Pan-Africanism : Why It Isn't Possible For Black Americans To Appropriate African Culture

[Clyde C Coger Jr]

In the Spirit of Sankofa,



Why It Isn't Possible For Black Americans To Appropriate African Culture

My dashiki shouldn't offend you



... This is why it hurts when native Africans criticize black American attempts to regain a lost portion of ourselves. Writer Zipporah Gene, who identifies as both British and Nigerian, wrote a post earlier this month claiming that black Americans can appropriate African culture -- since we are American -- by wearing tribal garb to be "trendy." Backlash to her piece led her to write an equally obtuse follow-up declaring that, based on her own experiences, it is unnecessary for black people to showcase their Africanness: ..


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/is-it-cultural-appropriation-when-africans-wear-jordans_56099b3be4b0768126fea24d?ref=yfp

STEPHEN CHERNIN VIA GETTY IMAGES
Members of the Restoration Dance Company perform a traditional African dance during a Kwanzaa festival at the Museum of Natural History December 28, 2002 in New York City. Kwanzaa, started in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, is an African-American cultural holiday celebrating family and community.


...

 

[Bootzey]

I've had Africans tell me this very thing. They have gone as far to demand when I'm wearing something tribal to change my clothes.

Let's face it. Africa is a continent and not a country. And we (most of us) are far too removed from it to claim it's heritage like that. We don't know what we're wearing. We have no connection to the meaning.

But I still rock my African garb....

 

[IFE]

Not to be disrespectful, but who cares what anyone thinks about what I choose to wear. I use to wear dashikis back in the day and turbans. I stil do occasionally.
I was given a beautiful dashiki recently by a girlfriend from Gahna. In exchange I gave her a lace suite she liked from my closet. I really loved that suite. She couldn't get one from her homeland. I parted with it because she is my friend.
I wear dashikis around the house as lounge wear. I wear turbans any where.

Am I misunderstanding the article.

 

[Clyde C Coger Jr]

...

Yes, we've been anglicized as a people.

...

I've had Africans tell me this very thing. They have gone as far to demand when I'm wearing something tribal to change my clothes.

Let's face it. Africa is a continent and not a country. And we (most of us) are far too removed from it to claim it's heritage like that. We don't know what we're wearing. We have no connection to the meaning.

But I still rock my African garb....

 

[Clyde C Coger Jr]

...


No, you didn't misunderstand the article. We are a proud people and no one can tell us not to be who we are.

...

Not to be disrespectful, but who cares what anyone thinks about what I choose to wear. I use to wear dashikis back in the day and turbans. I stil do occasionally.
I was given a beautiful dashiki recently by a girlfriend from Gahna. In exchange I gave her a lace suite she liked from my closet. I really loved that suite. She couldn't get one from her homeland. I parted with it because she is my friend.
I wear dashikis around the house as lounge wear. I wear turbans any where.

Am I misunderstanding the article.

 

[Bootzey]

Not to be disrespectful, but who cares what anyone thinks about what I choose to wear. I use to wear dashikis back in the day and turbans. I stil do occasionally.
I was given a beautiful dashiki recently by a girlfriend from Gahna. In exchange I gave her a lace suite she liked from my closet. I really loved that suite. She couldn't get one from her homeland. I parted with it because she is my friend.
I wear dashikis around the house as lounge wear. I wear turbans any where.

Am I misunderstanding the article.

I think you did misunderstand the article.

What the author of the article says is Black Americans should NOT wear their traditional clothing because it is appropriating and insulting to Africans. American Black people are not African, we are Americans with dark skin. It is the same as dressing up in a Native American head dress, or wearing and Indian sari. They feel if you are unaware of the reasoning and tradition behind it, then we are making a mockery of their culture

 

[Orisons]

[QUOTE="Clyde C Coger Jr, post: 931175, member: 12718" In the Spirit of Sankofa,

Why It Isn't Possible For Black Americans To Appropriate African Culture

My dashiki shouldn't offend you

... This is why it hurts when native Africans criticize black American attempts to regain a lost portion of ourselves. Writer Zipporah Gene, who identifies as both British and Nigerian, wrote a post earlier this month claiming that black Americans can appropriate African culture -- since we are American -- by wearing tribal garb to be "trendy."

Backlash to her piece led her to write an equally obtuse follow-up declaring that, based on her own experiences, it is unnecessary for black people to showcase their Africanness: ..


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/is-it-cultural-appropriation-when-africans-wear-jordans_56099b3be4b0768126fea24d?ref=yfp

STEPHEN CHERNIN VIA GETTY IMAGES
Members of the Restoration Dance Company perform a traditional African dance during a Kwanzaa festival at the Museum of Natural History December 28, 2002 in New York City. Kwanzaa, started in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, is an African-American cultural holiday celebrating family and community.

.../QUOTE] When I first encountered Africans from Africa here in the UK I was very jealous of them still having their own language and culture, considered their position to be stronger than ours in the rest of the African Diaspora.

