In Black America; The African Diaspora In World History and Politics

BELL RINGS From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is in Black America. I think there's a place for all of us and from my point of view, the most important thing that I feel that I can do is to teach and to make my teaching, to make my research available.

I have a very special interest in African peoples. They have been, if not the most, certainly among the most oppressed people in the world. Much so, that in many of our communities, they like a sense of confidence in what they can do. I believe that we need to address that issue. I think we cannot get rid of racism necessary through education, but I think there's something we can do in raising the level of consciousness and establishing a sense of positive identity on the part of African peoples wherever they are. One of the things that strikes me in many of the communities I visited, that a number of those areas that I talked about, I have visited, and it's all it's common that African people are essentially at the lower realms of society, very marginalized people. Dr. Joseph Harris professed in the Department of History, Howard University.

In his 1935 book, Black Reconstruction, visionary W.E.V. Du Bois, the ploy of the fact that the contributions of the millions of Africans transported to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade had not been acknowledged for their role in the creation of the Atlantic and modern worlds, a situation that has not changed in six decades. For the 16th anniversary of Dr. Du Bois' statement, UNESCO in conjunction with the University of Texas at Austin's Center for African and African American Studies, held an international symposium this past winter entitled The African Diaspora and the Modern World. The symposium brought together participants from the Americas, Africa, and Europe to share research and further knowledge about the mirrored ways in which people of African origin have colored the national cultures of the Americas and participated in unsuspected ways in the current world order. I'm Johnny O'Hanston, Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. This week, the African Diaspora in world history and politics with Dr. Joseph Harris in

Black America. It seems to me that's where we are. You establish a level of comfort with who you are. I suppose everyone would prefer to be seen in a more positive light. But I'm convinced that not everyone is going to see me that way. And it really doesn't bother me that much because I have other agenda and I have a sense of confidence in my worth, in my history, in my cultures. And if other people don't, I won't worry about that too much. That's essentially what I meant about looking toward the centennial of the Pan-African Congress. I think Black people around the world share in this kind of thing that you raised. We need to be aware of it in all its forms, including the very subtle forms. And we need to speak out into challenge, not just in the United States, but anywhere.

That's a global sense that I have. Let's deal with as best we can, but we're going to do our thing in spite of all. Last February on the University of Texas at Austin's campus, a group of scholars and culture leaders representing several segments of the African Diaspora, particularly in the Americas, met to discuss topics regarding the current state of knowledge and research on the cultures of the diaspora in the Americas and their contribution to national and global cultures. Held under the context of the year of tolerance, a way of promoting tolerance based on the understanding of the contributions of the African Diaspora to the definition of American culture, to the industrial revolution in Europe, and the contemporary global culture for which we all are apart. One could ask the question, how much remains to be known regarding the pivotal role of Africans and their descendants in building the social and cultural infrastructures of the Americas, the economy, politics, science, music, art, and languages. On this week's program, Dr. Joseph Harris, distinguished professor of history at Howard

University, speaks on the subject of African diaspora in world history and politics. There has always been a free movement of Africans, thank you very much, of Africans. I want to speak a little bit about some of the slave communities in the Americas and the changing relationship between the communities of African descent abroad and Africa. And finally, I would like to conclude by some remarks on the contemporary dispersion. I maintain that the African diaspora has been an ongoing, indeed, a very dynamic movement and it continues until the present day. In recent years, the term diaspora has become increasingly common instead of African, Chinese, Indian, and other communities that reside outside their original homeland.

These communities reside in and have loyalty to their adopted country, the countries in which they have citizenship, but those communities also identify with and maintain connections to their country of origin. The study of diasporas is especially timely today, it seems to me, because of the current fragmentation and displacement of people throughout the world. For example, in Eastern Europe, the former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, fragmentation diasporas are being created in South and Southeast Asia, especially India, Vietnam, and Cambodia. And of course, Africa, I guess, take your pick, but particularly Ethiopia, Somalia, and Rwanda, where people are being dispersed and over time will become diaspora communities living outside their original homeland.

