African American Culture - Research Paper Example

African American Culture The very existence of human being in the world is inherently associated with that of the notion of popular culture which comprises of multifaceted elements like music, dance, literature, drama, film, poetry, language use, newspapers, radio and television, fashion, sports, and leisure activities. These elements are the ingrain attributes of human beings which are communicated and brought in front of the global platform through the help of verbal as well as non verbal symbols and means and also possess an immense power in persuading, influencing and inspiring the human mind in general. Thus popular culture is basically a day to day phenomenon which survives in every corners of the world and helps establishing the foundations of innumerable fascinating cultures of human race. The African American popular culture is one of the popular cultures which have from time immemorial being able to maintain its prominent existence growing through severe societal upheavals. The influence of the African American culture has imparted a highly influential impact on the American society with several implications (Hamlet, 2011, p.27). The paper focus on the different aspects of the Afro American oral communication as a part of the American popular culture and will be eventually trying to focus on the point that the African American oral communication has its own stylized heritage and bears a significant social importance in the development trajectory of the nation as a whole. African American Oral culture To start with, the power of the Afro American culture lies in the fact that it has been highly significant in the way of resisting the racial oppression (this is not only a factor) in the American society and have been generating highly innovative dynamics and platform which comes from the oral tradition from which all other cultural forms have evolved. It has been found that the Afro American oral tradition have remained as an immensely innovative and learning process for the K-12 students in the American schools. Thus with a glimpse of its significance here it requires more elaboration with discussion of its origin, its segregated forms, its development and its implications in the society in an elucidated fashion (Hamlet, 2011, p.27). Robust nature of the oral tradition The tradition attached with that of the oral communication generally comprises of the old sayings, proverbs and various other cultural products which have been not archived or recorded. The tradition or the enigma of the oral traditions is kept intact through the help of communication through the mouth to mouth communication from one generation to other generation. The diverse forms of African American cultures and their archetypes teach the lessons about the way of living and that of life. The oral tradition can be said to be one of the fundamental mechanism for the cultural expression as well as that of survival. The oral tradition also is predominant in the maintenance of the cultural heritage and that of reflection of the collective spirit of the race. The tradition also backs a strong history staring from the roots of the African pre slavery times (Hamlet, 2011, p.27). ‘Nommo’-chronicles of the pre slavery era Before the period of enslavement in America, the Africans used to reside in societies conjectured on the foundation that was encircled through stylized oral communication means as well as that of classy religious system. The then prevalent norm was regarded in the name of Nommo which points to generative capability of the spoken word. They believed that Nommo was vehemently necessary for actualizing life as well as providing mastery over various things. The prime notion of Nommo centers around the fact that the all the activities of human beings and their movement in the nature generally sits on the position which states that the productive power of the word is water, seed, heat as well as that of life which force itself. Another underlying mechanism of Nommo is that of force, commitment of the word and the awareness that the word alone alters the world. In the traditional African culture it was considered that the newborn children do not bear any existence or no value was attached to them unless the fathers of those newborn children attached names and make them speak. They believed that the elements which are highly useful for the human existence namely that of medicine, potion, magic or any other things did not seem to be effective without accompanying with the words. The belief system of the Africans was very strong in the necessity of Nommo and they stated that the craftsmanship must be well accompanied and driven by speech. The concept of Nommo was not restrained towards the spoken word in public forum but it encircled around all the communication circumstances. The infusion of the culture was generally transmitted through the procedure of oral tradition. The cultural norms of the people, values, histories as well as that of the histories were transfused from one generation to another generation by the elderly individuals who were known as griots and were known to be that of excellent story tellers. The griots were rigidly involved in providing their listeners an innovative milieu in which was equipped with elements of realism and the aura of enchantment with the people to whom they were familiar. The narration of the story telling was executed in an exclusive dramatic endeavor which reflected pure emotions. The satisfaction that they received from the story telling relished their eternal self, incorporated comfort, laughter and a way which was highly divergent from the environment of the chaotic experiences of daily life ( . Such was the boost in Nommo which accelerated the development of the social identity. Unfortunately it was seen that their culture has been subjected to suppression and societal denunciation of which racial discrimination is one of the most hazardous and shameful event which the Afro American people have went through and in traces even today (Hamlet, 2011, p.27). Nuance of