I have lived in America most of my life, and some of the things that I see and hear confuse me. From what I have noticed, most African Americans not only know nothing about their African heritage, but they also resent the fact that they are - or were - Africans. I have been in heated arguments with African Americans telling them that being African isn't a curse, but a blessing. Yet they continue to be the main people belittling Africa's culture and people by using an unimaginable amount of stereotypes. The sad part is that plenty of them genuinely believe the nonsense that they are spewing from their mouths.

For example, one time I was in school and somebody asked me how it was riding it Rhino's to school and hunting lions to feed the starving chlidren in our villages. I, of course, laughed as I thought that the person was joking. However, the person's face told me that he was more serious than he has been in awhile. I then asked if he was serious, and he told me that he was. I went on to explain to him that there are plenty of cars in Africa and while, yes, there are starving children (As there is throughout the rest of the world), it is not as widespread throughout the continent as he would think. After that, the unimaginable happened; he blatantly called me a liar, and demanded the truth.

There are plenty of other stories that I have about the ignorance of some African Americans, but that's enough for now. My question is: are African Americans still Africans? Or have generations of slavery made them forget where they're truly from? Yes, of course I want to say that they are due to our strict patrilineal system, but I'm afraid that the ignorant ones are making me think otherwise. Opinions?

I am in no way condemning all African Americans (I, too am an African American due to having a duel citizenship), so I hope that nobody gets offended. I'm just asking a question based on what I have seen for myself.

Needless to say, not of us are like that.

We have to understand that many Africans feel the same about African Americans.

ABUMONYE:
I have lived in America most of my life, and some of the things that I see and hear confuse me. From what I have noticed, most African Americans not only know nothing about their African heritage, but they also resent the fact that they are - or were - Africans. I have been in heated arguments with African Americans telling them that being African isn't a curse, but a blessing. Yet they continue to be the main people belittling Africa's culture and people by using an unimaginable amount of stereotypes. The sad part is that plenty of them genuinely believe the nonsense that they are spewing from their mouths.

For example, one time I was in school and somebody asked me how it was riding it Rhino's to school and hunting lions to feed the starving chlidren in our villages. I, of course, laughed as I thought that the person was joking. However, the person's face told me that he was more serious than he has been in awhile. I then asked if he was serious, and he told me that he was. I went on to explain to him that there are plenty of cars in Africa and while, yes, there are starving children (As there is throughout the rest of the world), it is not as widespread throughout the continent as he would think. After that, the unimaginable happened; he blatantly called me a liar, and demanded the truth.

There are plenty of other stories that I have about the ignorance of some African Americans, but that's enough for now. My question is: are African Americans still Africans? Or have generations of slavery made them forget where they're truly from? Yes, of course I want to say that they are due to our strict patrilineal system, but I'm afraid that the ignorant ones are making me think otherwise. Opinions?

I am in no way condemning all African Americans (I, too am an African American due to having a duel citizenship), so I hope that nobody gets offended. I'm just asking a question based on what I have seen for myself.

What I didn't realize until reading this forum was that on the whole African Americans know more about Africans than Africans know about African Americans.

African Americans study all about Africa and the people of Africa in their universities. Most major Universities in America have Departments studying African and African American history. Think about that; major American Universities actually award degrees in African studies to numerous African Americans each year. African Americans celebrate black history month each February wherein African, African-Caribbean, Afro-South American and African-American people and cultures are featured in schools, newspapers and television all over the USA. African Americans celebrate Kwanza each year. African Americans are constantly taking DNA tests to determine their African ethnicity and African Americans travel to Africa to see where their ancestors are from.

Conversely, many Africans come to America to go to school, without apparently even knowing or realizing that they are only in school in America because of the efforts of African Americans in fighting for equality an integration in the USA. Does anyone really think that a Nigerian could go to school in the USA, without the efforts during the Civil Rights movement of African Americans? News flash: White people would have never let Nigerians into the USA for school without the Civil Rights movement of African Americans.

But instead of recognizing the efforts of African Americans in trying to lead all Africans and Africa out of this mess; I only hear many Africans complaining about African Americans not knowing this or not knowing that. Here is the thing: African Americans would have known those things except for ancestors of the people complaining about what African Americans supposedly don't know.

^^The last sentence is loaded and quite touching. The whole story would have been different.