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African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by buzzedoffbeauty(f): 6:12am On Aug 26, 2012 |
I believe there are many things people assume about African Americans a.k.a black americans ( black is a color not a nationality by the way). You wouldn't believe some of the questions I've been asked over the years for instance.... I could be somewhere with a nigerian lady, usually in the age rage of 30's and up and has recently come to the states, a person I don't know from Adam can walk by and I'm asked....why is she talking like that? lol! Like I have the answer for the general population of black women.... I'll say...I don't know, then the women may say but.... it's your people....ugh ......interesting. I think those who don't mingle with African Americans of the states are extremely curious about many things...this leads to preconceived notions that are sometimes true and sometimes far from it. I don't think it's ignorance so please don't post that here....it's just lack of understanding. I may not have all the answers and some ladies can help me out as needed. Here's a Q&A I get often....Q:Where are you from? A: Mississippi Q:Is that where slavery was A: Yes but slavery existed throughout the states for a period of time until the northerners no longer wanted it...we then had a civil war. The population of slaves were heavy in the south due to the picking of cotton. Q: Do you guys still pick cotton? A: For the most part no, there has been advancement in technology so machines can do it but there are some small farms who still employee people to pick cotton by hand; I've never actually seen them but have heard friends mention about 15 years ago of going there to work for the summer ( for pay). Please list your question below and try to be nice....if the question is sexually explicit, try to be mature on your approach of asking it. Thanks. |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by PAGAN9JA(m): 7:46am On Aug 26, 2012 |
why didnt your slave ancestors fight to the death against the slavers rathar than face degradation and slavery if many of them would have martyred themselves, more slaves would not have been shipped from Africa and slavery would have ended sooner. . |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by PhysicsQED(m): 7:58am On Aug 26, 2012 |
Pagan 9ja, do you think you could engage in more self-censorship if you suspect that what you're about to say might offend some people unnecessarily? I write offensive stuff as well sometimes, but occasionally some of your comments make it seem like you aren't aware that you (like me and everyone else) need to censor your more offensive thoughts. 3 Likes |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by PAGAN9JA(m): 8:13am On Aug 26, 2012 |
this is a forum for reasoning and asking questions and getting replies. everyone or atleast most of use here are on anonymous identities. why be offended if you think you are right on this matter. if you are not right, then you deserve to be offended. there are thinngs much worse put up online on this internet browser. what i asked is a simple question and i am waiting for a reply. 1 Like |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by MrsChima(f): 8:24am On Aug 26, 2012 |
Buzzy!!!!!!! I see you came back swinging huh? I like you so I will attempt to be nice until otherwise. Hope you get some thought provoking and intellectual questions. Muah. 1 Like |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by amor4ce(m): 7:20am On Aug 29, 2012 |
Why are African-Americans associated so much with fried chicken? |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 10:26am On Aug 29, 2012 |
PAGAN 9JA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoNTDABXBxU 1 Like |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by PAGAN9JA(m): 10:58am On Aug 29, 2012 |
KingMichael777: THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS AND COMPLETE DITORTION OF HISTOR! THE NARRATOR HIMSELF IS A BLACK SUPERMACIST! LOL @ BLACKS HAVING CONTROLLING INFLUENCE OVER NATIVE TRIBAL CHIEFS!!!!!! first of all, the Seminoles were and still are a Native American Tribe. only a small part of the was called the black seminoles, who were slaves tht mixed with some Indians. Seminoles: second, the blacks had a very minimal role in the Indian Wars. there were 100s of Indian Tribes involved in this war. this fooolish narrator has jsut discarded 90 % of the facts that involved the Indians. how can he forget the Great Sioux War, or Chief Tecumseh or teh Sand Creek Massacre, or the Cormanche Resistance, quannah parker, Bear Hills massacre, Chief Geronimo, etc !!! 1 Like |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by TerryCarr(m): 11:30am On Aug 29, 2012 |
PAGAN 9JA: "Numerous black slave rebellions and insurrections took place in North America during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. There is documentary evidence of more than 250 uprisings or attempted uprisings involving ten or more slaves. Three of the best known in the United States during the 19th century are the revolts by Gabriel Prosser in Virginia in 1800, Denmark Vesey in Charleston, South Carolina in 1822, and Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Slave_Revolt_of_1712 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Miguel_de_Gualdape San Miguel de Gualdape was the first European settlement inside what is now United States territory, founded by Spaniard Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in 1526. It was to last only three months of winter before being abandoned in early 1527.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stono_Rebellion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Slave_Insurrection_of_1741 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Lord_Ligonier http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Turner%27s_slave_rebellion and many more |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 11:35am On Aug 29, 2012 |
