Discussion 2

414 Writing African Histor)'

North America in the sourh Carolina Sea Islands off the coast ofCa I' . ~In~ He apparendy saw this as an exception [0 the predominately West A~ '

41 rtCdn1nacure of African American ell cure. Given the homogeneiry of ~anru cuICUre and the strong similari

ties among Bantu languages , thIS group no doubt i nfluenced \X. African groups of larger size. Also, since the Bantus were predomin. c·. - anr~1 field hands or did other wo~k that reqUIred liule or flO COntact with European-Americans, they did not suffer from the accul turation proh. lems experienced by West African domestic servantS and ani~all Coexis ti ng in telative isolation from other groups, the Ban tLls Wert abl to maintain a strong sense of uniry and retain a culrural v irali£), that l.tid a foundation for African American culture. Thus, whereas the ~la nJC" had a greater influence on the developing white American culture. rh Bancu had the greatest influence on the developing African Ameril .l11

culture.

African Ethnicity on the American Plantations

The plamers' preference in South Carolina was for Africans from rhe Gambia region, the Windward Coast, the Grain Coas(, the Bight II

Benin, and Angola. One possible reason why Africans from Dahomn' were rare in Charleston might be their notoriously strong military rradi· tion, which aroused fear of possible insurrections in the mind III Charleston's planters. South Carolin.ians liked Gold Coast AfricJn) (Akan), but not as much as Virginia and Maryland did. Although AfricJn.\ from the Upper Guinea Coast were highly prized, plamers were more will.

ing to invest in AngolanS as prime field slaves. Slave merchanrs took great care, throughout the enti re history of lhe

South Carolinian trade, to inform potemial buyers of the African regiun and geographic point of origination of the slaves being sold . Manyadn:r­ tisements refer to the Southern plamers' famjl iariry with African ethnic origins, and adverrisernems for slave cargo occasionally gave rhe source from which the Africans originated. A cargo from Angola was advertised in the 6 June 1771 South CaroLina Gazette as "mostly of the Masse-Cong,n coumry and are esteemed equal to the Gold Coast and Gambia slaves..··: Also, a notice in the Virginia Gazette during the eighteenth cemury giVl"\ clear evidence that planters distinguished escaped enslaved Africans by the various pans of Africa they came from , describing the escapees as "a youn~ Angola Negro," "a very Black Mundigo [Mandingol negro man," "a nao\

"What Africa Hns Given America" 415

Madagascar," "a Congo Negro Slave, of the Suso Country," "New Negro Fellow ... calls himself Bonna (Bonny) and says he came from a place of [hat name in Ibo country, in Africa, " or "marked in rhe face as the Gold Coast slaves generally are."43

It was once believed that North American planters were unsophisri­ (ated about African ethniciry, but an examination of sources suggests they were familiar with the rice, cotton, and indigo production in Africa and were often able to relate the various African ethnic groups to the rypes of agricultural cultivation fo und in Africa. It seems clear that Sourh Carolina planters did not purchase Africans blindly to work on their plamarions. Instead, planters knew and understood cultural backgrounds and pur­ chased with the expectation of using agricultural knowled ge and skills on [he Norrh American plantations: for example, tending catrle, fishing, boating, house service, and blacksmithing.

The planters in North America were known to purchase Africans from West Africa to serve as house servants and artisans. Senegambians (Mandingo, WoloE, Serer, Fulani, and Bambara) were considered the most intelligent of Africans (because believed to be of mixed heritage, with Arabic ancestry) and were trained for domestjc service and as handicraft­ workers. Mandingoes \-vere considered gende in manner bur prone to be th ieves. Since they were thought to tire easily because of their delicate physiques, they served as watchmen against fires rather than as field

slaves.44

Africans transported during the colonial period were from the Guinea Coast, largely Wolof, Fulani, Mande, Bambara, and a few Yoruba during the early period. Africans from the Senegambia were taller and lighter in complexion . "A preference for light-skinned Africans to work in the house existed in C harleston, New Orleans, and some other cities. " 45

While the Senegambians (Mandes) were preferred as house servants, the Kongos, Angol ans, and Igbos were preferred for the field, except for Igbo women, who were highly sought after as concubines. Having technologi­ cal skills was also important , and planters explored ways to apply such ~kills to agricultural pursuits.