the folk culture The black people or the African people came from the West Coast of Africa to America and they infiltrated from various regions and shared common cultural patterns which were highly embedded in traditional as well as folklore values. Majority of the transplanted African culture found their expression in oral literature, music and dance. The Western Africa was the hub of moat American blacks among whom some originated from the east and that of South Africa and hence came from areas where different dialects were spoken. But it can be said that they were devoid of a common language and were not able to speak English they were highly subdued by the dominant white peoples and their cultures have been in several times been subjected towards mockery, humiliation as well judged from a negative point of view. But still above all they have been successful in keeping their heritage intact and their unique folk culture has been a perfect burlesque of unmatched extravaganza. Their folk culture found their profound magnification in poetry, rhythmical songs, wise sayings, and oral folk stories through the utilisation of stunning imagery, figurative and metaphorical language along with that of double-edged vocabulary as well as sentence construction. The folk culture represented different life conditions through which the Afro American people passed through in different phases of time. The stylistic part of the black American English dialect found in the black American English dialect found in the black folk oral tradition generates as an psycho-cultural process which supported and nourished the black speech during the American Negro slavery days. The black Americans formulated a system of stylized communication which could not be deciphered by that of the white master. As the African American has not been able to develop a language that had one meaning and that of the black African slave with a different significance. The black language is presented in the linguistic context or dialect as also in the context of the Negro enslavement in America. Because of the experiences and the oppression of the Black Americans’ history of oppression under which the black speech has survived has been an impeccable exposition of the language of the Black America. The language of the black Yolk oral tradition is found in the socio-psychological aspects of black Americans. It is worth noting that several vocabulary words found within the black oral folk and traditions result from a reversal process which signifies that whatever the words imply in White America the opposite is held in its meaning in the Black America. The vocabulary words were first utilised as tools of coded language with the figurative usage as well as that of rhetorical power and has been dedicated functionally towards the survival trajectory of the Black Americans. Various stereotypical vocabulary words of the African American people are basically English terms which are destined towards serving of the cultural needs of the black people and they can identify with the same as parts of the American experience (Anderson, 1977, pp. 6-10). Bifurcations in the trajectory The unique folk culture of the black American literature incorporates the literary types which are basically oral such as that of the black folk tales, black folk songs which includes the spirituals, blues, ballads, black sermons, black jokes black verbal and rhetorical strategies, such as shucking, :lying, running it down, signifying, sounding, copping a plea and rapping. Out of the three important traditions of the African American literature is that of the Folk Tradition, the Abolitionist Tradition, the Plantation Tradition, the black American Palk oral literary, verbal and rhetorical Tradition is also one of the most vital and oldest language legacy. This above mentioned Folk tradition represents to the direct expression of the black American experience from the period of colonial days towards the present days representing different aspects of the human condition as well as that of the universal appeal of all the mankind through the expression in outstanding ways. The black Polk oral Tradition reflects the underlying mechanism of what it states to be black in America and shows highly the deepened gap between the actual existence of the blacks in the American society and that of the inherent meaning of the blacks in the written form. The black American male has been highly emphasizing on the recognition and the uniqueness of the Folk oral tradition. Majority of the racial and the ethnical people groups have been at several times produced various anonymous music as well as literature. The folk musical as well as the literary forms are usually produced and are transmitted orally from one generation to another generation. In the traditional stage, the literature as well as the music may gain or lose the various parts of its contents or the substances. These so called anonymous productions or the artifacts may be variable from place to place. Various versions of a particular incident oral or that of the literary forms may be generating in various neighboring localities as well as clans. The lack of various written literary forms gives rise to different versions of any particular incident story as well as the literary form. The black folk literature find its origin in the synonymous processes from the African and black American folklore, legends, customs as well as traditions. At the place when such folklores were recorded, they were preserved as well as ket for preventing any change (Anderson, 1977, p.4). The Black folk versions in the black dialect were primarily developed in the 17th century and they highly embedded with Biblical images, poetic language and integrate the common place experience with the historical actions and are highly characterized by allusions and Symbolism. At the juncture of the American colonial period as well as in the period of American Negro slavery, the black people also generated anonymous black folk songs like that of ballads, spirituals, non-religious or secular songs, and the blues with the