The Gullah Wars [img]http://www.yale.edu/glc/gullah/g12.jpg[/img] "[b]The Black Seminoles are a small offshoot of the Gullah who escaped from the rice plantations in South Carolina and Georgia. They built their own settlements on the Florida frontier, fought a series of wars to preserve their freedom, and were scattered across North America. [/b]They have played a significant role in American history, but have never received the recognition they deserve. Some Gullah slaves managed to escape from coastal South Carolina and Georgia south into the Florida peninsula. In the 18th century Florida was a vast tropical wilderness, covered with jungles and malaria-ridden swamps. The Spanish claimed Florida, but they used it only as a buffer between the British Colonies and their own settled territories farther south. They wanted to keep Florida as a dangerous wilderness frontier, so they offered a refuge to escaped slaves and renegade Indians from neighboring South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullahs were establishing their own free settlements in the Florida wilderness by at least the late 1700s. They built separate villages of thatched-roof houses surrounded by fields of corn and swamp rice, and they maintained friendly relations with the mixed population of refugee Indians. In time, the two groups came to view themselves as parts of the same loosely organized tribe, in which blacks held important positions of leadership. The Gullahs adopted Indian clothing, while the Indians acquired a taste for rice and appreciation for Gullah music and folklore. But the Gullahs were physically more suited to the tropical climate and possessed an indispensable knowledge of tropical agriculture; and, without their assistance, the Indians would not have been able to cope effectively with the Florida environment. The two groups led an independent life in the wilderness of northern Florida, rearing several generations of children in freedom—and they recognized the American settlers and slave owners as their common enemy. The Americans called the Florida Indians "Seminoles," from the Spanish word cimarron, meaning "wild" or "untamed"; and they called the runaway Gullahs "Seminole Negroes" or "Indian Negroes." Modern historians have called these free Gullah frontiersmen the "Black Seminoles." The Seminole settlements in Spanish Florida increased as more and more runaway slaves and renegade Indians escaped south—and conflict with the Americans was, sooner or later, inevitable. There were skirmishes in 1812 and 1816. In 1818, General Andrew Jackson led an American army into Florida to claim it for the United States, and war finally erupted. The blacks and Indians fought side-by-side in a desperate struggle to stop the American advance, but they were defeated and driven south into the more remote wilderness of central and southern Florida. General Jackson (later President) referred to this First Seminole War as an "Indian and Negro War." In 1835, the Second Seminole War broke out, and this full-scale guerrilla war would last for six years and claim the lives of 1,500 American soldiers. The Black Seminoles waged the fiercest resistance, as they feared that capture or surrender meant death or return to slavery—and they were more adept at living and fighting in the jungles than their Indian comrades. The American commander, General Jesup, informed the War Department that, "This, you may be assured, is a negro and not an Indian war"; and a U.S. Congressman of the period commented that these black fighters were "contending against the whole military power of the United States." When the Army finally captured the Black Seminoles, officers refused to return them to slavery—fearing that these seasoned warriors, accustomed to their freedom, would wreak havoc on the Southern plantations. In 1842, the Army forcibly removed them, along with their Indian comrades, to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in the unsettled West. The Black Seminoles, exiled from their Florida strongholds, were forced to continue their struggle for freedom on the Western frontier. In Oklahoma, the Government put them under the authority of the Creek Indians, slave owners who tried to curb their freedom; and white slave traders came at night to kidnap their women and children. In 1850, a group of Black Seminoles and Seminole Indians escaped south across Texas to the desert badlands of northern Mexico. They established a free settlement and, as in Florida, began to attract runaway slaves from across the border. In 1855, a heavily armed band of Texas Rangers rode into Mexico to destroy the Seminole settlement, but the blacks and Indians stopped them and forced them back into the U.S. The Indians soon returned to Oklahoma, but the Black Seminoles remained in Mexico, fighting constantly to protect