Descendants Of African Slaves Research Articles

The Influence of Reparations, Internalized Oppression, and Racial Centrality Across Systemic and Psychological Factors Concerning the African American Community

The purpose of this paper was to utilize the literature to better understand how reparations have a causal effect on, (a) internalized oppression; (b) racial centrality; (c) systemic inequity; and (d) mental health outcomes within the African American community. Reparations are examined through both monetary gains and the significance of societal recognition of the history of African chattel slavery. In addition, the White versus African American wealth gap is utilized to display the relationship between unpaid reparations and contemporary economic oppression. The findings illustrate the causal effects of unpaid reparations that were demonstrated throughout the literature to have negative consequences on the African American community. Moreover, a direct link was found between unpaid reparations and negative economic mobility, mental health outcomes, internalized oppression, and decreased racial centrality. Finally, the findings also show the benefits reparations would have on the descendants of African slaves, which were increased racial centrality, decreased internalized oppression, and systemic recognition, as well as positively impacting future generations. Therefore, the effects would impact the entire African American community, through increasing generational wealth and equity.

African migrants in Cabo Verde

This article outlines the results of study among main migrant groups of Cabo Verde, nationals of Africa. Ethnographic expedition for studying contemporary ethnic processes worked on the archipelago in December 2019 - January 2020. A comprehensive research method was used, along with examination of written and statistical sources. Interviews with informants and experts and mass-survey of African migrants using representative sample was carried out.It turned out that before XX century there were no African migrants on the archipelago, and up to 98-99% of the population were Cabo Verdeans(creole) - descendants of African slaves that were brought on the islands up to the middle of XIX century. Modern migration from African countries started only in the beginning of XXI century, but migrants viewed Cabo Verde as a staging point for further resettling into Western Europe and Northern America. In 2010, total number of African settlers achieved 10 thousand people. In the mid-2010s, government passed new laws that heavily restricted migration and the stream of new people from Africa drastically declined. Now African immigrants make up less than 2% of the total population. This study allowed to find out the age and gender composition of immigrants, language processes, degree of adaptation to local culture, social and educational level of migrants, the degree of development of integration and assimilatory processes and other questions allowing to draw conclusion about the subsequent development of immigrant groups in the country.

O jogo da capoeira, como ferramenta motivacional para o desenvolvimento da leitura, em uma escola estadual, na cidade de Itabuna – Bahia -Brasil

A capoeira ou capoeiragem é uma expressão cultural brasileira que mistura jogo, esporte, arte marcial, cultura popular, tradição, dança e música. Desenvolvida no Brasil por descendentes de escravos africanos, a capoeira é caracterizada por golpes e movimentos ágeis e complexos, utilizando primariamente chutes e rasteiras, além de joelhadas e cabeçadas, cotoveladas, acrobacias aéreas ou em solo. Praticantes da capoeira aprendem não apenas a lutar e jogar, mas também a tocar os instrumentos típicos e cantar. Assim, os discentes do 6º ano de uma escola estadual da cidade de Itabuna—BA, os quais apresentavam dificuldades para ler e escrever. Entretanto, nas aulas de capoeira, os alunos se mostravam mais motivados para ler. Então, surgiu o problema que norteou essa pesquisa, a saber: como o jogo de capoeira vem sendo trabalhado, para estimular a melhoria da aprendizagem em leitura dos alunos, do 6ºano, em um colégio estadual, na cidade de Itabuna – BA? Portanto, o objetivo geral desse artigo é analisar de que maneira o mestre usa o jogo da capoeira, como ferramenta motivacional, nas práticas pedagógicas, para a melhoria da aprendizagem da leitura, entre os alunos do 6º ano, do ensino fundamental II. Desse modo, a utilização de estratégias de leitura, partindo da diversidade dos gêneros textuais, de modo lúdico, através da capoeira, no processo de ensino-aprendizagem, é um assunto que é discutido nessa pesquisa, pois esta se justifica pela necessidade de contribuir para uma melhora do processo de ensino e aprendizagem, partindo de pressupostos presentes na BNCC. Palavras-chave: Capoeira, Fomento à Leitura, Gêneros Textuais, Lúdico.