Most An golans were used primarily as field slaves because rhey were large and robust. They were imported in large numbers, especially in the eighteenth cenrury, and were the dom inant group in South Carolina and L.ouisiana. Because they were primarily field slaves, they had little contact with the planter class; their acculruration during the colonial period was long and slow in contrast to house servants, who lived in close proximity [0 whites.

41 G lXlh ting Aji-ican History

In short, South Carolina's planters wanted G ambians first, and on 1~ '11

r "Healthy young Fantees, Coromantines, Negroes from Bassa Windward C oast, from Bance Island, " and Angolans from Central :\lril. Africans from [he Bight, Igbos, and Calabar (Efik-Ibibio) were the I ~ desired of aU, and "captains were frequently urged no t to bring thelll the South Carolinian market. " 46 •

African Crops to the New World

Crops brought directly from Africa during the transatlantic slave (rad include rice, okra, tania, black-eyed peas, and kidney and lima hean" Africans ate them on board the slave ships. Other crops brought frlln Africa included peanms (originating from South America), mille( sorghum, guinea melon, watermelon, yams (Dioscorea cayanensis). and sesame (benne).47 These crops found their INay into American fooJw.1I and appeared among the ingredients in the earliest cookbooks written ,; Southern American whites.

As early as 1687, a young physician living in the West Indies. Sir Hans Sloane, found many of these crops growing on the island ofJamaic.1. These plants reached the mainland of N orth America either di rectly from Africa or wi th enslaved Africans destined for North America by way lit trade with the West Indies. T he crops may have found a home in Norrh America even before Sloane's encounter. Eventually, however, thest: crop, went from use exclusively by Africans in North America to being part lit "vhite southern cuisine.

Black-eyed peas first came to th e New World as food for slaves dur· ing the transatlantic slave trade, arriving in Jam aica around 1675, spr~ad­ ing throughom the West Indies, and finally reaching Florida by 1700, North Carolina in 1738, and Virginia by 1775. Slave planter William Byrd mentions black-eyed peas in his writings in 1738. By the time of tht, American Revolution, black-eyed peas were firmly established in Ameri(a as parr of the general cuisine.

George Washington wrote in a letter in 179 1 that "pease" (black­ eyed peas) were rarely grown in Virgin ia. In 1792 he brought forty bushels of seeds for planting to his plantation. Black-eyed peas became one of the most popular food crops in the southern part of the United States. Washington later referred to them as "callicance" and "cornfield peas" because of the early custom of planting them between the rows of field corn.

"What Africa Has Given America" 4 17

Okra arrived in the New W orld during the transatlantic slave trade

the 1600s. Okra, or gumbo as it is called in the deep South, found ~(eptional popularity in New O rleans. In French Louisiana, Creole cui­ ine and African cooking came together to produce the unique cuisine of

New Orleans. Gumbo is a popular stew or soup that mjxes other vegeta­ bles with okra, the main ingredient, and is thickened with powder fro m sassafras leaves (gumbo file) . One observer in 1748 noted that thickened soup was a delicacy liked by blacks. Even before the American Revolution , American whites already commonly used okra.

Enslaved Africans used the youn g okra, which contains the vegetable nlucilage, to eat by boi ling. The leaves were also used medicinaLl y to soften J cataplasm, and seeds were used on the plantations of South Carolina to make a coffee substitute. O kra was popul ar among wo men to produce .lbortion by lubricating the uterine passage with the slimy pods. In West :\frica today, women stiJ.! use okra to produce aborrion , using the same

method. The next imporrant crop TO arrive in the Uruted States by way of

Africa was the American peanut, which is also know n by several other names, including groundnut, earth nut, and gro und peas. Two other words of African origin are pindar and goober. Among other recorded sources of the use of these African nanl es, both T homas Jefferson an d George Washington called peanuts peendar and pindars (J 794, 1798) . The word was in use before the American Revolution . The word goober was used principally in the nineteenth century. The period of greatest popu­ larity was the 18605, when the Civil War song, "Goober Peas," appeared. When it was published after the war, the words were attributed to "A. Pindar" and the music to "P N utt."