their settlement from the marauding Comanche and Apache Indians. In 1870, after emancipation of the slaves in the United States, the U.S. Cavalry in southern Texas invited some of the Black Seminoles to return and join the Army—and it officially established the "Seminole Negro Indian Scouts." In 1875, three of the Scouts won the Congressional Medal of Honor—America's highest military decoration—in a single engagement with the Comanche Indians on the Pecos River. The Black Seminoles had fled the rice plantations, built their own free settlements in the Florida wilderness, and then fought almost continuously for fifty years to preserve their freedom. It is little wonder they should provide some of the finest soldiers in the U.S. Cavalry. Today, there are still small Black Seminole communities scattered by war across North America and the West Indies. The "Black Indians" live on Andros Island in the Bahamas where their ancestors escaped from Florida after the First Seminole War. The "Seminole Freedmen," the largest group, live in rural Seminole County, Oklahoma where they are still official members of the Seminole Indian Nation. The "Mascogos" dwell in the dusty desert town of Nacimiento in the State of Coahuila in Northern Mexico. And, finally, the "Scouts" live in Brackettville, Texas outside the walls of the old fort where their grandfathers served in the U.S. Cavalry. These groups have lost almost all contact with one another, but they have all retained the memory of their ancestors' gallant fight for freedom in the Florida wilderness. In 1978, Dr. Ian Hancock discovered that elders among the Texas Scouts still speak a dialect of Gullah—140 years after their ancestors were exiled from Florida and as much as 200 years after their early ancestors escaped from rice plantations in South Carolina and Georgia! In 1980, this writer found that elderly people among the Oklahoma Seminole Freedmen also speak Gullah, while many younger people remember words and phrases once used by their grandparents. Both the Oklahoma and Texas groups, though deeply conscious of their Florida heritage, were unaware of their connection with the Gullah in South Carolina and Georgia. They did not know precisely where their slave ancestors had come from before fleeing into the Florida wilderness. The Oklahoma Seminole Freedmen still possess a rich traditional culture combining both African and American Indian elements. They continue to eat rice as a characteristic part of their diet, sometimes applying a sauce of okra or spinach leaves—like the Gullah, and like their distant relatives in West Africa." Source:http://www.yale.edu/glc/gullah/07.htm 1 Like |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 11:50am On Aug 29, 2012 |
1739 - The Stono Rebellion "Early on the morning of Sunday, September 9, 1739, twenty black Carolinians met near the Stono River, approximately twenty miles southwest of Charles Town. [b]At Stono's bridge, they took guns and powder from Hutcheson's store and killed the two storekeepers they found there. "With cries of 'Liberty' and beating of drums," historian Peter H. Wood writes in the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, "the rebels raised a standard and headed south toward Spanish St. Augustine. Along the road they gathered black recruits, burned houses, and killed white opponents, sparing one innkeeper who was 'kind to his slaves.'"[/b]hus commenced the Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies prior to the American Revolution. Late that afternoon, planters riding on horseback caught up with the band of sixty to one hundred slaves. More than twenty white Carolinians and nearly twice as many black Carolinians were killed before the rebellion was suppressed. As a consequence of the uprising, white lawmakers imposed a moratorium on slave imports and enacted a harsher slave code. Jemmy, the leader of the revolt, was a literate slave described as Angolan, which likely meant from the kingdom of Kongo in Central Africa. Jemmy and several other leaders of the revolt probably had experience using fire arms in Africa during Kongo's suppression of the Mbamba revolt. [b]That same year there was another uprising in Georgia, and the next year another took place in South Carolina, probably inspired by the Stono Rebellion - at the time, colonial officials believed as much.[/b]he Stono Rebellion resulted in a ten-year moratorium on slave imports through Charles Town and enacted a harsher slave code, which banned earning money and education for slaves. [b]In a letter dated October 5, 1739, less than a month after the Stono Rebellion, Lieutenant Governor William Bull reported to England's Board of Trade, informing them of the revolt and updating them on the status of the rebels. [/b]Bull, who had personally spread the alarm regarding the revolt, also requests that rewards be offered to Indians who would help re-capture the slaves. Click Here for Governor Bull's report. [b]In 1739, the Stono Rebellion, the worst slave rebellion in South Carolina history, broke out. In response to this rebellion, the South Carolina legislature passed the new Black Codes of 1740. These harsh laws would form the basis of race relations in South Carolina until after the Civil War. [/b]No longer would slaves be allowed to grow their own food, assemble in groups, earn their own money, or learn to read. Some of these restrictions had been in effect before the Negro Act, but had not been strictly enforced. Source:http://www.carolana.com/SC/Royal_Colony/sc_stono_rebellion.html |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by coolzeal(m): 11:53am On Aug 29, 2012 |
