us. Africa refused to claim us. We refused to acknowledge Africa. It is something that needs to be fixed. The question is how to do it.

    Africa looks out with the eyes of each of its nations. The African Diaspora, those millions taken against their will, those of unknown African ancestry, look back and sees the whole continent.
    I contend that the identity IN us is the recognition and tie to Africa. It may be different from what Africa expects, because my identity embraces all of Africa. That includes Mauritania, Morocco, Lybia, Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, as well as Kenya, Sudan, and Benin, etc. There is no Mason-Dixon Line (Bantu Line) in my identity. All of Africa is in my identity. All the African civilizations I know of from Memphis forward, and all those preceding that I don't know.

    Our claim to identity in America, that is distinctive in America, and unique in the world is African America.

    Africa gave the world Afrigenesis that shaped all the civilizations of the Western Hemisphere, and influenced the all the civilizations of Europe, particularly Western Europe. Afrigenesis is the reciprocal effect of the people of Africa's Diaspora on the societies in which they live. African America's coming to full stature reveals and restores the "shadowy", but undeniable link of African America and her people with the civilizations of Africa.

    African America is undeniable result of the African Diaspora on the United States of America. African America, and her people, African Americans and full citizens of America is the real, and created result the corruption and denial of cultures, and the resilience and creative product of a the resultant people.

    African America is only one of the many dominated states of the Western Hemisphere. The emergence of African America will encourage the emergence of all the others. Their rise will further declare the worldwide impact and survival nature of the seeds thrown from Africa across the world.

    That is what African Americans in America can go for Africa, now.

    PEACE

    Jim Chester

    You are who you say you are. Your children are who you say you are.
    henry38 offline
    A1 · 1016 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 2:26 PM
    quote:
    Originally posted by Diamond:
    I wonder if there is still an African among us. For example, in Jamaica there were African slaves that escaped into the forest and setup their own community. They are considered to be of pure African ancestory. What about here in America? Do you believe there is still an African among us who descended from slaves and was untouch ethnically by white, Indian, French, Spanish, etc - to still today be pure African?
    Oh Oh my mistake, I thought you guys were Africans removed from the homeland by slavery. I never realised for one second being African is something totally removed from your psyche. I would not be on a website owned by a North African because even though they are from Africa they do not see themselves as black people so even if you put a gun to my head I would not mingle with them. I am on this website because I believe it is owned by black people of African origin. Pardon my mistake. I guess I will just pack up and leave as there are no Africans here.

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    EbonyRose offline
    A1 · 16570 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 2:33 PM
    Ummm ... henry38 ...

    You no longer live in Africa, you live in London now ... does that make you European? And if not, why aren't you? Confused

    BLACK by NATURE, PROUD by CHOICE.
    Free your mind, and the rest will follow.
    henry38 offline
    A1 · 1016 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 2:40 PM
    Ebony do you have to ask? Don't you know I am your long lost relative? Give me a chance and I would be around your house cooking you a delicious African meal. I am black, my blood is black, I eat drink and sleep Africa. I just love my black people even though the world thinks we are scum.

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    EbonyRose offline
    A1 · 16570 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 2:49 PM
    Well, henry38 ... you didn't exactly answer the question, but ....

    Yeah, I know you're my brother!! Smile And I would love a delicious home-cooked African meal!! I also know that you can't be anything but African if you were born in Africa. And I, personally, don't think you are scum.

    However, I'm beginning to wonder if you don't think the same of others... us in particular. Roll Eyes

    I love my Black people too. I don't care where they are from ... as long as they are not ugly on the inside.

    BLACK by NATURE, PROUD by CHOICE.
    Free your mind, and the rest will follow.
    Norland offline
    A1 · 1888 Forum Posts
    September 26, 2003 at 2:53 PM
    henry38, dag-gone, your "blood is black"??? Does your doctor know?? That sounds serious as all get-out!!!
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