Ebonics is not the only language of the African diaspora that preserved its Africanity. In addition to several African influenced creoles, the Gullah language of the Sea Islands is reflective of African spirituality and philosophy. The Gullah language developed among enslaved Africans along the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, as well as the Sea Islands (Turner, 1). This region can be referred to as the Coast. In the early 18th century, slaves from the West Indies where resistance had grown common, as well as rebellious slaves from various colonies were being sent to the Coast. Taxes were placed upon these imported slaves because they were thought to have the ability of corrupting the slave system on the coast. Thus, slave …show more content…
In respect to the distinction of voice, Turner uses the example of a Gullah speaker saying, “they beat him” instead of the English syntactic phrase, “he was beaten” (Turner, 209). Thus, distinctive voice is eliminated by the use of the objective case as opposed to passive verbs in English. This syntactical framework can be found in the African languages of Ewe, Yoruba, Twi, Fante, and Ga (Turner, 209). Similarly to the languages of Ewe and Yoruba, the verb /de/ is the Gullah language is used as a prepositional verb. Also, in the Gullah language verbs are often used in pairs or phrases, which is reflective of the languages of the Ewe and Twi people (Turner, …show more content…
The presence of such concepts can be traced back to the language of the Nile Valley civilizations. In Egyptian cosmology the belief is that “the word” or speech and language is responsible for creation (Gadalla, 19). Thus, in this ancient context speech and language is powerful and able to produce divinity. Thus, it is this power of the word/ speech and language that created the spirit. Also, in Egyptian cosmology it is this same power that created African philosophy (man’s way of life). Thus, speech and language is the source of African spirituality and
In Africans In America Terrible Transformation written by PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) writes an article stating the historical background of African Americans that were captured and enslaved from Western Africa from 1450-1750. About 200,000 Africans were transported to Europe Islands in the Atlantic. But after Columbus excursion, Slave traders found a new market for slaves: New World plantations. From this, they were used for the planting crops for the Europeans that were uneducated how farm such as, rice, cotton, tobacco, and sugar in the south. It wasn’t till the American Revolution where they protest against “enslavement” from the British and demands from American “liberty” for some hope of being free from bondage . After reading
It is interesting for Lisa Kanae to use three different voices in her book, Sista Tongue. The structure of Sista Tongue is different from standard books as if to make her words flow and become active. Her message still holds truth in today’s society. In many homes, younger generations face the inadequacy of being unable to understand their mother tongues while their parents struggle with learning English. Code-switching is natural for bilingual people and those that speak to other sub-cultures. Lisa Kanae’s different voices are similar to
Though the Atlantic Slave Trade began in 1441, it wasn’t until nearly a century later that Europeans actually became interested in slave trading on the West African coast. “With no interest in conquering the interior, they concentrated their efforts to obtain human cargo along the West African coast. During the 1590s, the Dutch challenged the Portuguese monopoly to become the main slave trading nation (“Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade”, NA). Besides the trading of slaves, it was also during this time that political changes were being made. The Europe...
2) West Indies (crops and slavery): A group of displaced English settlers from Barbados arrived in Carolina in 1670. They brought with them a few African slaves, as well as the model of the Barbados slave code, which inspired statutes governing slavery throughout the mainland colonies.
The African American identity derived its source, after slaves were “lumped together as “Africans” against the backdrop of multivalent Western oppression.” African slaves endured poverty and brutal labor in the New World. By the end of the seventeenth century, colonies established racial slavery laws, identifying subjugation on Africans and its descendants by race. Despite the effort of owners trying to purchase slaves from various destinations to avoid insurrection, people from diverse cultures bonded and created lifelong lasting friendships and families, which formed a psychological stronghold against segregation, discrimination, and dehumanization. However, the slaves lost touch with their African kin, “a distance made wider by the passage of some seven
Slavery has plagued Africa and its people for a few thousand years. Slavery or involuntary human servitude was practiced across Africa and much of the world from ancient times to the modern era. Slavery mainly took place within the country but later turned into a huge trading export. This paper focuses on the history of slavery in the west (Americas) and the effects on Africa, its people and the idea of race.
