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In spite of the efforts of slave owners, African slaves possessed a vital and vibrant cultural legacy which they retained across the Atlantic and which they used to insulate themselves from the depredations of slavery. This cultural vitality also spread into and incorporated European cultural developments, to produce a complex and often subtle hybridity of cultures. Three of the most important areas of this cultural legacy are those of religion, language, and music. Although a slave could be deprived of property, forced to work long hours, and be subject to the whims of his or her master, religion was one aspect of the slave’s cultural life which was his or her own. Traditional African religions were generally open to incorporating aspects from other religions, and the interaction between African religious belief and Christianity in the New World resulted in a unique mixture of belief and new religions. The similarity between certain aspects of African religions and Catholic beliefs also facilitated their incorporation. For example, the traditional use of the minkisi (charms used in healing and other phenomena) by the people of the Kongo region was similar to the Catholic use of holy water, oil, and crucifixes. Especially in South America and the Caribbean, African and European religions fused into the new religions of Vodun (or Voodoo) in Haiti, Santería in Cuba, and Umbanda and Candomblé in Brazil. Many Yoruba customs and expressions, which no longer exist in Africa, are still present in Cuba, testifying to the strength of African belief. The development and proliferation of these new religions, which exist to this day, was aided by the fact that African slaves brought into these regions were usually from the same region in Africa and were, therefore, a more cohesive group. Generally, slaves in South America and the Caribbean also benefited from a constant infusion of native-born Africans, and worked in a system in which interracial contact was minimal. As well, efforts to de-culturise slaves were less successful than in North America. Slave owners in the United States were more effective in their efforts to eradicate African culture from their slaves, by encouraging slave hierarchies and by buying slaves who could not speak each other’s languages, forcing them to learn English. In spite of these efforts, African religion still infused slave societies. The African-American traditions of hoodoo and conjure, for example, combine African rhythms and dance-like motion with Christian expressions. Slave owners, however, were generally against the conversion of their slaves to Christianity, because of such concerns as whether or not a baptised slave would have to be freed or allowed to learn to read. Early efforts at conversion were largely unsuccessful because of this reading requirement and the staid church services. Methodist and Baptist evangelicals, however, who stressed personal conversion and an active form of worship, were more popular and converted more slaves. Both free and slave blacks could be granted licences to become preachers by Episcopal churches, and these individuals could go on to establish their own churches. Disseminating Christianity to slaves was designed to promote obedience and docility, however religion usually had the opposite effect, and slave preachers, such as Nat Turner, were implicated in plots for slave rebellions. Slaves would risk punishment by stealing out to the woods at night for religious meetings and songs, and would selectively use the Bible to reinforce their own feelings on certain subjects. For example, the story of the liberation of Israelites from Egyptian bondage resonated powerfully with slaves, as did the story of Daniel in the lions’ den. Slaves thus made Christianity their own by resisting the Biblical interpretations of their masters, actively shaping their own religious traditions. Music played a large part in African cultural identity, and continues to play an important and vital role in today’s society. The voice and the drum were the primary instruments of African music, but other makeshift instruments, such as hollow gourds, wood, string, bones, and horn, were also used. Almost every ethnic group within Africa had its own type of drum, and drumming was a highly sophisticated occupation that served many different purposes. This music played a large part in slaves’ religious and working lives as a potent form of self-expression. A Jamaican noted in 1797 that music “is a favourite diversion of the Negroes; for the enjoyment of which they are well adopted by a natural good ear.”. Christian celebrations such as Christmas and New Year, were celebrated by slaves with music and dancing lasting late into the night. During work in the fields, slaves would sing to keep time with one another, or to resist slavery by ridiculing their white masters in song. For example, a group of slaves witnessed their master falling from his horse, which was turned into a song with thinly veiled lyrics and sung by all the slaves in the field the next day as he rode by. African music originally entered Latin America at the lowest level, and was not accepted by the elites in its pure form. Musicians, however, adapted their songs, and incorporated elements from the culture in which they now found themselves. In time, music such as the Argentine tango and Dominican merengue were appropriated by the upper classes as a national symbol. This music, however, originated in the rhythms and music of African slaves, who used it to reaffirm their own national identity. After the abolition of slavery, the spiritual remained a powerful force in the religious lives of freed slaves. From spiritual beginnings, the music of ex-slaves expanded and diversified. Today, the music of jazz, the blues, reggae, rap, hip-hop, and gospel, as well as a revival in interest in the spiritual itself, provide a stunning aural testament to the strength of African musical culture. Not even European classical music was immune to the influence of this musical tradition. George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”, for example, relies heavily on jazz elements. The Negro Spiritual played an important part in the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties, where the words were transformed into battle cries for freedom. For example the spiritual “We Shall Overcome”, was originally a song conveying the hope of the slaves at beholding the face of Jesus. The lyrics were altered from “we shall see His Face, we shall see His Face, we shall see His Face, someday...” to the 60s version, “we shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome, someday...”. Even though few slaves were taught to read or write, stories were passed on orally in the New World, and written literature of Africans played an important role in the abolitionist campaigns of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and after abolition, in an effort to make others aware of the plight of the slaves. Pamphlets and posters detailing the abuses of the slave trade were widely disseminated, and the narratives of ex-slaves were popular reading materials. Sometimes these narratives were written by ex-slaves themselves, as was the case with the writings of Olaudah Equiano. Others, however, lacked the ability to write and dictated their stories to others who could put their stories into print. The plight of slaves also influenced the writing of Europeans, especially women, who could more readily identify with the relative powerlessness of the slaves. Aphra Behn’s Oronooko, for example, was written as early as 1688 and was one of the first stories to deal with the subject of slavery, albeit in a highly biased way. In the 1930s, as part of the government’s employment program during the Depression, people were paid to go to the homes of former American slaves and record their recollections of slavery. Such documentation provided valuable first-hand information concerning life as a slave. Today, the literature of black men and women in the Americas and Caribbean is prolific as well as popular, continuing the rich tradition begun as early as 1746 with Lucy Terry’s “Bars Fight”. |
