Why are Africans different from other races when it comes to culture?
I am a black man from the Caribbean and I have been to Canada, USA, UK, Africa and other Caribbean islands. Surprisingly ALL of the blacks in these countries have difference cultures. The only cultures that were similar was the culture of Caribbean blacks and the culture of African blacks. Other than that you would swear that all blacks came from different planets and knew nothing about their rootsThe reason i decided to ask this was because I realized that other races had similar cultures no matter where they were. When I was in England the Hispanics did the same exact things they did in the US. They cooked the same food, still spoke Spanish, still practiced their traditions…etc. Same goes for Asians whether they live in the USA, Canada or UK. They will always keep their tradition of speaking in their language, opening restaurants, doing dry cleaning, cooking their food…etc. And well of course we know mostly all Indians around the world maintain their culture. Whites have the same culture too but with slight differences e.g. In the US they dont play cricket but when you go to the UK its a whole different story. I wouldn’t consider that to be a dramatic change though.
So its mainly blacks have that different cultures depending on which country you go to. The food, music, clothing and traditions changes as soon as you reach to the USA. Then it changes again once you cross the border into Canada. Then it changes dramatically once you got to the Caribbean or Africa. Do you think slavery caused this or do you think this is just a choice. It will be sad to know that blacks just willing refuse to practice their original traditions that stemmed from Africa. mostly all other races do it except for us.
At first I thought it was slavery but other races were used as slaves as well. Another thing that I saw was that many Hispanic and Asian mothers make sure that their children can speak their national (home land) language no matter what country they are in. This results in them being bilingual at an early age and it also results in the child being able to carry on some type of tradition.
If we blacks dont start doing this we will become weaker and weaker and then one day our original culture will just disappear. No one ever found it funny that mostly all races can speak a little Spanish but hardly anyone knows any language from Africa. There about two thousands languages spoken through out Africa yet still the average human might never grasp one, instead the media and education system shoves Spanish down our throats. I guess the Hispanics are doing a great job at making their culture stronger and stronger.
So what do you all think? Do you think that its Ok for the majority of blacks just to know English and other traditions or should we be like other races and put our tradition first and foremost.
January 14th, 2012 at 1:26 am
Alyssa
I think slavery did play a huge part in why Blacks all over the world have “different” cultures.
Slavery did happen in both the Carribean and America, but if you go to the Carribean, most of the islands still have elements of African culture whereas that isn’t the case for most Black Americans. When Africans were brought to America, they were forced to “Americanize” (basically be less African) and were essentially stripped of their culture.
The reason most Black Americans are disconnected from their African roots is because since the culture was stripped from their ancestors, where do you begin to look if you have no idea where you came from?
January 17th, 2012 at 6:01 am
Landon
I think you should do what you want to do and not worry about your race or nationality.
January 20th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Lucas
I didn’t read all of this. But I can tell you that the Africans who were brought here to be slaves were forbidden to speak their native languages, practice their native religions or do anything that would be considered African. So, being American is all we know. But there is still a link between American Blacks and Black Africans. Black American music comes from “call and response” of the African slaves, as does the use of the drum. There are other small inks too, but you are mostly right. The slave masters succeeded in wiping out most of the culture. I don’t even know what part of Africa my ancestors are from, so how can I learn their culture? It’s sad, but we have made a new culture that is mostly American, but it has some African (as well as Jamaican and other things) in it too.
January 21st, 2012 at 9:58 am
Tristan
I’m not reading all of that but, every race is different in its own unique way. Africans arent the only ones with different culture
January 23rd, 2012 at 12:48 pm
Brooklyn
I actually disagree to an extent
Blacks in the Caribbean and Latin America are WAY more like each other than like Africans, although we do retain a great deal of African culture in our culture. Part of that has to do with the fact that in the English-Caribbean, Blacks outnumbered Whites 10 to One, so it was easier to stay close to our roots, and the climate made it possible to basically live the same way our ancestors lived for thousands of years. Good luck trying to grow provision, sugar apple, soursop, mango & dem ting deh in Canada of all places lol.
Aside from that you also have to look at standard of living too. Once you go to first world countries, parts of your lifestyle will change whether you like it or not. But aside from that I wouldn’t say there were HUGE differences in our culture to tell the truth. Most Black Cannadians and Black British people are just first, second and third generation West Indians and Africans. Many Black British people definitely still SOUND and ACT VERY West Indian. Honestly, the three largest Caribbean cities are New York, London and Miami lol
January 23rd, 2012 at 11:43 pm
Cameron
First off, for those who could not be bothered to read the question, why do you need to answer it too then?
Yes slavery played a huge role, alot of blacks therefore lost their culture hence they pick up what ever culture they find in the places they live. Also gangster and thug culture is basically something that fills the vacuum where true origional culture would have been, hence you get this new sort of culture to differentiate themselves.
Indians and other asians were never slaves in the same way, and so did not have thir culture erroded and ***** as such, though they have suffered from colonism, but hopefully this scar is gradually clearing and the culture is still going.
Also in asia you have their own media outlets, such as in china and japan they have their own movie industry, same with India. While what movie industry that is apparent globally is available for africans? Media is very important in communicating culture to the entire globe, so an african in america still has some outlet for his culture and food is also important. You get chinease and indian food everywhere in the world, but you dont see much african cuisine around so less exposure for africans to their culture again. All this means the african losses its identity and assimulates and takes the culture that is the maintream in the place of residence, except for the places you mentioned like the carribean which have held on to soom aspects of culture but has evolved to be unquie too.
Regards