utmost contribution towards the American culture. These specimens of highly innovative and rare creations of art reflect the people rhythmic endowments, sufferings, humor, faith, protest as well as endurance. The folk song types of literature along with their unique possession of outstanding reflection of the oral poetry exhibited the spontaneous rhythmic patterns with ironical and metaphorical overtones. The musical features of the Afro American folk music includes the predominant usage of the percussion, polymeter, off-beat phrases of melodic accents as well as that of the overlapping of the call and response patterns (Hamlet, 2011, p.27-28). Aura of the Black spirituals The anonymous creation of the Black American spiritual compositions can be attributed to be one of the most realistic as well as the most beautiful in the black oral tradition as for example, ‘Steal Away to Jesus’, ‘Deep River’, ‘Go Down Moses’, ‘Nobody Knows De Trouble I See’ which were all developed in the period of slavery in the plantation areas with voice of protest, deep religious conviction as well as that of the expression of the life of Jesus and other outstanding Biblical figures in an accepted religious and lyrical form. These spirituals points towards bringing the Christian Bible alive within a sphere of vibrant symbolism, images, figurative language, black dialect and rhythm and they reflected the thought of a slave on the plantation life, their profound faith in religion and their tremendous desire for freedom from the shackles of slavery (Anderson, 1977, pp. 6-10). Role of the church The church, the epitome of Christian religion has also acted as an omnipotent source of the African American culture. The terms and the expressions were communicated through the sermons of the Afro American preacher as well as through the feedback delivered by the preachers to the audiences. This type of response was known as the call and response procedure and the idea of the constant exchange between the narrator and the listener was a perfect requirement for the exposition of any real communication for taking place in them. The system was a simultaneous interaction between the speaker and the listener where the statements delivered by the speaker are punctuated by the responses from the listeners. It could be said that this mechanism was prevalent in the Black churches however the phenomena can be observed in the environment outside the church starting from the academic classroom to the comedy, rap, rhythm and the blues concerts. The African American expressions have become a common response among the people of America irrespective of race and ethnicity. The expressions used in the hip hop, word, word up, word to the mother and the similar phrases all originate from the value imposed on the speech as well as the verbal artistry (Hamlet, 2011, p.28). Negation of Euro centrism The oral tradition of the African American people have been highly in practice which have been declared as brave agendas in raising the voice against the dominating Euro centrism. With the adaptation of various processes the African Americans risks their claim towards the English language simultaneously with the infusion of distinct African American cultural values that are in odds with that of the Eurocentric standards. It can be said that the semantic inversion which can be said to be the words which are turned to their opposite meaning has become one of the art form for the artists of the African American origin. ‘Fat’ is a word which can be stressed in this case. In the hip hop culture the word ‘fat’ is spelled as ‘phat’ and refers to a person or thing which can be regarded as excellent and desirable which reflects the traditional cultural value that indicates that human body weight is a positive thing and points at the rejection of the Eurocentric thought which teaches the fact that being skinny and is more valued than being fat. The other aspects of the African American oral tradition that of the words like that of ‘testifying’, ‘signifying’ and trash talkin’ have found their way into mainstream American popular culture (Leonard, 2006, p.101). Music as significant variable in the expositing power The musical expression of the African American people has been highly associated with that of the immense creativity, thought, imagination as well as dynamic demonstrations (Huggins, 2007, p.xiv –xx). Music acts as an energizing mechanism for both of its creators as well as to that of the listeners. Embedded within the roots of the African American culture there are immense potentiality of learning. Their music like that of spirituals, blues, gospel, jazz, and hip-hop reflects within them stories of emotions, hardships, hope as well as that of the determination and that of the struggle of the downtrodden people against the societal domination. The pure messages which are delivered through their music reflect the hardcore social and cultural values of the society of any time. The very attributes of Nommo can be highly observed in today’s hip hop culture particularly emphasized within the realms of the rap music. Scholar Tricia Rose in her famous book, ‘Black Noise’ stated that evolution of the hip hop culture occurred as an amalgamation of the cultural exchange and that of broader social and political conditions of the Black alienation as well as disillusionment. Within the Afro American society, in particular the Black Youth sought identity and they wanted to make through a way in order to stake a claim in his own culture. The tradition of Hip-hop became a strong means as well as a new value system which will lead to the development and the allowance of an outlet generated as a means of self expression as well as creativity. The rap music also creates an important and interesting venue which can be basically attached to the social constructions of the black culture. The Hip-hop culture has transfused into the American popular culture in a highly unprecedented manner. The hip-hop culture has been developed by the black youth operating on the periphery of the mainstream American culture but the culture