wow!!! so many things to learn about this Gullah people. In nutshell, any history that involves black people in antiquity is either whitewashed or not given credit to and this things has being continuing happening to Africans and their descendant. Thanks for the post.. |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 11:57am On Aug 29, 2012 |
Gullahs Today: [img]http://api.ning.com/files/WTGvFnildZwud*lw3YdyAo5kRfSTyKGxrRoqySmfF0VpSq63iod02aiBF5bXfJAi34lA-50CY9FrW1Tr51ZF-ht0mzVB5pWx/GullahFestivalSC.JPG%3Fwidth%3D737%26height%3D552[/img] |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 3:58am On Aug 31, 2012 |
The Gullahs are related to Jamaicans and Haitians, both groups who were also notorious for their revolts. Central Africans from the Kongo kingdom and the west african Asante ppl were well known for their rebel and war like mentalities. They were feared and most whites didn't want them but if they did get some they made sure to only get a certain amount per location lol...for obvious reasons. Anyway, The Gullah ppl among other south eastern based AA groups slay/kill any stereotype about all AAs not having direct connection to Africa. In fact there is a group of AAs in south carolina and mississippi that speak yoruba. PAGAN 9JA: Probably because their own kind allied with whites and arabs to kill, r@pe and sell them. Unarmed africans vs. ancient uncle toms armed with guns isnt much of a fair fight now is it? Thought not. |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 4:00am On Aug 31, 2012 |
amor4ce: Why are African-Americans associated so much with fried chicken? The same reason why west africans are associated with fufu. they are stereotypes but have some truth to them. |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 4:35am On Aug 31, 2012 |
BelaMorena: The Gullahs are related to Jamaicans and Haitians, both groups who were also notorious for their revolts. I don't think Haitian and Jamaicans are related to Gullahs IMO.. They kinda speak the same language(Patois), but many Jamaicans still say Gullah Patois is different. And I think Gullahs are mainly from Sierra Leone and many Jamaicans are from Ghana. Wars against whites in Central and West Africa is hardly mention... But we mostly hear about the Zulu's. But the Ashanti's did way better against the British than Zulu's. I agree there are still some AA in America that do speak Yoruba and they still practice West African traditions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TuhTKdJUh4 |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 5:20am On Aug 31, 2012 |
lol. Slavery began in the caribbean and south america. when people think of the slave trade they think of the american south hymns and the Underground Railroad. They also immediately think of "straight from africa to north america". Those things occurred however, slavery was much bigger than that. Slaves were in the Caribbean and Latin America at least 100 years before any would touch the North American soil. As the Spanish, Portugese and French Empires grew, so did their need for more African laborers. When these people first encountered North America, they settled there and took their slaves with them. When the English came much later, they seized/stole territories from the other Europeans and became involved in the trade. They moved from the caribbean to North America and like their predecessors, brought their "seasoned" slaves to North America FROM the Caribbean (yes, the Gullahs are from the Caribbean). Which is how Patois like dialects first made their appearance in North America. Fast forward to the abolition of the slave trade as far as west africa, although it was made illegal to take slaves from west africa (in fact many ports were destroyed) some were still smuggled (see the story of "La Amistad" a lot of whom were central African in origin. This is where the relationship between the Gullah, Haitians and Jamaicans also becomes true. These Kongo slaves, due to their hostile nature, were divided. Slave traders knew not to put them all in one place. Some were sent to Jamaica, some to South Carolina and a few to Haiti (via DR). The Angolans who beheaded many whites according to historical documents did so after finding out their tribesmen did the SAME THING in Jamaica. In fact they outlawed the printing of Jamaican revolts in American newspapers due to the influence (i will try my hardest to find the documentary i saw that goes into more detail about all of this and will post it on here). So all in all the Gullahs and Jamaicans are indeed "cousins" regardless of how you look at it. Linguistically speaking, genetically speaking and culturally. As far as Sierra Leone, some slaves came from SL to the Americas however the ties is mostly due to the fact that Jamaican slaves who were sent to Nova Scotia were then allowed to return to Africa. Many settled in Sierra Leone and became known as the Krio people. They mixed with the local populations which is why their "bloodline" which is also found in Gullah people is prevalent in SL. 1 Like |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 5:28am On Aug 31, 2012 |