More recent and urgent for the United States, of course, is the mass immigration of Haitians, Cubans, Mexicans, Vietnamese, and Chinese into this country. These diaspora groups share characteristics of ethnic identity, mostly marginality, and homeland linkage, and one cannot understand them without an examination of their original homelands and the root causes in specific contacts within which they were dispersed and settled. The case of Africans and their descendants abroad is especially complex, with a long history of international dispersion, stereotypes, and myths that continue to obstruct policies and practices to guarantee freedom and justice. The facts in this instance are fairly well known to you and are rooted in centers of Africans being characterized as inferior, destined to be slaves, incapable of developing complex

societies, lacking a meaningful cultural history, uncivilized, and thus having made no contribution to world civilization. This list could be expanded, but that's familiar to you. Indeed it was the slave trade that made the African presence essentially global. For at least 1,500 years prior to the European-conducted trade in African slaves, Arabs conducted a trade of slaves across the Sahara Desert, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and they took Africans to Arabia, to India, and the Far East. In slaves, Africans worked in the Persian Gulf, salt mines, coconut groves, and on date plantations.

On the Bahrain island in the Persian Gulf, they worked as Pearl Divers. In India, they worked as palace guards. In Arabia and India, they worked as domestics, and feeble hands, and throughout much of the Muslim world as concubines and as unugs. Today discrete communities of African descent can be found in Iran, here, in the area of Shiraz and Bandar Abbas, also here is Iraq, the city of Basra, as well as the capital area, Baghdad, where significant slave markets and communities of African descent reside in those areas today, also in the area of what today is Pakistan, Karachi here, and all around to Gujarat, this is India, what is today is India, Bombay, and go up very significant movements of Africans into these areas as slaves, and all around as these lines show you to

the other side of India here, the area of Calcutta, and all around Southeast Asia ultimately into the area of Huangshu and Makau in China, and a movement later on by Europeans in Nagasaki Japan for a short period of time, so that essentially gives you a layout, and in all of those areas, except in the case of China, been able to confirm that there are people remaining of African descent still today. We can also see the slave trade in the Mediterranean Sea across the Sahara, into the southern part of Europe, what today essentially are Turkey and Italy and all around France and Spain, a movement long before the development of the Atlantic slave trade, there was a movement in these areas, principally out of Tripoli and Benghazi, and what today is Libya, and

also out of Tunisia, stretching across into southern part of Europe, the Mediterranean Sea there was a very active one, there are also arrows as you can see moving out of Tripoli and Benghazi and Libya into Turkey, and also into the Middle East, the same is true of Egypt in the Mediterranean, but also across the Red Sea into what today is Saudi Arabia. Now most of the Africans who were captured and taken into this eastern trade came from the East African coast here, which is indicated in color to indicate the intensity of that trade, stretching from principally from Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, and Somalia. Principle areas of course were Melendi, Mombasa, and the island of Zanzibar, which remained

a very significant port out of which Africans were taken to the East, it is also significant though to note that with the exploration of the western world by the Portuguese and other Europeans from the 15th century, gradually as they moved along the western coast, slaves became an item in that trade, stretching essentially from Gorey and Senegal and becoming more intense in the area here of Ghana, across to Nigeria, to a little bit into Cameroon, very intensive trade there, especially intensive again, a little bit light in the area of what today I guess would be Gabon and so on, but around the Congo River of the present country of Zaire and northern part of Angola, a very intensive trade there.

Now significantly then, as Europeans rounded the tip of Africa at the end of the 15th century, and pushed the arrows out of these areas, these areas of East Africa had been captured historically by the arrows, principally out of the area here of Oman, and they governed these areas until the coming of the Portuguese, the end of the 15th century, and as the Portuguese and subsequently the French and the British moved into these areas, they pushed the arrows out, but they, the Europeans, assumed these same trade routes and followed as they captured areas in the East, the Europeans took Africans along those same routes as well, so that you have Africans being taken as slaves to parts of Arabia and the Persian Gulf, and the India and Southeast Asia, not only by Arabs, but also by Europeans. Once the Europeans reached East Africa, they began to develop a trade in Africans that came