has become common all over the globe and has become a social stereotype and a separate fashion identity. The hip-hop influence in the American culture is highly dominant and it is highly successful in the domination of the notion of marketing and advertising in the marketing arena as well as also in the corporate boardrooms. The crossover appeal of the hip-hop culture has become one of the phenomenal identity developments among the several ethnic groups with the high potential of unifying the diverse populations (Hamlet, 2011, pp. 28-29). The Toast Within the vast domain of the Black poetry, the Toast is popular poem and carries with it various significance and messages. The Toast can be said to be a narrative tale which are equipped with rhymed lines and poetic imagery which are usual gutsy and sexual (Graham & Vard, 2011, p.535). In this poem, the protagonist is a Black man who fights against all odds and survives. The character Stag-O-Lee in the poem was such bad that even the whites feared him and they believed that it is only God who was able to kill him. Still the poem states that it took around 3,412 angels with 14 days, 11 hours and 32 minutes for carrying the giant death thunderbolt to the Lord. The hero in this poem can be symbolized as an animal form “like the Signifying Monkey, who, though the underdog, outdoes the big, bad Lion (symbolizing the white man)” (Smitherman, 1973, p.13). Thus it can be seen that the most of the oral tradition of the African American have been highly powerful and majority of them try to establish the freedom over dominance and suppression. They bear a unique identity which represents them. Implications of the oral tradition in the American society Education is a dynamic platform through which the oral tradition of the Black Americans has to be preserved as well as propagated in the true spirit. In the educational dimension it can be said that secondary education is a place where the students make high interconnection and it is the area where building connections with the present with that of the past can be said to be a necessary part of critical engagement as well as personal growth. Evaluation mechanism and exploring the way of synthesis of the past practices are highly connected to the contemporary practices which encourage the students in looking to the past for the proper understanding as well as inspiration. In this case, helping out the students that in the understanding of the oral tradition is an indispensible part of African American culture encouraging and it has to be done from the scratch. The schools and the educational institutes should be well synthesized with the African American oral tradition starting with that of the pre-slavery and continuing to contemporary life. The students must be familiarized with the various cultural products which have been originated from the African American oral tradition. The goal of the system should be incorporated in order to gain an understanding of the African American oral tradition. The students will be highly demonstrate their knowledge through the process of creation of the products which focus on various cultural products which originates from the oral tradition, such as rap songs, spirituals, dances, sermons from the African American church, folklore, etc.. The students will be demonstrating on the usage of new media for the purpose of communicating several ideas which will also help the students in analyzing the role of culture within their own lives and communities. The students will be encouraged for demonstrating an example of the oral tradition of the African American culture. The influence of the culture should be infused within the students for the creation of the communication pattern (Hamlet, 2011, p.28). Conclusion The paper deals with the discussion of the African American culture with respect to oral communications. It can be seen that the Afro American oral culture has been embedded in the roots of the deep heritage and traditional values. Their oral communication through multifaceted forms has been able to establish a separate identity of cultural infusion which has a long drawn impact on the American society. The African Americans have been dominated and suppressed time and again by the White people but they have been able to maintain their oral communication in a rigorous way. All forms of oral communications exposited by them shows reflection of power, agony, protest, urge for freedom and strong opposition towards the white domination. It is still today persistent that the hip-hop culture transfused by the Afro American have been very popular in the American yet an agenda always plays strong that the gang culture, negative attitude comes from them. But it is absolutely false and the culture is an integral part and it must be propagated and culminated with right spirit and one of the primordial tool for establishing the fact is through the process of education. Annoted Bibliography 1. Anderson, E, (1977), The Use of the Black Folk Oral Tradition and Other Black Rhetorical and Verbal Strategies in the Teaching of Composition, retrieved on 2 August, 2012 from, http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED145425.pdf The above paper deals with the backdrop of the development of the literature of the folk oral culture of the Black Americans. Elucidation is imparted on several trajectories of the black literature that is of the black folk tales, black folk sermons, black ballads, black American spirituals, black nonreligious or secular songs, black American blues, and Afro-American jokes. Various music cultures of the Black Americans are discussed in the text which reflects the immense oral culture and tradition of the African Americans and exposits a separate identity. It also focuses on the role of the teachers in infusing the Black American culture within the framework of the American educational dimension for its establishment as a separate identity which needs to be explored and rigidly implemented. 