Surviving Traditions

Dr. Beatty's lecture encouraged me to think greatly about the dismemberment of Africans. I knew that during the enslavement of Africans and their importation into the Americas many were dispersed throughout the Americas and the Latin countries.

However, I have never much considered all of what was lost by the African people.

I know that they were taken away from their homeland and forced to live in another country,  but an aspect that I never really considered were the cultural traditions they were at risk of loosing. Dr. Beatty clarified to me that the colonials, the ones that enslaved the Africans, tried to impose their ideas and believes upon them in order to make them forget about where they come from. They wanted them to have no ties to their native land. However, contrary to their efforts, the colonials were not able to completely detach the Africans from their culture. You see aspects of African culture throughout American tradition and many other nations. Over the generations the Africans have not lost their traditions because the passed them down through their families in this never ending exchange of culture and traditions and customs.They kept their traditions of music, religion, dance, much more. It made me think of all the traditions of my family that are rooted in African customs.

So in the dismemberment, Africans were not really dismembered. they were able to stay unified through the customs that they would not relent to those that enslaved them.