Genetic ties between Gullah, Jamos and SL krios. [size=18pt]Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes reveal maternal population genetic affinities of Sea Island Gullah-speaking African Americans.[/size] |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 5:32am On Aug 31, 2012 |
Intresting BelaMorena! 1 Like |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 5:45am On Aug 31, 2012 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGcWNI6TyXg from the comments: The only reason I can half-way understand is because of growing up around some of my Jamaican relatives. I was surprised to see how close Gullah is to Jamaican Patwa. You even use some of the terms like unna and ooman. my grandmother's mother is dominican her father is geechee just found out hes of jamaican ancestry. explains my dance moves Over all, the Gullah are a mix of different African groups. Gullah culture seems to emphasize elements shared by Africans from different areas. The Gullahs' ancestors were, after all, coming from many different tribes, or ethnic groups, in Africa. Those from the Rice Coast, the largest group, included the Wolof, Mandinka, Fula, Baga, Susu, Limba, Temne, Mende, Vai, Kissi, Kpelle, etc.—but there were also slaves brought from the Gold Coast, Calabar, Congo, and Angola." --- Hair, P.E.H. Sierra Leone Items in the Gullah Dialect of American English. Sierra Leone Language Review, 4 (1965), 79-84. Here is more on the Krio people. http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/krio.html |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 5:47am On Aug 31, 2012 |
KingMichael: Intresting BelaMorena! Indeed. African Americans are not a homogenous group. I think it is a great injustice to try to group us all as "the same". There is A LOT of diversity within the black American population that is ignored. It needs to be studied more and brought to the forefront. |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 5:51am On Aug 31, 2012 |
BelaMorena: THANK YOU!!! Many Whites, Africans and others seem to not understand this. AA's in the south are different from AA's in the North. While AA's on the west coast are different from AA's in the Midwest or east coast. Not all AA's act the same, AA's from different regions of the USA act different and have different cultures. Arent creole people basically a sub group of African Americans? 1 Like |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 5:55am On Aug 31, 2012 |
KingMichael: @bolded EXACTLY! This is what I tried to point out to K.O.N.Y, that he too is guilty of being ignorant to AA history despite his "AA supremacy" mission lol. African Americans have a rich history that began off of N. American soil and to this day is still as diverse and rich as before. Absolutely, the Creole are a sub-group of AAs. |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 5:59am On Aug 31, 2012 |
The Creoles are a mix of African (female slaves), European (French) and Native American. Although some "look white", others still resemble their African ancestors. ^^Beyonce Knowles' mother. [img]http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSfA-ZceTvHYGZiPqxKMJ6bdX3MmLJuI226Q5pP0MLV-jklgcYO&t=1[/img] ^^Creole children |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 6:06am On Aug 31, 2012 |
Creole flag. [img]http://3.bp..com/-UKqOgV0B_kI/T1bePHYSBZI/AAAAAAAAAT0/1W3Vg6JsuCk/s1600/Drapo%252BKreyol%252BLa%252BLwizyan.jpg[/img] http://www.mocreole.com/ Again, they like the Gullah have roots in the Caribbean. You see this in religion (voodoo), dialect, and food (gumbos, beans w/ rice; etc). |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 6:08am On Aug 31, 2012 |
They used to have identity issues REALLY bad and many denied even being part black or white (depending on where they were) but with time they have begun to show more pride in who they are. [img]http://arturovasquez.files./2008/07/creole.jpg[/img] [img]http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQjAQus3DR85HheC3Cwls_juvdFX0CLtp5a3UJYzy8vJwzezyns&t=1[/img] ^^yes. Lloyd is [a proud] Creole lol. |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 6:15am On Aug 31, 2012 |
I will post info on another subgroup of AAs who speak Yoruba. They are often confused with the Gullah but are a separate group. I'll post some info on them...not now tho. Maybe tomorrow lol. |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 6:19am On Aug 31, 2012 |
BelaMorena: For some reason I do not think Kony is AA. Anyways for example... AA on the west coast are more mixed compared to AA in the South. You can ell the difference of cultures between AA's living in different regions. Like blacks people in the south are more laid back. |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 6:21am On Aug 31, 2012 |
BelaMorena: I will post info on another subgroup of AAs who Please do.. |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 11:21pm On Aug 31, 2012 |
[size=18pt] Oyotunji African Village in South Carolina [/size] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf-IhtlQhqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0PcSnAZk7k&feature=related |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 11:22pm On Aug 31, 2012 |
