The Impact of Cultural Expression as a Means of Resistance during the Transatlantic Slave-Trade
The Transatlantic Slave Trade, spanning four centuries, was a systematic and consistent form of suppression that still continues to affect generations of Africans located in different parts of the world. The United Nations observes this day as the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and Transatlantic Slave Trade. Today was also commemorated at the weekly DPI NGO briefing with passionate, gentle and articulate presentations by two speakers, and complex and enlightening responses from the audience.
Professor Sekou Konneh, senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Liberia was the first to communicate the dangers of racism, and how the way in which we identify ourselves and each other can easily be potential harbingers of oppression and division. The ideology of being African is not a matter of biology but of perception, identity and belonging. The cultural expression during the period of slavery, that in many ways was misinterpreted by those who observed them, who were not of their culture, offered Africans resistance to their oppression at the time. Masking, dancing, singing and trading were some of the cultural expressions that enabled them to negotiate their way through multiple generations of oppression, passing on stories of culture, meaning and resilience to the younger generations that would then continue those stories. As the generations continue to pass, Professor Konneh identified that the spiritual connection with the homeland of the African continent and the concept of ‘home’ overall needs to be re-negotiated and given renewed meaning.
Dr Marcia Burrowes holds the positions of Coordinator and Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of the West India in Barbados. Interested in researching the African Continuum in the Caribbean as manifested in the performance culture, she is particularly interested in migration and Diaspora studies. Dr Burrowes discussed the process of ‘the making of a culture’ and “hybridisation” where the ways of multiple and diverse tribes found common ground as they created a collective oneness. Language, religion and song were key means of expression in the fight against slavery. As the slave ‘owners’ endeavoured to suppress their cultural expression, the Africans would adapt and adjust their forms of expression finding ways to live it out. For example, when all musical instruments were removed from, ordinary objects became the means for making music. Mask making enabled Africans to identify and affirm their relationship with the spirit world and show reverence to their ancestors and the spirit world through dance and song.
The Audience. The process of dehumanising people does not necessarily cross national borders. As articulated by an African audience member today, after the Civil War, when Africans went home to the Continent, they felt themselves superior to the tribal Africans who had remained on the continent. The newly returned Africans had learned skills and abilities during their time of slavery. This difference created disharmony and dissension among the African people, the results of which continue to day. Wherever we may be from, as soon as we make someone ‘other’ to us, we can do what we like to them without feeling accountable. This attitude of ‘othering’ has helped produced the world of division we live in today.
We understand that the identity of all living beings is first and foremost spiritual. Other identities of language, culture, religion and nation are transient and can change even in one lifetime. However, it is through these identities that people find meaning in life’s events. It is through these identities that people also express their innate qualities, inherent creativity and perform acts of belonging while finding ways of withstanding acts of violence, whether overt or covert, being committed against them. Identity is complex. The problem is that ideologies of hate easily reduce people, who are complex, creative and multidimensional, into singular simple strands of identity that can designate people as something ‘other’, making it easy to dehumanise them. The philosophy of Raja Yoga is that the identity of each person is identical. Each of us are spiritual beings of conscious light energy who live in physical bodies and express ourselves through the social world. When we understand our sameness, while celebrating humanities multiple forms of expression, we will see the real possibility of peace and begin indeed to live it.
Tamasin