Slave’s masters consistently tried to erase African culture from their slave’s memories. They insisted that slavery had rescued blacks form the barbarians from Africa and introduced them to the “superior” white civilization. Some slaves came to believe this propaganda, but the continued influence of African culture in the slave community added slave resistance to the modification of African culture. Some slaves, for example, answered to English name in the fields but use African names in their quarters. The slave’s lives were filled with surviving traits of African culture, and their artwork, music, and other differences reflected this influence.
For many ancient cultures, nature was inexorably tied to the ultimate spirit; and although men
I was introduced to Gullah Geechee culture through a children's show named Gullah Gullah Island when I was in third grade. Later in high school, I came across a film about a Gullah family living off the coast of South Carolina in 1902 titled Daughter's of the Dust. Since then, I've read several books and watched documentaries about how this isolated community was able to retain several African cultural practices. I often suspect based on what many of my elder family members have said about the elders who have passed on (including my late grandmother), that there may be some connection to the Gullah Geechee through my great-grandfather. Like Prof. Walker, my family is from South Carolina and I've heard stories about the accent my grandmother
The slaves of the British American colonies were mainly from African west coast. It is important to note that slavery was present in African communities long before white traders sent African slaves to Europe and America. Slaves in Africa were those tribal people captured in confrontations between tribes and sold to Arab traders.
England. In separate sections he describes the masters, servants, and slaves of the island. In addition to Ligon’s interpretations of the physical and cultural characteristics of the “Negroes,” he offers personal experiences to illustrate the master-slave relationships that had evolved on Barbados
“In the Caribbean and in many slave societies in the Americas, one of the most important aspects of resistance to slavery was the retention of African culture or melding African, American and European cultural forms to create new ones such as the Kweyol languages (Antillean Creole).” (“Resistance and Rebellion”) Despite the forcing of European culture on slaves, most of if not all of the of African culture of colonial slaves has been preserved and passed on through the generations. “The importance of African culture – names, craftsmanship, languages, scientific knowledge, beliefs, philosophy, music and dance, was that it provided the psychological support to help the captives resist the process of enslavement. The act of enslavement involved attempts to break the will and ignore the humanity of slaves in what was known as ‘seasoning’. (“Resistance and
The Constitution guaranteed it as a freedom to them, and white slaves were virtually nonexistent. Slavery was so deeply engrained as a “black race” attribute, that it came to be used as a descriptor to further lower the status of African Americans. Free of these racial tensions, whites seemed to enjoy freedom without conflict. However, in reality, not all whites had access to equal freedom. “Freedom” often meant the ability to have equal opportunity, as the purpose of immigration to the colonies was often based on a desire for economic independence. Equal opportunity was not the case in a hierarchical, socioeconomically-divided America. Land ownership or religious affiliation were often required to vote or run for office respectively. In many ways, slaves were actually subject to less forced social structure on large Southern plantations, where they could develop their own private communities. The Gullah language is an example of a creole of English and West African dialects. Religious syncretism often resulted in African-influenced versions of Christianity, far more culturally-mixed than what Puritanical Massachusetts mandated its citizens adhere to. These cultural features served as a “glue” for many African Americans, and reflects the complex facets of the word “freedom” The phrase should therefore be modified to account for the fact that
Clark, Virginia P., Paul A. Eschholz, and Alfred F. Rosa. Language: Introductory Readings. 7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. Print.
Hence, the overall goal of this study is to investigate the Hasawi plosive phonemes and how they shape different allophones. This paper is divided into five main sections: the first section is an introduction of the topic including an overview of the dialect; the second section is a review of the literature which includes brief previous related studies; the methodology used for this study is described in the third section; the fourth section demonstrates the findings of this study; and finally the conclusion.