[size=18pt]Oyotunji[/size] From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Oyotunji African Village is a village located near Sheldon, Beaufort County, South Carolina that was founded by the late Oba Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi I in 1970, as part of a "New World Yoruba" initiative. Oyotunji Village covers 27 miles. During the 1970s, the era of greatest population growth at the village, the number of inhabitants grew from 5 to between 200 and 250. (Goldstein, Hunt, and McCray) The population is rumored to fluctuate between 5 and 9 families as of the last 10 years. It is promoted as an authentic Yoruba village and as a successful example of Pan-Africanism in the New World, and receives tourists from time to time, many of whom are African-American. It was originally intended to be located in Savannah, Georgia, but was eventually settled into its current position after disputes with neighbors in Sheldon proper over drumming and tourists. Historically, residents of Oyotunji Village joined twentieth-century black nationalist ideology with aspects of Yoruba and Fon cultures to form an innovative community. It can be asserted that Oyotunji villagers consciously excised “European” characteristics from certain Cuban and Haitian traditions. In turn, they intertwined elements of the Yoruba and Fon cultures upon which these traditions were based with black nationalist ideology. In this way, the villagers helped to develop a unique brand of Orisa (or deity) worship, rich with black nationalist concepts. The villagers also made an effort to build an independent nation based on West African cultural values. (McCray, 1-3) |
Re: African American: Ask Me Anything....I Think...lol! by Nobody: 11:28pm On Aug 31, 2012 |
The founder of THIS (there are more than one despite the claim they are the "only authentic" lol) village was Oba Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi. He was inspired by the Cuban religion of 'Santeria' but remixed it. He took away all of the European influences and modified his version into an Afro.Centric one. More on him (from wikipedia)... [size=18pt]Oba Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi[/size] (who was born Walter Eugene King on the 5th of October, 1928, and who died on the 11th of February, 2005) was the first African-American to ever be initiated into the priesthood of the initiation cult of any African traditional religion. His initiation paved the way for other African-Americans to recover and begin to practice traditional African customs that had been lost as a result of the transplantation of Africans during the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. Having grown up with a natural interest in African culture, the young Walter King seemed destined to find a way to express his African heritage fully. He left the Baptist faith that he had been born into and travelled the world, going to Haiti in 1954 to study Voodoo and, in 1955, to Europe and North Africa, often as a part of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company. Finally, in 1959 just before the revolution, he travelled to the Matanzas region of Cuba to be initiated into the Yoruba Ifá priesthood of Obatala, returning to the United States as Efuntola Oseijeman Adefunmi. Efuntola means "the whiteness (of Obatala's whiteness rituals) is as good as wealth (or honor)." Adefunmi means "the crown has given me this (child)." Upon his return to the U.S. he founded the Order of the Damballah Hwedo, then the Shango Temple, and later incorporated the African Theological Archministry. That organization would come to be called the Yoruba Temple. His spiritual message was accented by a Black Nationalist message, and although his words rang true in the hearts of many progressive African-Americans, his stance drew large criticism from within the ranks of the Cuban Santería priests because of his strident opposition to certain aspects of their religious system. A new lineage of Orisa worship that placed Nigeria at its core, but that was tailored for African-Americans, was formed: Orisa-Voodoo. [size=18pt]Oyotunji Village[/size] In 1970, the Oyotunji Village was created in Beaufort County, South Carolina. In 1972, HRH the Oba was initiated into the Ifá Priesthood in Nigeria, receiving the rank of Babalawo and later that year being proclaimed Oba of Oyotunji by its inhabitants. He reformed the priesthood along Nigerian lines, travelling to Nigeria in 1972 to be created a traditional chieftain. It is noteworthy that in 1981 his status as a king was recognized when HRH the Ooni of Ile-Ife, Nigeria, arranged for formal coronation rites to be performed for Oba Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi, thus ensuring that the Oba's goal of reclaiming his African identity was achieved and showing other African-Americans how to do so as well. Priestly initiation and kingship were some of the several firsts credited to Adefunmi and the Oyotunji Lineage. They were also the first Orisa worshippers in the West to reinstitute the Egungun Masquerade and Secret Society. Over the years the number of residents at the Village has fluctuated, with it probably hovering around 5-9 families for the last ten years. Despite this small contingent of residents, the lineage itself is felt throughout the Western world and Africa via a growing number of devotees, chiefs and priests. Oyotunji forever changed the face of Orisa worship in the West. Picture of Oba Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi [img]http://images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/photo/805/ba1/805ba1fb-2f3e-4c2b-8440-cff88aa28f37[/img] 1 Like |
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