When I read “The West and the Rest of Us” by Chienweizu my perspective totally changed, in that what is more humiliating and totally emasculating than being totally dominated and controlled by a total stranger/enemy in not just your home, but your ancestral home [they are even more HURT/in need of deep psychotherapy than US], at least we know we’re not at home?

Just to underline this so very very severe damage that has crippled Africans within Africa over the last 500 years, I said to Ghanaian friend of mine “What colonialism did to Africa is like having someone kick down the door of your 20 bedroom mansion and subsequently having the means of forcing you and your family to live in one of the smallest rooms.”

Can you imagine my shock when this Super Macho Man’s response wasn’t denial, he simply said “Smallest room, they told us the toilet was where we belonged and made us STAY there”?

Isn’t being CRUSHED and marginalized as sub human in your homeland by STRANGERS who have conquered YOU and YOUR country and made it theirs, [which is exactly what Colonialism/Apartheid did to Africa and Africans]; comparable or possibly even more spiritually and intellectually traumatizing and debilitating than the HOLOCAUST which enslaved/delivered my ancestors and [their tortured, mutilated and murdered siblings] over 20 million others to the USA and the rest of the Diaspora in general [Guyana with regard to ME specifically]?

Can you NOW relate to why ALL the peoples of African ethnicity in general, in the USA and the rest of the Diaspora [along with the Africans in Nigeria, South Africa] and the rest of Africa in particular NEED the so uplifting TRUTHS of an African centred History Curriculum as the core of resurrecting both the individual and collective self esteem necessary to kick start the African Renaissance in the 21st century?

When are WE going to fully update the History Curriculum taught in our communities and even more critically in AFRICAN countries TODAY at ALL levels with the works of Dr Ivan van Sertima They Came Before Columbus, The African Presence in Ancient America (circa 1200-400 BCE as highlighted by the Olmec Heads, have YOU ever seen them) and Blacks in Science, Ancient and Modern etc; or even the still alive Anthony T Browder's Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization as ready made textbooks?

Couldn’t we also utilize the Browder Files and Dr Frances Cress-Welsing’s “The Isis Papers for ordinary and advanced level African Studies textbooks, with the truly superlative “Yurugu- An African centred critique of European Cultural thought and behaviour” by Marimba Ani as the Doctorate level textbook?

Given the example of how successfully the Asians in general, the Japanese, and even the formerly colonised Chinese and Indians have coped with this burden with comparatively limited natural resources in a consistently hostile environment, with even their communities in the Diaspora outperforming OURS; isn't the so consistently CLUELESS/TRECHEROUS performance of our socio-economic elite an ongoing DISASTER?

Isn't the functional intelligentsia of any ethnicity responsible for deducing the strategic policies for moving the group forward collectively [whereas many of us are expecting our underclass to be the first on the planet to do so]?

Isn’t ANYONE who genuinely believes they are not programmed
graphically illustrating that their programming is COMPLETE?​

 

[Clyde C Coger Jr]

...

To the below question, it is a very good question and should be considered the goal of any Black Movement; as far all other questions, my answer is yes.

... When are WE going to fully update the History Curriculum taught in our communities and even more critically in AFRICAN countries TODAY at ALL levels with the works of Dr Ivan van Sertima They Came Before Columbus, The African Presence in Ancient America (circa 1200-400 BCE as highlighted by the Olmec Heads, have YOU ever seen them) and Blacks in Science, Ancient and Modern etc; or even the still alive Anthony T Browder's Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization as ready made textbooks?

Isn’t ANYONE who genuinely believes they are not programmed
graphically illustrating that their programming is COMPLETE?​

 

[Orisons]

[QUOTE="Clyde C Coger Jr, post: 931175, member: 12718" In the Spirit of Sankofa,

Why It Isn't Possible For Black Americans To Appropriate African Culture

My dashiki shouldn't offend you

... This is why it hurts when native Africans criticize black American attempts to regain a lost portion of ourselves. Writer Zipporah Gene, who identifies as both British and Nigerian, wrote a post earlier this month claiming that black Americans can appropriate African culture -- since we are American -- by wearing tribal garb to be "trendy."

Backlash to her piece led her to write an equally obtuse follow-up declaring that, based on her own experiences, it is unnecessary for black people to showcase their Africanness: ..


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/is-it-cultural-appropriation-when-africans-wear-jordans_56099b3be4b0768126fea24d?ref=yfp

STEPHEN CHERNIN VIA GETTY IMAGES
Members of the Restoration Dance Company perform a traditional African dance during a Kwanzaa festival at the Museum of Natural History December 28, 2002 in New York City. Kwanzaa, started in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, is an African-American cultural holiday celebrating family and community.

.../QUOTE] When I first encountered Africans from Africa here in the UK I was very jealous of them still having their own language and culture, considered their position to be stronger than ours in the rest of the African Diaspora.