The A merican peanut has an interesting history. Although indige­ nous to South America as a crop, it was fi rst bro ught to Africa by Portuguese sailors and then to Virginja from Africa by enslaved Africans . The peanut was used to feed Africans on the middJ e passage. O ne New World observer noted, "The first I ever saw of th ese [peanuts] growing was the Negro's plantation who affirmed, that they grew in great plenty in their country." In Africa, peanut stews, soups, and gravies serve as an important parr of any meal. However, nut soups in the American South , although of African origin, are no longer enjoyed by the descendants of Africans but are associated with Euro-Americans instead. 48

George \VashingtOn Carver researched the peanut as a crop, and from his experiments he found tha t they contained water, fats, oils, gums, resins, sugar, starches , pectins, penrosans, and proteins . From these

418 Writing African HistolJI

compounds he identified more than three hundred possible pe products, including Jersey milk that could produce butter and chJnu

. ~~ Other products were Instant coffee, flour, face cream, bleach, syn lI,cri ' rubber, and linoleum. Dr. Carver found that rubbing pean ut oil on

cles helped rejuvenate them. Dr. Carver also created a peanut mi lk0111 d "11a soy bean formula for Gandhi that Gandhi found to be a healthy part

of his diet. .

Sesame first arrived in South Carolina from Africa by 1730 and' . , II

the same year a Carolinian sent sesame and sesame oil to London. Thi was a matter of considerable importance in Colonial America and England because table oil was one of the products England hoptd I

obtain by colonizing the NevvWorld. To avoid importing olivc oil io cooking, Britain encouraged production of table oils by offering bOUOl ic.. on edible oils. By 1733, a book on gardening published in London nOled the cultivation of the sesame plant and its usefulness as a source of "sallel. oil." Enslaved Africans also grew sesame for other uses. Thomas Jeffer~()n noted in the 1770s that benne (another name for sesame) was eatcn ra\\. toasted, or boiled in soups by African slaves. Jefferson also noted th.1[ slaves baked sesame in breads, boiled it in greens, and used it to enrich broth. Today sesame is used primarily as bread topping.

The first successful cultivation of rice in the United States \\ a.\

accom plished in the South Carolina Sea Islands by an African woman "hI) later taught her planter how to cultivate rice. The first rice seeds We

imported direcdy from the island of Madagascar in 1685 , wirh Africam supplying the labor and technical expertise. 49 African experts in rice culti­ vation were brought directly from the island of Goree to reach Europt':lm how to cultivate this cash crop.

House servants, while learning from the planters, also brought [herr own African culinary tastes into the plantation mansions. African cooks i the "Big House" introduced their African crops and foods, rhus becomin!! intermediaries in the melding of African and European culinary cultUIl:.~. African cooks introduced deep fat frying, a cooking technique that origi nated in Africa. Long before refrigeration, Africans understood how decp far frying of chicken or beef could preserve these foods for a time.

Using their ind igenous crops, enslaved Africans recreated traditional African cuisine. O oe example is fufu . In South Carolina this dish is called "turn meal and flour" and is prepared by boiling water and adding Hour while stirring the ingredients, hence the name. Throughout Africa, futil i~ a highly favored staple, a traditional West and Central African meal eatt'n from Senegambia to Angola. Africans prepare fufu by mixing palm oil and

"What Aji-ica Has Given America" 419

Rour. From these fufu mixtures, slaves made hoecake in the fields thar brer evolved into pancakes and hot water cornbread. Combread, prepared by African slaves, was similar to African millet bread. In rhe reports of iavers found in the journal entry from the ship Mary, June 20, 1796, -Cornbread" is mentioned as one of the African foods provided for their cargo. The repon also mentions a "woman cleaning rice and grinding corn ior corn cakes." Corn fri ed into cakes is still prepared throughout Africa

(oday. As early as 1739, naturalist Mark Catesby noted that slaves made a

mush from the corn meal called pone bread. He also noticed that slaves (ook hominy Indian corn and made grits, a food similar to the African dish called Eba. Cates by observed in 1747 that Guinea corn (sorghum vul­ gare) and Indian corn (Zea mays) were used interchangeably by blacks. He wrote that "little of this grain is propagated, and that chiefly by negroes, who make bread of it, and boil it in like manner of firmety. It[s] chief use is for feeding fowls. . . . It was first introduced from Africa by the negroes. "50 Lawson noted that Guinea corn was used mostly for hogs and poultry by whites, adding that enslaved Africans are nothing but Indian corn.5 !