Recognition and Reparations Reconsidered: Lessons from Germany

Racial justice in the United States, and indeed throughout the Americas, can be achieved only by addressing and rectifying the wrongs done in the past to the descendants of African slaves. This is so because under conditions of free market competition, past inequalities and disparities in wealth and asset holding tend to be reproduced and even reinforced in the present. As the US economist Fred Hirsch has shown, under free market conditions, there is no catching up with those who entered competitive markets earlier or with more assets. The benefits of addressing past wrongs with policies of material reparations and symbolic recognition can be understood by comparing the United States to Germany, which has not only paid reparations to Holocaust survivors and the descendants of Jewish slave laborers but also outlawed any public display of any symbols glorifying the horrors enacted in the past.

Arterial prehypertension in slave-descendant communities in southeast Bahia State, Brazil

Arterial prehypertension is a precursor of arterial hypertension and a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Vulnerable populations are more prone to this condition due to difficulties in access to health services. A previous study in quilombola communities (descendants of African slaves) reported a high prevalence of arterial hypertension. The current study aimed to estimate the prevalence of arterial prehypertension in quilombolas and to assess associated factors. This was a cross-sectional population-based study in individuals 18 years and older. Prehypertension was defined as arterial systolic pressure ≥ 121mmHg and < 140mmHg and/or diastolic ≥ 81mmHg and < 90mmHg. Multivariate Poisson regression with robust variance was used. Population-attributable fractions (PAF) were also calculated for the modifiable associated factors. Prevalence of prehypertension was 55% (95%CI: 50.2-59.7). Male gender (PR = 1.54), 1 to 4 complete years of schooling (PR = 1.44), and BMI classified as overweight (PR = 1.39) and obesity (PR = 1.87) showed positive association with prehypertension. Higher attributable fractions were observed in individuals with 1 to 4 years of schooling (13.7%) and those classified as overweight (9.35%) and obese (4.6%). Prevalence of prehypertension in quilombola communities was high, and its identification may allow screening and awareness-raising in a group with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and progression to full-blown hypertension. The study highlights the need for broad access to health services and specific measures for orientation, prevention, and health promotion in this population.

From plantation to proletariat: Raizals in San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina

The authors examine the implications of both a recent international ruling at The Hague curtailing fishing rights and the encroaching Colombian-based tourist industry for Raizals – descendants of African slaves brought by the British to the islands of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina in the Caribbean Sea. There they developed an autonomous way of life, in a subsistence economy based on fishing after the British abandoned the islands. While nominally under the control of the Spanish empire and afterwards the Colombian state, Raizals differ in many ways from the dominant Spanish-speaking, Creole and Catholic mainland population – being English-speaking, Afro and Protestant. Until the mid-twentieth century, they enjoyed substantial autonomy, now undermined by the Colombian nation-building project and a judgment of the international court at The Hague giving nearby Nicaragua rights over the waters of the Colombian islands, consequently precluding Raizals from accessing their traditional fishing resources. As a result, the islanders, with their culture recast as ‘heritage’, have become proletarians subordinated to tourist industries owned by mainland Colombians.

Explorer, Nobel laureate, astrobiologist: things you never knew about Barry Blumberg.

Baruch S. “Barry” Blumberg, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and founding director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), passed away suddenly of a heart attack at age 85 on April 5, 2011, during a conference at Ames Research Center. That Barry spent his last day conceptualizing an International Research Park on the Moon befits the unflagging curiosity that characterized his life in general and his scientific career in particular. In this paper I trace Barry's scientific career, including his early formative years and the unexpected path that led to the Nobel Prize. I also show that Barry's perspective and approach to science in general made astrobiology a natural area to attract his attention after he had retired from medical research. Indeed, his priorities as NAI director reflect directly things that were important to him throughout his career.

Césaire and the Challenge of Translation: The Example of “Strong Men” by Sterling Brown

Césaire and the Challenge of Translation: The Example of “Strong Men” by Sterling Brown

East India Company in Sumatra: Cross-Cultural Interactions

AbstractFor scholars concerned with historical studies of cross-continental movement, migration from Africa to Asia poses challenges. Administrative records of the East India Company reveal the multi-ethnicity of slaves, trends of slavery, resistance to slavery and the circumstances that led to emancipation of the slaves. Through a case study on Sumatra, this paper considers how transition from British to Dutch control affected the emancipated slaves, what rights they had and their eventual fate. It suggests that descendants of African slaves could still be living in Southeast Asia although creolisation and assimilation may have rendered them invisible.

