African roots/American cultures: Africa in the creation of the Americas

Description

Africans and their descendants constituted the majority of the population of the Americas for most of the first three hundred years. Yet their fundamental roles in the creation and definition of the new societies of the Onew world, O and their significance in the development of the Atlantic world, have not been acknowledged. This multidisciplinary volume highlights the African presence throughout the Americas, and African and African Diasporan contributions to the material and cultural life of all of the Americas, and of all Americans. It includes articles from leading scholars, and from cultural leaders from both well-known and little-known African Diasporan communities. Privileging African Diasporan voices, it offers new perspectives, data, and interpretations that challenge prevailing understandings of the Americas. Its fundamental premise is that the story of the Americas can only be accurately told by including the story of the foundational roles played by Africans and their descendants in the Americas. African Roots/American Cultures Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Translator’s Notes (Lisa Sanchez González) Orthographic and Terminological Notes Introduction: Are You Hip to the Jive? (Re) Writing/Righting the Pan-American Discourse (Sheila S. Walker) Part I: The Africanity of Blackness and the Blackness of Whiteness in the Americas 1 Everyday Africa in New Jersey: Wonderings and Wanderings in the African Diaspora (Sheila S. Walker) 2 Reclaiming the Black Presence in “Mainstream Culture” (Shelley Fisher Fishkin) 3 Stripping the Emperor: The Africanist Presence in American Concert Dance (Brenda Dixon Gottschild) Part II: Global Africa and the Creation of the Modern World 4 The African Diaspora in World History and Politics (Joseph E. Harris) 5 The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Modern World (Howard Dodson) 6 Africans and Economic Development in the Atlantic World, 1500-1870 (Joseph E. Inikori) Part III: African Pasts/Pan-American Presents 7 Arturo Alfonso Schomburg: A Transamerican Intellectual (Lisa Sanchez Gonzalez) 8 “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”: The Relationship Between African and African American Music (Olly Wilson) 9 Same Boat, Different Stops: An African Atlantic Culinary Journey (Jessica B. Harris) 10 Roots and Branches: Historical Patterns in African Diasporan Artifacts (John Michael Vlach) 11 Cultural Passages in the African Diaspora: The West Indian Carnival (John O. Stewart) Part IV: Re(dis)covered Histories, Re-created Nations, Reconstituted Communities—Then and Now 12 The Study of New York's African Burial Ground: Biocultural and Engaged (Michael L. Blakey) 13. New African Diasporic Communities in the United States: Community-Centered Approaches to Research and Presentation (Diana Baird N’Diaye) 14 African Diasporan Concepts and Practice of the Nation and Their Implications in the Modern World (Olabiyi B. Yai) 15 Candombe, African Nations, and the Africanity of Uruguay (Tomás Olivera Chirimini) 16 “Catching Sense” and the Meaning of Belonging on a South Carolina Sea Island (Patricia Guthrie) Part V: African Diasporan Presences, Resistance, and Ways of Knowing 17 Demystifying Africa’s Absence in Venezuelan History and Culture (Jesús “Chucho” García) 18 Férigd/Ifarada: Black Resistance and Achievement in Brazil (Gilberto R. N. Leal) 19 Quilombos and Rebellions in Brazil (João José Reis) 20 The Afro Populations of America’s Southern Cone: Organization, Development, and Culture in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay (Romero Jorge Rodriguez) 21 Afro-Argentineans: “Forgotten” and “Disappeared”—Yet Still Present Lucia Dominga Molina and Mario Luis Lépez) 22 Stories and Images of Our People: Propositions for a Future (Gloria Rolando) 23 Embodied Knowledge in African American Dance Performance (Yvonne Daniel) Index About the Contributors