African food traditions contributed greatly to the culinary taste of America, and Southern cooking is therefore a cultural experience to which both blacks and whites contributed. Today's black American cui­ sine is strongly influenced by the African style of cooking, a carryover of (his antebellum period. "Soul food" itself goes back to days when planta­ tion owners gave slaves discarded animal pans., such as hog maw (stom­ ach), hog jow!, pig's feet, ham hocks, and pig intestines. Blacks took this throwaway and added a touch of African culinary technique to create tasty dishes. Collard greens and dandelion greens were first recorded in 1887. Poke greens, turnip greens, and black-eyed peas were first brought to Jamaica from Africa in 1675 and arrived in North America in 1700. All of these African foods contributed to the grear diversity of American cuisine. 52

Mande and Wofof on the Plantation

Mande and \'V'olof were the [WO most widespread languages of the Senegambia. Bilingualism was important for trade and commerce in the region. During the 1700s, Wolof was by far the most dominant African culture found in the upper Guinea Coast and the coast of South Carolina.

420 Writing African HistOIJI

The West African traders traded between Sierra Leone and Liberia [ , rans· mining folklore, cuisine, and language.

Because of their Civil War between 1685 and 1700, many W I I. '''() ()

arrived in Colonial America as war captives, the only time that the- came into North America in such numbers. Later, in 1772, Feni Lawrence, a G ambian slave trader, visited the American SOl}{h as a frc" tourist and to conduct business. The government of Georgia issued her a certiJicate stating that "a free black woman and heretofore a consider_ able trader in the River Gambia on the Coast of Africa, hath volu ntanl come to be and remain for some time ill this province," with permis~in;1 to "pass and repass unmolested with the said province on her lawful and necessary occasion . "53 Fenda Lawrence probably spoke Wolof and SOl1ll:

creole pidgin English, the trade language of the West African ( J aM,

She apparently moved through the South w ithout any problems anJ returned back to the Gambia to continue her trade in slaves and othc commodities.

Another African from the Gambia, Job Ben Solomon, spent a brief time as a slave in M aryland. He amacted rhe attention of James Oglethorpe by means of a letter wri tten in Arabic (which indicated (he slave was literate in the Arabic language). Oglethorpe had Solomon pur. chased from Ilis master and sent to England, where he was presenrccl JI

COUrt, given gifts , and later, in 1734, sent home as a free man. He returned as a celebrity among his fellow Foulahs and neighboring Joluh (Wolofs) and Mandingoes. Abd ai-Rahman Ibrahim (known as Prince on the plantation), a West African prince fro m the kin gdom of Tambu located in the Gambia, was as not fortunate as Fenda Lawrence. InstcJu of seeing the South as a tourist, he was sold into slavery in New OrleJn\ in 1788 at the age of twenty-six. He was Fulbe (Fulani) and spoke Hucnt Arabic, Wolof, and Mande as well as several local dialects. Wolot was the lingua franca of the American South prior to the 1730s when Bantus were brough r in. Following the intercession of President John Quincy Adam~. Ibrahim was set free after forty years of bondage. Southern planters gen­ erally accorded M uslims a greater degree of respect than Africans from non-M uslim regions .5

Tales out of Africa

Br'er Rabbit, Sis' N anny Goat, and others were characters in Wolo f. H ausa, Fula (Fulani) , and Mandinka (Mandingo) folklore transporn:d

"What Africa Has Given America" 421

[0 the New World . Orher West African tales, sllch as those involving a Trickster Hare, were also introduced . T he Hare (Rabbit) stories can also be found in parts of N igeria, Angola, and East Afri ca. The Tortoise sto­ ries are found among the Yoruba, Igbo, and Edo- Bini people of Nigeria. Other examples of folklore from West Africa are tales such as the "Hare Tied in the Bean Farm," or the "T h ree Tasks of the Hare" (where he goes to ask God for more Wisdom) . T hese tales are widespread among [he Mandinka and W olof of West Africa and also common in black American folklore. 55 Most of the Uncle Remus stories, as retold in the Sea Islands (cf. Walt D isney's "Song of the So uth"), are African in ori­ gi n, especially Hausa and M andinka. These Africans tales, especially such stories as "Chicken Little, " laid the founda tion for American nursery tales . Mo re recently, the influence of Br'er Rabbit on contem­ porary America's most famous trickster rabbit, Bugs Bunny, has been noticed. 56

The Anansi (Spider) stOries, Akan in origin , remained intact in the New World. In Surinam, these stories are referred to as A nansitori. The West Indian black people of Cura~ao call them Cuenta de Nansi. The Spider Trickster Anansi tales maintain a peripheral existence as the "Aunt Nancy" StOries of the Georgia and South Carolina Sea Islands. The Anansi stories were tOld in nineteenth-century U n ited States among a limited grou p of people, mainly Gullahs. After the twentieth­ century influx of West Indians into America, the A nansi tales again became widespread.