Africa Mia (review)

Africa Mia Shana M. Higgins In the past ten years or so, the comparative study of blackness and racial ideologies in the Américas has become an area of intensified analysis and scholarship. Afro-Latina/o as a concept is fraught with ambiguity. For some the term refers to "the cultural experience of Spanish-speaking black people in what has become the territory of the United States" (Appiah, 2005); for others, the term includes those identified as or who self-identify as black in Latin America and the Caribbean; and still others understand the term to describe the connection between Latina/o and African American communities in the United States, particularly in relation to Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans on the East Coast. Moreover, others question the very use of the term Afro-Latina/o since the racially democratic ideology of mixed ancestry (mestizo, mestizaje) deployed by many Latin American and Hispanophone Caribbean nations constrains the ability to claim a specific black or African-centered identity. These foundational narratives deploying the discourse of a people formed of "three roots" (European/Spanish, Indigenous, and African, generally hierarchically organized in this order of importance) leads to the elision of the experiential significance of being coded as black or African. The documentary film Africa Mia (Africa Mine) offers testament to the lived conditions of those whose existence has been colored by the visibility of their African-descent. Directed and produced by Bernardo Morillo, Africa Mia joins a growing number of endeavors to make visible the lives of black Latin Americans. This film centers on a group of Afro-Ecuadorian women who have migrated from the village of La Concepcion in Northern Ecuador to the city of Quito; some sent as young girls to work for prosperous families in Quito, others traveling with their own children to seek better employment. A shared experience of racially motivated discrimination draws a disparate group of women together. "120 million persons of African descent live in Latin America today," the narrator informs us at the opening of the film. She continues to provide a useful and brief history of the slave trade in the area of Ecuador and Latin America. The descendants of African slaves are found living primarily on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts and in the Caribbean; the case of La Concepcion, Ecuador is an exception. Located in the interior of Ecuador, along the northeastern Andes, this isolated village appears to be predominantly of African descent. Unfortunately, the film fails to provide more evidence of Afro-Ecuadorians than those he films and interviews from La Concepcion. It would have profited the film to include a broader context. However, demographic information documenting the Afro-Ecuadorian population may not be available. The film is made up of interviews of the women who form the [End Page 79] organization Africa Mia, narration that ties the interviews together, and footage of the women and their children building homes for themselves. We learn that the women were refused the right to purchase land in the city of Quito due to racial discrimination. Making their plight public, the women found someone willing to sell them land. The women consciously decide not to allow men to help them build their homes to prove that women can take care of themselves. Thus, their agency counters sexist and racial discriminatory practices. The film also documents the ways in which these women make their living; some through the operation of a restaurant, others through dance performances, one woman is a faith healer, and others through domestic work. All in all, as viewers, we are heartened by the success of this group of black, Ecuadorian Latinas taking care of themselves and each other. Philadelphia-based filmmaker Morillo shot the original footage in the late 1990s, returning in 2002 to find the Africa Mia compound complete. This film ends with footage of the "first screening" of the film to the women who participated. This film is a compelling story that would appeal to those with interests in Latin America, women's and gender issues, and race and ethnicity. The film includes both English and Spanish narration; the English includes subtitles (at times misspelled and missing altogether). As mentioned...

Dynamics of Ethnic Identity Among the Siddis of Hyderabad

AbstractThe existing commercial contact between India and Africa since prehistoric times grew substantially since the rise of Islam in the 7th century, leaped to its climax during the middle ages and continued until the second half of the 20th century. This commercial relationship involved the trade in humans from Africa to Asia. Many African war captives were sold as slaves in India to serve as domestics and infantries among the aristocracy of rising Islamic kingdoms while some emigrated by free will and settled in India engaging in various occupations. Descendants of African slaves and immigrants, who are locally known as Siddis, presently live in various geographical pockets of India forming their own ethnic enclaves amidst their host societies. The main Siddi communities in India are located in Gujarat, Hyderabad, Karnataka, in the Bombay region and along the western coast, including Goa. The Siddis of Hyderabad, like the other Siddi communities are changing fast, yielding to modern demands and trends. National and global pressures strongly militate against their tradition and change in their identity has been inevitable. As a result of their intermarriage with other ethnic communities and adoption of either Indian or Arab identities, today's Siddis have little resemblance to their predecessors. This study shows that the Siddis are moving in divergent directions of assimilation. Many Moslem Siddis are assimilating into the Yemeni Arab community of Hyderabad while Christian Siddis identify themselves with the Indian Christian population. Moslem and Christian Siddis are accused by each other as being pro-Pakistan Islamic radicals and 'Hindu nationalism' adherents respectively. The Siddis, although historically constituted a single ethnic community, are in the process of a significant identity change by joining two ideologically differing groups.

