Class 8

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Class 8 Africa and the New World
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The institution of human slavery Through the
centuries, slavery has existed as an acceptable
practice until the present. In Latin America
abolition did not come to some countries as Cuba
in 1886. Many ancient cultures such as the
Romans depended on slavery as an essential
economic base.
Romans purchasing a slave from Gaul (modern
France)
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Remember the reading regarding Senecas call for
the humane treatment of Roman slaves (from The
Voices of Latino Culture Lucius Annaeus Seneca,
On the Treatment of Slaves).
Seneca, the Stoic 4BC - AD 65
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After the fall of Rome, slavery declined in
Western Europe with the rise of feudalism and the
presence of serfs. In the 15th century,
Portugal began importing black slaves from Africa
for work in Europe, particularly Spain and
Portugal (in 1455 Pope Nicolas V gave Portugal
the right to enslave Africans who resisted
Christianity). By 1492, numerous black slaves
were working in industry and as domestic servants
especially in the cities of Lisbon and Seville
(some sections of Seville were 50 black).
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Also, in Precolumbian America, slavery existed.
In the Aztec empire, for example, a father could
sell his family into slavery in return for food
and lodging. However, the children of the slave
parents would eventually be given their freedom.
Slaves in the Aztec Empire had to wear unique
clothing that identified their status in society.
Family of slaves in Aztec lands (Florentine
Codex)
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When Europeans arrived in the Americas, they soon
realized that the indigenous people were not
effective workers in mines, plantations, or pearl
fishing. Also, European diseases and abuse had
reduced their numbers greatly. To solve the
problem, King Ferdinand approved the first
importation of black slaves for a key industry
sugar.

King Ferdinand 1510 -First approves African
Slaves for the Americas
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The Wanderer Last ship to bring slaves to North
America in 1859
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Africans such Estebanico, Cabeza de Vacas
servant, accompanied the Spanish during the
conquest of new lands. Were Africans present in
the New World prior to Columbus, however? Ivan
Van Sertimas The African Presence in Ancient
America They Came Before Columbus advances the
theory that western trade winds from Africa might
have aided sailors from that continent, as they
did Columbus.
Atlantic Currents
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Van Sertima also connects the giant heads of the
Olmec culture (1000 B.C.) with Africa because of
their Negroid features. However, no definitive
proof exists to verify such theories.
Giant Olmec Heads
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Slaves, servants, and the free Africans and the
Conquest The first blacks arrived in the New
World shortly after 1492. These men may have been
born outside Africa or born in that continent
(large numbers of black women began to arrive
later with the slave trade).
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• The first black men who arrived in the Americas
  generally were one of three social categories
• slaves,
• servants (free men who served a Spaniard),
• free men who were soldiers and leaders of the
  armed forces.

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A Black Conquistador
Juan Garrido was a free black man and a
conquistador in his own right. He was a captain
who served under Cortés during the conquest of
Mexico. According to his memoirs, Garrido was
the first man to plant wheat in the New World. He
wrote that he was the first to plant and
harvest wheat in this land, the source of all
that there is now, and that he had brought many
vegetable seeds to New Spain.
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Slavery in the Americas King Ferdinand allowed
the first importation of black slaves to the
Americas, specifically for sugar cane
plantations. Thus was begun the linkage of
slavery and sugar that lasted until the 19th
century In all, slaves in Spanish America were
used in at least seven areas of production
sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton, rice, mining, and
domestic service. Before the end of the slave
trade in the 19th century, over 11,000,000 people
had been forcibly removed from Africa to the
Americas, with the Spanish Caribbean receiving
43 all black slaves.
Slaves working at a sugar plantation, 19th century
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Through the Spanish colonial period there were
numerous slave revolts, from Mexico to Perú.
Most were unsuccessful, but one slave rebellion,
which began on board the ship Amistad, off the
coast of Cuba, achieved the freedom of the
slaves. The slaves, led by Cinque, ended up in
the United States and ultimately the U.S. Supreme
Court granted their freedom and permission to
return to Africa.
Slave Revolts The Amistad Incident 1839
Slaves aboard the Amistad kill the Ships
Captain
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The film Amistad by Steven Spielberg captured
this incident and, though not a good film
according to critics, poignantly portrays the
plight of the Spanish slaves aboard the Cuban ship
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The abolishment of slavery came late in the 19th
century in the Americas, but several countries
did away with the institution of slavery shortly
after their independence from Spain (for example,
Argentina, 1813 Perú, 1854). An interesting
case is that of Mexico, where slavery was
abolished by President Vicente Guerrero in 1829.
Most of the slaves at that time in Mexico were
held by American immigrants in Texas. President
Guerrero hoped to reduce the influx of U.S.
citizens to Texas (then Mexican territory),
especially since many of these recent American
arrivals were illegal immigrants living in
Mexican soil.
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Many aspects of their cultural heritage were
brought by the black slaves to the Americas,
especially to those nations that have large
communities with links to Africa in the
Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and
Puerto Rico (U.S. Commonwealth) in central
America, along the Atlantic coast Belize,
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica,
Panama and the South American countries of
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Perú.
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The strong cultural heritage of Africa, brought
by the slaves to the Americas, was especially
strong in the areas of music (with dance), and
religion, two elements intricately bound in
African cultures. Much of the Latin sound of
music today, can be traced back to Africa.
Playing the Marimba
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An Afro-American Dance The Puerto Rican Bomba

• The Bomba developed in Loíza, Puerto Rico, a town
  with a large concentration of African
  descendants. It developed from ritual dance slave
  celebrations in the 17th century. The name was
  inspired by a fairly large wooden drum or barril
  covered with goatskin called the "bomba." The
  barril were made using empty codfish barrels. The
  barril is the main "drum" and rhythm instrument.
  The musicians also use two small sticks to beat a
  secondady pattern on the side of the drums.
  Maracas are also part of the bomba percussion
  instruments.