The Hare and Hyena tales correspond to Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Fox [ales as Trickster figures brought to North America by the Wolof. These tales from the Mandinka heartland spread south to countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and C6te d 'lvoire. As the Mandinka Jula traders migrated, they brought these tales with them. The Africans who came from those areas during the transatlantic slave trade brought the folklore and tales as parr of their oral tradition. African slaves who fled to the Creek Indians introduced these West African Trickster tales, and the Seminoles in Florida also adopted them.5

African Dances in North America

Dance is part of folk tradi t ion. E nslaved Africans maintained continuity in their music, song, and dance cultures, as well as in the religions that influenced those cultures, as they adapted to life in North America.

422 Writing African History

Many African dances survived because they were reshaped and a. ohPIc:d

Ihe

h

J by Euro-Americans, while others remained intact, or changed new circumstances. For example, the ring shout started as aWit

Kongolese dance but later found expression in nonsacred dance. l:~~ Africa and the New \X7orld, the circle .ritual mean~ dift~renr thi ng~ in dith

ferent cultures. In the Kongo, the flng shout-circle IS i del'lti cal to Gullah counterclockwise dance, which is linked to the mOSt im por~e African ceremony, the rite of passage. Among the M ande, the circl e d.

is a part of the marriage and birth ceremonies, and in Wolof culture. 1nrh ring circle is central to most dancing. The Bamboula and the Cal i nd~C: variations of voodoo dance, became popular forms of dance expressiun in early New Orleans. The Cakewalk and the Charleston traveled frum Africa to become integral to American dance forms on the American plantation.

The Calinda, also known as La CaJinda, is one of the earliest forrn\ of African dance seen in America. This Kongo/Angolan danct: f1r~1 became popular in Santo Domingo, then in Hajti and New O rleans. [ .I

Calinda is first reported by Dessalles in 1654, and later by a French monk, Jean Baptiste Labat, who went to Martinque as a miss ionary in 1694. The Calinda is a variation of a dance used in voodoo ceremo'nic\ and is always performed by male and female dancers in couples. The dancers move to the middle of the circle and start dancing. Each dancer chooses a partner and performs the dance, with few variations, by lak­ ing a step in which every leg is straightened and pulled back aJternatiwl ~ with a quick strike, sometimes on point, sometimes with a grounded heel. This dance is performed in a manner slightly similar to that of the Anglaise. The male dancer turns by himself or goes around his partner. who also makes a turn and changes her position while waving the enili. of a handkerch ief. Her partner raises his hands in almOSt clenched f1_'it\ up and down alternately, with his elbows close to his body. Th is dance: is vivid and lively. In 1704, records show that a police ordinance was issued prohibiting night gatherings from performing the CaJi nda on plantations.58

The dance now known as the Charleston had the greatest influ­ ence on American dance culture of any imported African dance. It is 3

form of jitterbug dance, which is a general term applied to unconven­ tional, often formless and violent, social dances performed to synco­ pated music. Enslaved Africans brought it from the Kongo ro Charleston, South Carolina, as the Juba dance, which then slowly evolved into what is now the C harleston. This one-Iegged-sembuka-step.

"What Africa Has Given America" 423

over-and-cross arrived in Charleston between 1735 and 1740. Similar in style to the "one-legged" sembuka style of dancing fou nd in north­ trn Kongo, the dance consists of "patting" (otherwise known as "pat­ ring Juba"), stamping, clapping, and slappi ng of arms, chest , and so

tOrth. The name "Charleston" was given to the Juba dance by Euro-

Americans. In Africa, the word Juba (or Djouba) was used for many things, such as songs sung on the plantation, the food given to the field slaves, and the dance that later became known as the Charleston. The Juba dance itself was primarily a competitive dance of skill.

Later, the Charlesron, which had evolved over the centuries, spread northward as African Americans migrated North. At first, the step was a simple twisting of the feet ro rhythm in a lazy sort of way When the dance hit Harlem, a new version surfaced. It became a fast kicking of the feet both forward and backward, later done with a tap.

