African American Culture Analysis

Although separated by the second largest ocean in the world, the Americans, Europe, and Africa all display an infusion of all three cultures dating back to the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Out of the three societies, Africans felt the greatest impact of shift in culture. Not to be considered one distinct group, each new wave of a new African tribe, along with the American influence altered the preexisting cultures of Africans in the Americas creating a new creole identity within the New World. Brought by ships, Africans attempted to maintain their heritage, though ideas and beliefs remained a total recreation was impossible. With a continuous shift in majorities and minorities over time, the social practices of Africans and …show more content…
Although, slaves remained “inferior” to the white man, the majorities managed to reconstruct parts of their language in the Americas. As James Sweet describes in his article, Baudry publishes a book Voyage to Louisiana where instead of describing Louisiana, he outlines a translation dictionary from the African to English. The fact that there is a translation depicts that the Europeans allowed for some words to remain useful in Haiti and now they must learn them. Allowed to speak their own speech, Africans attempt to create a culture they had. It’s a small instance of recreation; however, this shows the European culture was not forced in absolute on them. Another example of African reproduction, comes from the lingua general de Mina. Here is another translation dictionary in which Kimbundu is converted into Portuguese; the master learns the language of the slaves. Ironically, some of these Kimbundu words are found in Portuguese official documents. The significant of this integration into the European language indicates that some aspects of African culture survives in the Americas. Although, there are some places that allow African languages to be used, usually the slaves were forced to learn their rulers tongue. Seen in British North America, majority of Africans (if they spoke English) spoke a “broken” English. This was a fusion of English and their homeland’s speech. The reminiscent of the African culture is present, yet majority conforms to a new English that is specifically African-American. This combination of African native language and European is also experienced in Haiti where the combination involves French creating Haitian Kreyol. Again, neither culture is pure, it becomes a mixture of both cultures. As illustrated through the different words and languages, there is a partial recreation of African