2. Graham, M & Vard, J, W (2011), The Cambridge History of African American Literature, Cambridge University Press http://books.google.co.in/books?id=-6g1yIuMeaIC&dq=toast+and+Black+American+culture%5D&source=gbs_navlinks_s The book centers on the history of four hundred years of Black writing. The Cambridge History of African American Literature presents a brief view of the traditions of the Black American literatures with that of the oral and print versions. The contributors drawn from the United States focus on the dual nature of each of the texts developed by an individual and focuses on the revealing of the events in American cultural, political, and social history. The book also looks ahead to suggest new approaches, new areas of study, and as yet undervalued writers and works. The Cambridge History of African American Literature is a major achievement both as a work of reference and as a compelling narrative and will remain essential reading for scholars and students in years to come. 3. Hamlet, J, (2011), Word! The African American Oral Tradition and its Rhetorical Impact on American Popular Culture, 74 (1), p27-31, retrieved on 2 August, 2012 from, http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=12&sid=ac9caccd-07ec-439b-9f5a-6d1ddeab23bd%40sessionmgr14&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=60848730 The paper deals with the reflection of the notion that the African American culture is one of the greatest traditional mechanisms in the American societal structures. It has been also stated that the Black Americans have been subjected to White domination for a longer period and for that reason their cultures have been also subjected to several criticisms but through the maintenance of their culture and taking support of the protesting behavior they have been able to maintain their tradition and making a great mark of it. Also the paper directs towards the implementation of the Black American oral tradition in the educational institutions as a mandatory phenomenon. 4. Huggins, N, I, (2007), Harlem Renaissance, Oxford University Press http://books.google.co.in/books?id=JlJorH5HL_wC&dq=The+musical+expression+of+the+African+American+people+has+been+highly+associated+with+that+of+the+immense+creativity,+thought,+imagination+as+well+as+dynamic+demonstrations&source=gbs_navlinks_s A finalist for the 1972 National Book Award summoned by The New York Times Book Review, the Harlem Renaissance was a milestone in the study of African-American life and culture. Acclaimed biographer Arnold Rampersad exposits a brilliant account of the creative explosion in Harlem during these pivotal years. With the blend of history, literature, music, psychology, and folklore, the author enlighten the thought and the writings of key figures like that of Alain Locke, James Weldon Johnson, and W.E.B. DuBois and provides sharp-eyed analyses of the poetry of Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes. The prime objectives for Huggins in the whole book are pointing on the attainment of a better grasping of the America as a whole. Huggins did not want Harlem in the 1920s to be the center stage of the book as a lens through which the readers might visualize a moment which sheds light on the American character and culture, not just in Harlem but across the nation. The author strives throughout the book the works of the poets and the novelists not only to the artists working in other genres but also on the economic, historical, and cultural forces in the culture at large. This superb reissue of Harlem Renaissance brings to a new generation of readers one of the great works in African-American history and indeed a landmark work in the field of American Studies. 5. Leonard, D, J (2006), Screens Fade to Black: Contemporary African American Cinema, Greenwood Publishing Group The triple crown of Oscars given to Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, and Sidney Poitier on a single evening in 2002 seemed to mark a turning point for African Americans in cinema. Certainly it was hyped as such by the media, eager to overlook the nuance of this sudden embrace. In this new study, author David Leonard uses this event as a jumping-off point from which to discuss the current state of African-American cinema and the various genres that currently compose it. Looking at such recent films as Love and Basketball, Antwone Fisher, Training Day, and the two Barbershop films all of which were directed by black artists, and most of which starred and were written by blacks as well Leonard examines the issues of representation and opportunity in contemporary cinema. In many cases, these films-which walk a line between confronting racial stereotypes and trafficking in them-made a great deal of money while hardly playing to white audiences at all. By examining the ways in which they address the American Dream, racial progress, racial difference, blackness, whiteness, class, capitalism and a host of other issues, Leonard shows that while certainly there are differences between the grotesque images of years past and those that define todays era, the consistency of images across genre and time reflects the lasting power of racism, as well as the black communitys response to it. 6. Smitherman, G, (1973), THE POWER OF THE RAP: THE BLACK IDIOM AND THE NEW BLACK POETRY, retrieved on 2 August, 2012 from: http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED083337.pdf The paper deals with the poetry culture of the Black Americans as a significant manifestation in the past decade as an appropriate artistic counterthrust to Black Power. The thrust was basically a call at the black folk culture and the reevaluation of its experiences. The paper also focuses of the fact that the Black art must be essentially exhibited as a functional and structural notion of the struggles of the black people. The quest among the writers of the Black Arts is depicted in their roots of cultural sensibility which unfurls an aesthetic nature of the Black tradition. The cultural sensibility is the way through which the oral tradition of the Black Americans can be revealed and a special emphasis is being provided on the musical form of rap –a specialty of the Black Americans. Read More