The Charleston and other African dances started Out as spectator dances , then became participant dances. Nevertheless, the Charleston became so popular that a premium was even placed on hiring of black domestics who could dance it well enough to teach the lady of the house. The dance can also be seen in other pans of the world: in Haiti, it is called La Martinique. Josephine Baker, a famous black entertainer, introduced this dance to European audiences in the 1920s. It became increasingly popular during the 1920s and today, when we hear of the CharlestOn dance, it is usually associated with those years known as the "Roaring Twenties. " ) 9

The Ombliguide was a dance performed by slaves in La Place du Congo, Kongo Square, in old New Orleans. An ordinance of the Municipal Council, adopted on October 15, 1817, made the name of this traditional place law. Jr was considered one of the unique attrac­ tions of old New Orleans, ranking second only to the Quadroon Ball. At the square, women wore dotted calico dresses, and brightly colored Madras headgear tied about their hair to form the popular headdress called the tignon. Children wore garments with bright feathers and bits of ribbon.

Slaves came regularly to Kongo Square to perform the Ombliguide and other Kongo dances, such as th e C alinda, Bamboula, and Chica, all transplanted directed from Central Africa. GO The Ombliguide was criticized in 1766 by the New O rleans C ity Council. Performed by fou r men and four women, it involves sensual movements with navel-tO-navel contact, a common trait of Angolan traditional dancing.

424 Writing African History

Folk Medicine and the Root Doctor

African medical knowledge of diseases in both the O ld and the ~ Worlds crossed the Arlanric Ocean and conuibured ro the medical ~' c~~ being ofAmericans. Although African Am erican practitioners as a gr

. uup were consIdered folk and root doctors as compared to their Europ.

• ~·1rl counrerpaw" African American medical practices were generally Sllpe .

. nur in that era.G

! For example, Africans are credited wi tb inrroducing certain

folk treatments for smallpox. Anthropologist R. S. Rattray repOrted that inoculation for smallpox was practiced "from time immemorial b\ lh

. c Akan of Ghana." Likewise, the Scottish explore r M ungo Park, dUnnl' his travels to the ,vindward coast at the end of the eighteenth cettt Un was informed by a European doctor stationed there that the peopie of the G ambia practiced inoculation for sm allpox as their tradi liol1al prevention.G2

Lieutenant Governor W illiam Gooch ofVirginia in 1729 manum it ­ ted a slave named Pan pan fo r his secret concoction of roOtS and herb, because it was a cure for yaws and for syphilis.G3 He was freed frOIll ~b\­ ery ar a COSt of sixty pounds. Bryan Edwards, listen ing to one of his Abu women, learned that vacc.ination was a medical techn ique used on the Gold Coast to inoculate children with infectious matter from yaw~ , [hm giving them a mild case of the disease and providing resistance later in Ijt~· . "Mothers inoculate their infants about the period of weaning, which thc\ may be indulged in nursing them uncil their recovery; and many bel ieve. from an African opinion and custom in mat counrry, that child ren sholllJ undergo the disease at an early period of liFe. "(>4

In another example, a slave by the name of Caesar was known tn have cured several persons who had been poisoned. O ne, an over~t."(' r named Henry M iddleton, found Caesar's antidote very effective. Caesar cured Middleton from inrolerable pain in the "stomack and bowels" after he had found no cure or relief in the medicines of the "mosr skil Ful doc­ tors of the country. "65 Caesar also cured a person bitten by a rattlesnake and a man afflicted with yaws wirb his body covered from "top to tol' ''

with scabs. The cure for yaws required the use of flowers of sulphur anJ burnt niccars. He also cured those afflicted wirh the deadly symptoms of pleurisies.6

(' For Caesar's antidote to poison and snake bitc,G7 he was givt'n his freedom and financial compensarion for life.

