Abandonment and Dismemberment

In our most recent lecture, Associate Professor Mario Beatty came to talk to us about abandonment and dismemberment. Africans were forcibly taken from their homes and brought to the Americas. In the process they lost nearly all of their possessions. Africans brought with them, their religious beliefs, their language, and their culture. Dr. Beatty explained to us that Africans had to assimilate to their new surroundings, and their slave masters views became their views. For example, slaves were taught about Christianity and they turned the traditional white version of Christianity into “Black Christianity”. Not only that, but, African influences in voodoo and sangria stemmed from their religion as well. I thought this was interesting because I hadn’t thought about the difference between a more white church and a black church. He continued on and explained that in a black church people get possessed by the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues, something that came from African religion. I was at this point griped in to his lecture because what he was saying made a lot of sense and allowed me to connect pieces of information. Dr. Beatty made an interesting point about “Black” Language. He said that in black language there isn’t always a verb that connects a noun and an adjective. As an example, he compared two sentences to each other, “She is bad” and “she bad”. This really shocked me because it was so true; I had never that about language in such a way. During his elaboration, I began to think about Ebonics and its concord to this topic. In the American subjugation of Africa, some of African culture became a part of American culture. One example that he gave that stuck with me was a book that was about natural working cures from Africa. I really liked the idea of using natural cures in today’s society. It is also something I want to keep in mind for my aspiration to become a medical scientist.