around the southern part of Africa, so that one can trace this trade to show that there is that southern route that took Africans into what today is Brino's areas of Argentina, across from Argentina, Montevideo, Montevideo, I think somebody is here for Montevideo today, and there were roots of passage where Africans were marched over from Brino's areas, from Montevideo to the Pacific side of South America, where you can see Valparaisos and Thiago in what today is chilling. Coming back that same southern route, you can see a part of that trade goes to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, from there some of them also went down to the southern areas. Coming back and following still that southern route, one branch of it continues to the northern part of Brazil, the area of Bayer here in the northern part, continued with that same

route on into the Caribbean, where a major port of entry for Africans was Cartagena and what today is Colombia. Africans were marched across what today is Panama and across and around to the Pacific side. Here of what you will see here is Ecuador, the area of Quiaquil and other cities along that coast and on down further to Calao and Lima in Peru and continuing on down on the other side to Valparaisos and Santiago. Coming back to the area that I said was another heavily used area for trade in Africans out of the Congo area, you can see the roots here that some of these Africans were brought to Bayer again, joining those from the east and side.

Now one of the reasons for this is that the Portuguese were the first explorers, European explorers in this area and established themselves in what became Portuguese African territories. So the Portuguese were active in taking Africans out of what became Mozambique and of course Angola as they the Portuguese acquired this huge chunk of territory Brazil so that there is a significant movement that ended up in Brazil as well. But you can see also following these roots that there's a movement not only to northern part of Brazil but continues in the other part of the Caribbean, in the Caribbean several of the Caribbean islands, if you come on around you can see Cuba, here Jamaica and then Cuba and moving back then to what became known as a slave coast, out of that same area you can trace the lines into the Caribbean area, Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica and so on, on around to this side of Mexico and on into Mobile and New Orleans area.

Many of the Africans were trans shipped out of the Caribbean and you can see an hour indicating that into the area of Charleston, some up to Richmond and other areas. Some of the Africans were taken out of the Caribbean island and they were taken over to Britain. Some of the French areas in the islands were taken of course into France, into France. So that gives you some sense of the global movement of Africans, that global dispersion which essentially then made that dispersion a very global one. And so I emphasize that African people then are essentially a global people. Now a number thing, one other thing I might say, one hour that I did not mention, there is an hour that comes out of England here joined by an arrow coming out of the Caribbean, out of the Bahamas.

This was the arrow which the British developed a route for convict labor that would inhabit Australia. For a long time we had very little information on that, assuming many writers did that this was a route of passage that took European convicts principally to settle in Australia. We now know though that some of the Africans who were taken out of the prisons and who were vagrants, you know people many times who were vagrants didn't have jobs and Africans of course were denied the opportunity for jobs, therefore they became baits essentially for this kind of thing to help settle overseas. So they were taken out of England and said out of the Caribbean but also a number of Africans out of South Africa, the area there is Cape Town, you can see an arrow joining that particular arrow. While Africans were taken out of the Mauritius here in the Indian Ocean, I didn't indicate that but there was a slave trade out of this area of Mozambique, Zanzibar, Madagascar

and onto Mauritius. Some of those Africans then subsequently were taken as the British gained control over these islands, taken and joined this route of passage to Australia. And seeing then that essentially the trade was global, despite the inhumane nature of the capture and I don't need to go over that, you've seen that or the packing of Africans in the ships and all of that. Cultural continuity is persisted for years in multiple ways throughout the diaspora. Africans who settle abroad continue to speak and practice their native languages and traditions, it always puzzled me that years when I was in school, the idea was that Africans as they landed in the Americas became Negroes and therefore they had no backgrounds or one did not go back in history.

The assumption was that they didn't bring their culture, they didn't bring their languages. I was always puzzled by that, couldn't do much about it until later on one has to do his read. And you'll find that as Africans landed of course, as one would think about it, as they landed on the shores, whether in the Americas or in Asia, they were Africans, they had their traditions and their languages and some of that came out of what you saw in Hale's Kuntikinte. Africans also referred to themselves, either by their ethnic names, some of them referred to themselves as Ethiopians, Ethiopian was the term that had been applied for centuries to black people in Africa, they had no particular connotation as it related to Ethiopia, it subsequently became the name of Ethiopia, but it simply meant black peoples. Neither the middle passes nor the slave system then broke their awareness of their history and this is revealed in a number of ways in the Americas and as I see the program, there

