“And I Want to Start in Africa…”: Notes on the African Diaspora
“Dancing” by Elizabeth Catlett, sourced from Xavier University of Louisiana Arts and Gallery Collection, 1990.
Search Terms:
African diaspora = 129 stories
Africa = 5,249 stories
African culture = 2408 stories
Oneness = 28 stories
Monolith = 13 stories
Before coming to Howard University, I was not entirely familiarized with the concept of the African Diaspora — at least with considerable nuance applied to it. The phrase, “African diaspora,” seemed to be aimlessly thrown around in (theoretical) conversations amongst Pan-Africanists and academics. It wasn’t until I was in these similar spaces that I was ‘forced’ to apply nuance to this concept. However, many of my professors and classmates have agreed upon the notion of the African Diaspora pertaining to “Africa’ any and everywhere you may find it.
I chose to begin my article with a quote by Stephanie Hughley (1948), who was an administrator, producer, and co-founder of the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the most important African American arts festivals in the world, as she spoke about the National Black Arts Festival parade (Hughley is also a dancer and has taught dance at several universities. Hughley managed and supervised the production of over twelve Broadway shows including, Your Arms Are Too Short To Box With God, Ain't Misbehavin', and Bubbling Brown Sugar):
“…And I wanna start in Africa and then I wanna bring it all the way up to the boom boxes and the hip hop generation.”
I felt like this quote was the perfect iteration of what I know the African diaspora to be perceived as, a concept that encompasses Africanness ranging from the motherland herself to the traditions of the Americas and beyond. She continues:
“My goodness, it was magnificent. It was--I mean tears just welled up in my eyes when I saw all those beautiful black people. I had Africa, we had the African drummers leading the moko jumbies; they were out in front. And then we had African dance companies and then we had Caribbean, we celebrated Rex Nettleford for that year from Jamaica, who was magnificent. Rex was one of the pioneers of a dance. And he was here and so we had brought his company and they were--so there were people here from the Caribbean. We brought people from South America. We even had Native Americans. I mean we were just dealing with the whole African diaspora. All the way up to the last, the last young man was on roller skates. Had his big boom box and they were doing break dancing and stuff in the streets. And it was funny because it was kind of a pied piper because everybody got in on the end of the parade. And we brought all those people down and dumped 'em on Auburn Avenue. And when you stood at either end of Auburn Avenue, as far as you could see, the people were jam-packed on Auburn Avenue. I was like this is what I'm talking about; this is it...”
Paul Carter Harrison (1936 - 2021), was a playwright, theater professor, and expert on African American theatre who has published books including Classic Plays from the Negro Ensemble Company (1995), and Black Theatre: Ritual Performance in the African Diaspora (2003), further continues this chain of Africanness by elaborating on the importance of the retention of Africa across different areas, and how African ideologies spread— essentially. Carter Harrison deems that Africannness and African culture is thus recognizable globally and specifically in America:
“ My book 'The Drama of Nommo' [Paul Carter Harrison] was about recognizing the retention of Africa, the African values as well as African iconography, African worldview, inside of what we do here…I didn't have to go to the continent at that point. For verification of what was happening in African America, all I had to do is recognize it and, and show the relationship to it and African culture. Basically, what, that was what the book is doing. The book is showing certain responses to the world and even if, even though we are in, what we call the African—we're in the American world, we'll find that Africans throughout the diaspora behaved the same way. It is just different based upon what part of it--where they're located. So if you're in the, if you're in, as what do you call it--if you're an African living in South America, and you speak Spanish and a certain--whatever the landscape allows you to deal with, you still have the African root, is still feeding through how you negotiate that. If you're in Haiti or a French situation, you, you speak French, and you're then negotiated that way through French language...”