Invisible maids: Slavery and soap operas in Northeast Brazil

abstract This article examines the legacy of slave trafficking in terms of the experiences of the descendants of African slaves in Northeast Brazil. In particular, it focuses on female domestic servants. It argues that ideologies around domestic work and women's bodies are closely tied to notions of slavery and shows how female domestic workers challenge these notions through their interpretations of Brazilian soap operas.

The Role of Plant Substances in Jamaican Slave Dress

Africans brought aspects of their culture with them to the Americas. These African customs and beliefs or ‘Africanisms’ that were retained in the African Diasporaenabled Africans to maintain a vital link with their ancestral homeland. As slavesin an alien environment, Africans shaped, modified, and adapted these cultural elements based on their experiences, needs and circumstances. This resulted in a vibrant Creole culture in Jamaican society. These African cultural characteristics were also transmitted to the descendants of African slaves. Moreover, “Africanisms” persisted not as archaic retention, but as vibrant cultural features that continuedto grow and develop, in a sense, establishing new roots in a new environment this contributed to the enrichment of the Americas with sophisticated and profound knowledge of herbalism, mental healing and funeral customs to name a few. African cultural features were retained and nurtured in Jamaica and other areas of the Diaspora because they guaranteed the survival of Africans and their descendants against European attempts at cultural annihilation. This study examines one aspect of slav and freed women's dress: the usage of plant fibres, pigments, and bark in the production and care of clothing. I argue that the usage of plant substances in this manner was a feature of cultural retention and expression among African women and their descendants in Jamaica.

The African Reparation Cry

Given that some societies of the human race have been granted reparation, payment of reparation to people of African descent (hereafter referred to as Africans or Diaspora) may be considered long overdue. Descendants of African slaves in the United States have raised their voices about reparation they are legally entitled to but have been denied for more than a century.' Under the guidance of Dr. Robert Block, African Americans have gone further to demand exemption from U.S. taxes and racial discriminatory laws.2 The cry for reparation for continental Africans has been going on secretly among concerned members of the Diaspora for decades, but in recent years, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and concerned heads of states of Africa have raised their voices openly. In December 1990, an international conference on reparations in Nigeria succeeded in setting up an International Committee for Reparation (ICR). The ICR convinced the OAU to regard the reparation issue as one of the most important items on its agenda. In February 1991, at a tripartite summit of the heads of state of Togo, Senegal, and Nigeria in Lome, the subject of reparation was discussed alongside the concern for the continent's $250 billion debt at that time. The three leaders jointly recommended that the debt should be written off as part of the reparations due for 500 years of slavery of Africans in Western Europe and America (Ecowas Defence Commission, 1991, p. 197). In 1993, that rec-

Beta-globin haplotypes analysis inAfro-Brazilians fromthe Amazon region: evidence for a significant gene flow from Atlantic West Africa

Beta-globin gene cluster haplotypes were analysed in betaA-, betaS- and betaC-globin gene-bearing chromosomes in black people from Curiau, Pacoval and Trombetas, three communities made up of descendants of African slaves, located in the Northern region of Brazil. The betaA haplotype distribution is consistent with the African origin of the populations, with some degree of local differentiation and admixture with people of Caucasian ancestry and/or Amerindians. In addition, the betaS haplotype distribution (60% Bantu; 30% Senegal and 10% Benin) suggests that although African slaves brought to Northern region have been predominantly from regions where the Bantu haplotype predominates, there is also evidence of the presence of slaves from West Africa, particularly from the Atlantic West.

Research on Brazilian Jewry: An Overview

Many scholars, and the public at large, stereotype Latin America as a Roman Catholic patriarchy, divided into a small Europeanized upper class of descendants from the Spanish landholding class and a large lower class comprised of mestizos, Indians and the descendants of African slaves. This stereotype has not been valid for at least a century. Recent scholarship on Jews in Latin America has widened our vision of society, culture and politics by emphasizing both the heterogeneity in religious observance and the region's increasing social diversity. Indeed many immigrant groups not only Jews but Arabs, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, people from the Caribbean, arrivals from eastern Europe and many others have for decades played major roles in this demographic diversification. Studies of these groups offer invaluable insight not only into the history of the newcomers but into the dynamics of the host society as well. One group that has seen a small but expanding stream of research in recent decades is Brazilian Jewry. Just as in other cases of minority groups and immigrants, early historical writing about Jews and Jewish lives was largely celebratory. Genealogical sleuthing predominated, searching for clues that individual historical personages were Jews or were descended from conversos or were secret Jews. One group claimed, for example, that the Portuguese national hero, sea captain and discoverer Vasco da Gama, had been born Gaspar da Gama, a converso. Professional historical studies addressing broader questions followed only gradually, and, during the 1950s, more serious work began