When I read “The West and the Rest of Us” by Chienweizu my perspective totally changed, in that what is more humiliating and totally emasculating than being totally dominated and controlled by a total stranger/enemy in not just your home, but your ancestral home [they are even more HURT/in need of deep psychotherapy than US], at least we know we’re not at home?

Just to underline this so very very severe damage that has crippled Africans within Africa over the last 500 years, I said to Ghanaian friend of mine “What colonialism did to Africa is like having someone kick down the door of your 20 bedroom mansion and subsequently having the means of forcing you and your family to live in one of the smallest rooms.”

Can you imagine my shock when this Super Macho Man’s response wasn’t denial, he simply said “Smallest room, they told us the toilet was where we belonged and made us STAY there”?

Isn’t being CRUSHED and marginalized as sub human in your homeland by STRANGERS who have conquered YOU and YOUR country and made it theirs, [which is exactly what Colonialism/Apartheid did to Africa and Africans]; comparable or possibly even more spiritually and intellectually traumatizing and debilitating than the HOLOCAUST which enslaved/delivered my ancestors and [their tortured, mutilated and murdered siblings] over 20 million others to the USA and the rest of the Diaspora in general [Guyana with regard to ME specifically]?

Can you NOW relate to why ALL the peoples of African ethnicity in general, in the USA and the rest of the Diaspora [along with the Africans in Nigeria, South Africa] and the rest of Africa in particular NEED the so uplifting TRUTHS of an African centred History Curriculum as the core of resurrecting both the individual and collective self esteem necessary to kick start the African Renaissance in the 21st century?

[QUOTE="Clyde C Coger Jr, post: 931260, member: 12718" ...

To the below question, it is a very good question and should be considered the goal of any Black Movement; as far all other questions, my answer is yes. /QUOTE]

When are WE going to fully update the History Curriculum taught in our communities and even more critically in AFRICAN countries TODAY at ALL levels with the works of Dr Ivan van Sertima They Came Before Columbus, The African Presence in Ancient America (circa 1200-400 BCE as highlighted by the Olmec Heads, have YOU ever seen them) and Blacks in Science, Ancient and Modern etc; or even the still alive Anthony T Browder's Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization as ready made textbooks?

Couldn’t we also utilize the Browder Files and Dr Frances Cress-Welsing’s “The Isis Papers for ordinary and advanced level African Studies textbooks, with the truly superlative “Yurugu- An African centred critique of European Cultural thought and behaviour” by Marimba Ani as the Doctorate level textbook?

Given the example of how successfully the Asians in general, the Japanese, and even the formerly colonised Chinese and Indians have coped with this burden with comparatively limited natural resources in a consistently hostile environment, with even their communities in the Diaspora outperforming OURS; isn't the so consistently CLUELESS/TRECHEROUS performance of our socio-economic elite an ongoing DISASTER?

Isn't the functional intelligentsia of any ethnicity responsible for deducing the strategic policies for moving the group forward collectively [whereas why are so many of us expecting our underclass/lower echelons to be the first on the planet to do so] thus what do you think is the easiest way to get this so very DO-ABLE agenda to manifest in our communities and countries in the 21st century?

Isn’t ANYONE who genuinely believes they are not programmed
graphically illustrating that their programming is COMPLETE?​

 

[Clyde C Coger Jr]

...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those the same questions previously posted and answered?

... When are WE going to fully update the History Curriculum taught in our communities and even more critically in AFRICAN countries TODAY at ALL levels with the works of Dr Ivan van Sertima They Came Before Columbus, The African Presence in Ancient America (circa 1200-400 BCE as highlighted by the Olmec Heads, have YOU ever seen them) and Blacks in Science, Ancient and Modern etc; or even the still alive Anthony T Browder's Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization as ready made textbooks?

Couldn’t we also utilize the Browder Files and Dr Frances Cress-Welsing’s “The Isis Papers for ordinary and advanced level African Studies textbooks, with the truly superlative “Yurugu- An African centred critique of European Cultural thought and behaviour” by Marimba Ani as the Doctorate level textbook?

Given the example of how successfully the Asians in general, the Japanese, and even the formerly colonised Chinese and Indians have coped with this burden with comparatively limited natural resources in a consistently hostile environment, with even their communities in the Diaspora outperforming OURS; isn't the so consistently CLUELESS/TRECHEROUS performance of our socio-economic elite an ongoing DISASTER?

Isn't the functional intelligentsia of any ethnicity responsible for deducing the strategic policies for moving the group forward collectively [whereas why are so many of us expecting our underclass/lower echelons to be the first on the planet to do so] thus what do you think is the easiest way to get this so very DO-ABLE agenda to manifest in our communities and countries in the 21st century?

Isn’t ANYONE who genuinely believes they are not programmed
graphically illustrating that their programming is COMPLETE?​