will be some discussion of this over the next few days, discussions of Candle Blay and Santa Ria, religions of Africa, some of the songs and oral traditions continued and indeed in several of the movements that I have alluded to refer to earlier, especially in Brazil where there were compact and soluble communities, people even to the present day continue to speak their indigenous language, indigenous from Africa. Some of the meetings that I've attended, I guess I can say this, where some of the delegates from South America came from Brazil and did not speak the local languages that were being used for the conference, usually the language of the conference is English, English but also French so that the Afro Portuguese could not participate and it was amazing to some of us as we moved into the interior, they began to speak Yoruba, Mr. Inicar and the Africans

were surprised, they thought these folks were from the Americas, where they are from the Americas, but they have maintained their languages and there are several communities that one can point to in the Americas where this is done. What especially as attracted by attention is the way in which African people, Af historically, utilized their language and culture to solidify mass followings in resistance movements and one can show this again globally. One can, for example, go back to the 9th century in the area of Iraq where I showed Basra, the sizeable community of persons of African descent even today, but we are talking about the period of the 9th century when one Rihar and Ibn Saleh established an autonomous community in which he sought to replicate African traditions.

Let me go across and show you some of the expanse of this, the 16th century revolt in India one Malik Umba who had been an African, one of the few Africans whose life as a slave can be traced historically by documents coming out of Harab province in Ethiopia, ending up in Baghdad and what today is Iraq, subsequently sold in the northwest part of India and eventually ended up in the Deccan of India, Central India, where he became a very treasured slave as he had learned Arabic and had been used in the administration, very important and therefore was taken on as a prized slave by some of the Arabs in India. He let a revolt then was the whole point here in the 16th century and was able to govern for some 25 years and participate in that very colorful history of India, where one the

demogal kingdoms was able to fight and resist several of the battle launched by Shah Jahan in Indian history. One can go on about that, but he was able as was the Rihar in Iraq to utilize African tradition and languages to mobilize a following of resistance, another example would be indeed here in Mexico, in 17th century Mexico, where Yanga and African was able to mobilize followers to resist the Spanish in that territory, 17th century revolt in Brazil that led to the founding of Palmares by Zumbi, some of you have heard of Zumbi, great national holiday in Brazil, for Zumbi was able to hold off the Portuguese for most of the 17th century as an autonomous region in Brazil, where he attempted to establish a society based on

African traditions. The 18th century revolt with which we are familiar in Haiti, people don't often speak of the significance of Haiti, but Haiti was successful there under the, an African born person known as Bookman, born in Africa, it was Bookman for example, who poured the libations and who administered the oaths, the secret oaths to the Africans as they mobilized to resist and ultimately defeat the French in Haiti. We hear a lot about Tucson, Louis Chou, but it was Tucson, Louis Chou, who was Christian and diaspora born, who took over the movement after Bookman, African born, had mobilized the following. Again, the significance of African traditions and language and a good deal there that still remains to be to be researched, even the abortive movement of Nat Turner down in Virginia,

the principle initial mobilization that was underway was one led by Gullah Jack, Gullah Jack, African born traditions of oath giving and point of libations, was able to get the group together that eventually followed Nat Turner in that abortive coup, all of these and other freedom movements as I would prefer to call them for these people were indeed seeking freedom. A movement of freedom is what the diaspora does to me is to make me ask different kinds of questions, diaspora means going back to the homeland, if you go back to the homeland, you'll see that tradition that people refer to as revolts and mutinies, or as simply efforts of people to be free. Dr. Joseph Harris, Distinguished Professor of History at Harvard University. If you have a question or comment or suggestions asked in future in Black America programs,

write us. Also let us know what radio station you heard us over. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or the University of Texas at Austin. Until we have the opportunity again for IBA technical producer David Alvarez, I'm John El Hansen, Jr. Thank you for joining us today and please join us again next week. Cassette copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America Cassettes, Communication Building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas 78712. From the University of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network. I'm John El Hansen, Jr., join me this week on in Black America.

UNESCO, which has this global reach, can do so much in disseminating materials in a variety of languages, not know that it has plans to do that. The African diaspora in world history and politics this week on in Black America.