Childbirth belief and practice in a Garifuna (Black-Carib) village on the North Coast of Honduras.

This study describes the beliefs and practices related to pregnancy delivery postpartum and immediate infant care among a population of Garifuna in Rio Tinto 1 of 43 Carib settlements located on the north coast of Honduras. This represents the 1st description of childbirth practices in Rio Tinto as well as the 1st such account of any Carib group. The research was based on fieldwork conducted in Rio Tinto from January to July 1978. Unscheduled interviews were used in Rio Tinto. Interviews with the local midwives and other women in the village were conducted in Spanish. A survey was conducted of 83 women who had been pregnant to elicit information on pregnancies and live births and infant and maternal mortality. Participant observation was a key data gathering method. The black Caribs are descendants of African slaves who escaped from 2 Spanish ships in the 17th century and found refuge on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean. The population of Rio Tinto is estimated at 515 persons. The village has a schoolhouse and a church. Although the Garifuna are nominally Roman Catholic belief in spirits remains strong. With a single exception every Garifuna baby in Rio Tinto was delivered by a partera (midwife). 2 of the 3 attendants were Garifuna; the 3rd was an elderly Ladina woman. A midwife visited a pregnant woman several times during the 3 or 4 weeks prior to the expected delivery date. The midwives were well regarded by their neighbors and their services were considered indispensable. The midwives were capable practitioners who inspired confidence in their patients. Some of their practices were questionable but their skills appeared adequate for most birthing events in that setting. They expressed confidence in their abilities but they were also aware that certain complicated delivery episodes could be managed best by medical doctors. Failure to use aseptic techniques and materials in delivery and the care of the newborn may prove to be potentially harmful e.g. dirty hands blowing water from their mouth into the mouth and nose of the newborn. Garifuna practices differ from the North American in several important respects. Unlike obstetrical expectations in the U.S. the Carib mother is encouraged to walk during the entire course of labor. She generally delivers in a squatting position at home with friends and family nearby during labor and parturition. Forceps are not used to assist delivery nor chemicals to ease labor. Episiotomies are not performed in Rio Tinto. Symptoms which might be related to postpartum psychosis in the U.S. were attributed in Rio Tinto only in 1 instance. Informants could recall only a single case of maternal mortality. Improved maternal and child care could result from modification of certain aspects of Carib practice e.g. the application of aseptic principles.

Educational Development for the African Diaspora in Suriname

In recent years, scholars have shown increasing interest in studying the experiences of those persons of African descent who have been dispersed abroad, the African diaspora. Less well-known is the history of the diaspora in South America, especially the non-Spanish portions of that continent. This article reports on the educational condition and plans for the educational development of the Bush Negro, direct descendants of African slaves, living in Suriname, South America.

Pinta, Yaws, and Venereal Syphilis in Colombia

Three treponemal infections of man have coexisted in Colombia, South America for centuries. In former years, Colombia and Mexico were the world's most highly endemic countries for pinta. Within Colombia, highest rates of infection with pinta occurred among the mestizo and Indian populations in the Andean and Caribbean departments of Huila, Tolima, Antiochia, Magdalena and Cesar. Yaws occurred primarily in rural areas along the Pacific coast among descendants of African slaves. Infectious syphilis is most often reported from the three largest urban areas, and from three other densely populated departments in the Andean region. During the 21-year period from 1954 to 1974, almost four times as many cases of pinta as yaws were reported. The incidence rates of yaws and pinta have declined almost in parallel in Colombia, even though there has been a national campaign against yaws, but not against pinta. The incidence of primary and secondary syphilis increased only slightly during the same period. The total burden of reported treponematoses (excluding tertiary and congenital syphilis) declinded by over 40 per cent, while the ratios of reported yaws, pinta and infectious syphilis rose from 1:3:4 in 1954 to 1:7:975 in 1974.