I guarantee the majority of you reading this can say what regions or areas your ancestors were from. But I cannot say where I or my people are from. When I met Al, the guy from Gambia whom I mentioned earlier, I felt disconnected. I felt torn and awkward because he asked me where I was from. I told him I had no clue where in Africa my family was from specifically but I knew I was from the Motherland.
My reluctance to claim America as my true home stems from the fact that, well, it isn't my true home. Or at least it wasn't supposed to be. My ancestors did not come to America knowingly or willingly to seek a "better" life the way most immigrants come to this country. No, my people were stolen, literally kidnapped from Africa and bound with chains and shackles, stuffed into dungeon-like ships, transported thousands of miles away from home, and treated worse than pigs when they finally made it to shore. Millions of husbands were ripped away from the arms of their wives and mothers prayed everyday for the return of their children whom they would never see again.
The history of my people is lost due to the slave trade, slavery, and the industry that was slavery. Big money was made on the backs of black skin and that money is still in circulation today benefiting mostly people that look nothing like me. The reason why I feel like my people are all victims of cultural identity theft is that most African-Americans can only trace their roots back to their Great Grandparents, if that.
Many factors make up a culture. Three crucial parts of any culture are language, beliefs, and history.
Step 1: Take away the native language
There are countless languages spoken in Africa. In a slave ship, it wasn't uncommon to be chained to someone who doesn't understand anything you're saying. This was step one in losing our culture. Someone's name is their biggest identifier, whenever someone asks you, "so tell me a little about yourself," we almost always lead with, "well, my name is _____ and I'm from ____." When the ship made it to shore and people were sold to the highest bidder, they were also stripped of their African names (usually descriptive of their tribe) and given new, European first and sometimes last names. (If you've seen ROOTS, you know how trying to hold on to something as sacred as your own name was STRONGLY discouraged. SPOILER ALERT: The name Toby was literally beaten into Kunta Kinte). After arriving at the plantation, the Africans were forced to learn and speak English because that's the language their captors spoke and there was no longer anyone to converse with in their native African tongue.
Step 2: Take away beliefs
Along with the English language, the bible was also beaten into the brains of black people (a misconstrued version might I add). After being brought to the Americas, black people were no longer allowed to practice their religious beliefs and were forced to take on Christianity.
Step 3: Erase history
Our history was taken away from us because the stories of our ancestors could only be passed down so far. Since it was illegal for black people in America to read and write, many were illiterate. The idea was to keep the slave's body strong and their minds weak. I don't know where my people were from in Africa because my parents don't know, because their parents didn't know, and because our ancestors weren't allowed to talk about it. Fast forward several hundred years and here I am, a black man identifying as African first and an African-American second but either way it goes I have no clue where exactly the African part comes from.
My quest to find my true identity will continue although it is a very painful and angering journey. Think about this for a second. Tens of millions of Africans died on their way to the new world. Someone in my family survived this horrible journey. We as black people are overcomers and innovators. We literally had to reinvent ourselves and create our own culture out of nothing and we are still doing this today. We have had to build and create things from nothing and still we get no credit for what we have done to make America such a "great" country. Our music, stolen. Our dance moves, stolen. Our beauty, stolen. Our swag and slang, stolen. Our inventions, stolen. Our athletic abilities, exploited. But here we are. We are hunted and outcasted but we remain. We are warriors. We are fighters. We are BLACK. We are STRONG. We are AFRICAN.