According to Ray Chew (1958 - ), who was the music arranger on seven albums with the legendary duo Nick Ashford & Valerie Simpson and also the musical director for the television shows “Showtime at the Apollo” and “American Idol",” deemed that the retention of Africa (for Americans, especially) is critically important. Thus, he elaborates on the importance of honoring African retention for African American musicians:
“The role of African Americans in the American music scene [is] to go back to the African diaspora…We have our musical heritage spread around the world. Particularly here in the United States, the experience culminates in some kind of thing that—the struggle and the pain that the people in the field, and the kind of slavery that, that produced a song in the field—blues, you know…and outta the blues comes other forms of music—jazz, and rock and roll, and everything else. They all grow outta the blues…Then we can kinda go through the chronology, and I do a program about the chronology of music through the African American experience. But this is, this is American music. Black music is American music. Jazz is black music. When did it not become black music?..I'm, I'm glad it's embraced that way. So, what becomes black music? Well, it continues to evolve, you know…”
Chew implies that there is a duty for African Americans, musicians or not, to go back to the African diaspora, and I found it interesting that referred to it as something you can “go back to.” To me, this acts like a call of action for African American to reorient their identities and consider their relationship to Africanness and oneness. Peter Bynoe (1951-), the first African American to own a professional sports team in 1989 when he gained part ownership of the Denver Nuggets, also describes the ‘steps’ that African Americans should take to embrace their cultural heritage and how it is an important aspect of our social reality:
“I think that, you know, the African American diaspora has…the African diaspora, and we as African Americans have a role to play in the world's societies as it goes forward. People who denigrate that or don't give it value, I think are missing out on a very rich not just cultural, but, you know, over all experience. You know…to me it's not about 50/50. I think at this point it’s all or nothing. Either we will survive or we will perish. It's so longer a situation where it's status quo, where you can sort of get along somewhere in life in the middle ground. Either you succeed or you fail. And the way things are being evaluated, and the speed at which they are happening, I don't think we have much time to decide which we're gonna do. I'm not one to ever give in or give up. So I'm not betting on perishing. I'm betting on surviving and prospering. And the real challenge is how do we do that, and how we find a way to do that.”
Bynoe ties the role of African Americans actively engaging in the African diaspora as one of the pillars to surviving and prospering, which I think is a beautiful elaboration.
Jeff Donaldson (1932-2004), one of the founders of the artists' group AFRI-COBRA and who helped articulate the Black Arts Movement in the United States, stated that his experience(s) in Africa showed him that was a certain “oneness,” like I briefly mentioned earlier in regards to Ray Chew’s interview, that transcended homogeneity:
“What that experience showed me was that there was a oneness…I'm not talking about something being homogeneous. But there was—you know you hear blues in all of Africa. And you know we had been brought up to believe that blues was the consequence of slavery? And you got blues in Ethiopia that make you cry even if you don't know what they're talking about. I mean it's that sad. You know, and it's that joyous--say, blues, I heard a guy sing the blues that was milking a cow. It was reluctant to give milk and he talked about how pretty she was. And how soft and juicy her udders were. And soon you could hear the, the milk flowing into the pail. Quish, quish! The cow was flattered. But I mean I went to Africa and I see people with a herd of goats. And a guy calling off, "John will you get back in line?" I mean this guy don't have a stick or nothing! He's herding with his voice. He's talking to these animals and treating them like, you know, a different way…And I mean I'm not saying Africa is better than anything. I'm saying it's different! And that difference is in us.”
I found the “difference” that Donaldson mentioned to also be an important element of the concept of the African diaspora. We have probably all heard the phrase Blackness is not a monolith! numerous times before, but inevitably, it does hold incredible truth. I’ve always found it very interesting to hear and take in various iterations of Africanness, specifically African Americans. I feel as though a lot of the time, conversations surrounding the African diaspora can be difficult, so it is refreshing to elaborate upon generative points under this topic.
Student Ambassador Update:
I have decided to extend the deadline for the Black History Month Contest to next Friday, as we are on Spring break this week, and submissions are still low. My community at Howard has experienced a loss recently, so things seem to be moving slower over here. However, I’ve already completed multiple avenues to increase participation in the contest. My last outreach was specifically emailing each student that pre-registered the direct link to ask them to submit it by next Friday because the judging process would not take too long and would occur the following week. I’m working with what I have and trying to create an adaptive approach as I go.
References
Stephanie Hughley (The HistoryMakers A2006.014), interviewed by Evelyn Pounds, February 13, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 6, Stephanie Hughley describes her education in Boston, Massachusetts
Paul Carter Harrison (The HistoryMakers A2004.160), interviewed by Larry Crowe, September 14, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 3, Paul Carter Harrison talks about how African roots influence the black community in America
Ray Chew (The HistoryMakers A2013.194), interviewed by Julieanna Richardson, July 12, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 9, story 1, Ray Chew talks about African American music history
Jeff Donaldson (The HistoryMakers A2001.023), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, April 23, 2001, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 6, story 4, Jeff Donaldson discusses the sense of oneness he found between Africa and the diaspora
Peter Bynoe (The HistoryMakers A2000.013), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, March 28, 2000, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 6, Peter Bynoe continues on the future of black America