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Santería Slaves brought their faith from the
Yoruba culture of West Africa. Prohibited by
the Catholic Church to worship in their
traditional manner, Africans used the Catholic
Churchs own saints as a symbol of their
traditional divinities. For example, the
Catholic figure of Santa Barbara also represented
Shangó, the Lord of Lightning. Today this
practice has been popularly called Santería.
Peruvian saint San Martín de Porres (born a slave
in Lima)
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Cultures of Diaspora in Spanish America the
Garífunas Today, many blacks living in Spanish
America maintain their African roots as well as
reflect aspects of their new home in the
Americas. One such community is the Garífuna,
now thriving in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and
Nicaragua (with some 100,000 in the U.S.).
The Garífuna culture of Guatemala
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The history of the Garífuna started in 1635 in
slave ships from West Africa. Arriving in the
Americas, the ships were wrecked near the Island
of St. Vincent. Freed, the slaves mixed with the
local indigenous Carib population their
descendants became know as Garífuna or Black
Caribs.
St. Vincent Island
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When the British arrived on the island of St.
Vincent in 1796, they exiled the Garífuna to
Roatán Island, off the coast of Honduras (today
the Garífuna celebrate this date as Arrival
Day.). Later in 1797, the Garífuna moved to
Trujillo, Honduras, and from there established
communities in Belize, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
Roatán Is.
Honduras
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A large Garífuna community can be found today in
Livingston, Guatemala. There, they have
maintained both their African roots (dance,
music, storytelling) and their American heritage
(language, national identity as Guatemalan
citizens). In 1996, President Alvaro Irigoyen
Arzú of Guatemala visited Livingston to give
official recognition to this group.
Guatemala
Livingston
Livingston,Guatemala
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Prof. Oswaldo Estero teaching the Garífuna
language
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Scenes from Livingston,
Guatemala
(Garífuna culture)
Approach to city is only by
water
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A strong influence of Africa can be found
throughout the Caribbean region, especially in
Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico
(due to the large number of slaves imported to
this region for the sugar industry up to the
nineteenth century). Two of our readings from The
Voices of Latino Culture deal with the black
heritage of Cuba (The Biography of a Runaway
Slave, and On the Morning of his Arrest).
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The African Presence TodayAn Afro Puerto Rican
Website (check it outI defy you to remain still)
http//www.elboricua.com/AfroBorinquen_Culture.htm
l
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In South America, in addition to a strong
connection with Africa for many families in
Colombia and Venezuela, Perú maintains several
communities whose ancestors were slaves in the
Andean region of the continent.Today, such towns
as El Carmen (south of Lima) maintain the dance
and music of the Peruvian black people.
Especially noteworthy is the family Ballumbrosio,
whose members have a national reputation in the
areas of Afro-Peruvian music, song, and dance.
The family Ballumbrosio
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Que Viva Changó
A typical son is "Que Viva Chango" by noted
música campesina composer Celina González. The
song's lyrics explore the duality of Cuba's
religious traditions, Catholicism and Santeria,
the West African--based rites that evolved among
the island's slave community. Forced by their
Spanish masters to observe Catholic rituals,
Cuba's African slaves maintained their own
religious beliefs by the practice of what Cubans
call sincretismo, in which African deities were
matched with corresponding Catholic saints. In
this song, Saint Barbara and Chango, the god of
fire, are both praised.  
Que viva Changó! (4 times) Santa Bárbara
Bendita/Para tí surge mi lira/Y con emoción se
inspira/Ante tu imagen bonita Con voluntad
infinita/ Arranco del corazón/ La melodiosa
expresión/ Pidiendo que desde el cielo/ Nos
envíes tu consuelo/ Y tu santa bendición Virgen
venerada y pura/ Santa Bárbara bendita/ Nuestra
oración favorita/
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A young member of the family playing the
Afro-Peruvian cajón, a box that serves as a drum
the cajón dates from the time of slavery, when
the blacks who worked for the fishing industry
looked for percussion instruments and were
allowed to keep the boxes that served for fish
storage.
The family Ballumbrosio
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The following questions should be answered
concerning Biography of A Runaway Slave, by
Miguel Barnet, from The Voices of Latino
Culture (135-140).

• What is a barracoon?
• Describe briefly the living conditions in a
  typical Cuban Barracoon.

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The following questions should be answered
concerning On the Morning of His Arrest, by
Margarita Engle, from The Voices of Latino
Culture (141-146).

• What incidents does Gabriel remember in the lives
  of black slaves in Cuba?

34
The following questions should be answered
concerning The Ballad of the Two Grandfathers
and Two Kids, by the Afro-Cuban poet Nicolás
Guillén, from The Voices of Latino Culture
(147-151).
Nicolás Guillen 1902-1989

• Summarize the relationship between the narrator
  and his two grandfathers in The Ballad of the
  Two Grandfathers.
• In Two Kids, what aspects connect these two
  boys from different ethnic groups in modern-day
  Cuba?