Sampson, anomer slave, gained his Freedom as a reward for dis­ covering a cure for rattlesnake bites (see Appendix). GS H is cu re was said to have been even more effective than Caesar's.09 Colonial plaIHt'r.\

"What Africa Has Given America" 425

generally had more respect for their enslaved Africans' knowledge of herbs, medicines, and poison than did the so-called doctors of th e era. Enslaved Africans brought indigenous skills and knowledge to North America directly from Africa. They contributed these culrural traditions concerning the uses of plants, as well as the new flora they encountered in South Carolina, in many ways similar to that of West

and Central Africa. Sampson walked into the Commons House of Assembly of South

Carolina on M ay 9, 1754, and offered a cure for rattlesnake bites. To demonstrate the effectiveness of his medicines, h e held in his hand poiso­ nOUS snakes and rhen pressed them against his flesh and was bitten several times. He was bitten by so many venomous snakes that it was doubtful if he would recover. Sampson declared that he would return in three days alive and well. To everyone's surprise, he returned alive and offered the cure. "In proof of the eftlcacy of his medicines, Sampson on several occa­ sion suffered himself to be bitten by the most venemous Snakes, and once let his Wounds come so near a Morti£ication, that it was doubted whether he could recover, yet he cured himself with them; he disarmed any Snake f its Venom with some one of the Herbs. " 70 He was immediately given

his freedom and a cash annuity for life. Likewise, Africans knew that sm allpox inoculati on was done by

simply taking some of the sap from th e scalp and inocularing [hose who were not exposed. Smallpox was the most feared epidemic in Colonial America. Charleston, for example, had several smallpox epidemics dur­ ing that period. However, an oLItbreak in the spring of 1760 was the most widespread. South Carolina had adopted the African practice of using individuals who had previously had smallpox to inoculate the pop­ ulation. In Charleston, townspeople had protested the government's activity: "negroes seized with that Distem per in me country are imme­ diately brought to town and many others Persons are daily inoculated in order to go through the disease in Charles Town...." In orher words, "Persons are brought in from the Country, to take the Disease by Innoculation, which was Practice in their own country, it not speedily prevented...." 7 1

Through the root doctor, Africans brought holistic health practices to American plantations. African healers btought a knowledge of treat­ ment for many diseases, and health practitioners such as midwives and nurses contributed to New World health care services. During antebellum plantation slavery in the early nineteenth century, midwives delivered more than 90 percent of the children born, as had been the custom in

426 Writing Aji-ican HistoiJl

Africa. Africans conrribured to cures of numerous N ew World di\ .

b~sed on t~e.ir knO\~ledge of sirni~a r diseases from the Old World. 1~~ gift of medlclOe ennched the medical devdopmenr ofAmerica, fu sin h worlds of Africa and Europe, adopting practical use as well as a hur;:.':

. h . d . d' uC approac to cunng an treating Iseases.

African Cultural Influences on Euro-Americans72

Most people are not aware that one in every five of the cowboys or Ihe American West was black, contrary to the usual media portrayal oj white cowboy historical figures. Also, cowboy cu lture has Some Afri can

roOtS, only recently being recognized. The annual north-south migra­ tory pattern followed by the cowboy is unlike the cattle-kee pi ng pa l' terns of Europe bur analogous to the migratory patterns of th e Fulani catrle herders, who Ijve scattered from the Senegambia through N igeria

and Niger to the Sudan. Texas (African) longhorns were on the tirM slave ships to M exico, followed by African cattle egrets that later migrated farth er north . M any details of cowboy life, work, and eVen material culture, such as open grazing of cattle, can be traced to Fulani anrecedenrs, bur historians of the American West have rarely investi gated this.

The literature on black cowboys, like that for African contributions to American culture in general, is meager. Major works about cowboys and the American West have igno red black Americans. Black cowboys have been left out of most movies and historical accoun ts o f th i~ period. Also omitted are the accounts of African cattle brought with enslaved Africans ro the New World.

Even the search for surviving African culture among white

Americans has largely ignored cowboy culture. Historian Peter \Xfood. however, found that the survival of African culture among white Americans was pervasive and specific, reaching almost every aspect of American culture. He has argued that the American cattle industry owes its origins to Africans.

For example, Fulanis from the Fura jilion, accustomed to cattle rais­ ing, oversaw the rapid expansion of the British American cattle herds in the middle of the eighteenth cenrury. They were responsible for introduc­ ing patterns of "open grazin g," now practiced throughour [he American

cattle industry. Wood believes that the word coU/boy originated from this early relationship between cattle, Africans, and Europeans in the colonial

"What Africa Has Given America" 427

period .when African labor and ski~ls were St~U. closely ass~ciated with ~at­ de rais1l1g. As late as 1865 , follOWing the elVll War, Afncans whose IIve­ srock responsibilities were with cattle were referred to as "cowboys" in

plantation records. After 1865, whites associated with me cattle industry referred to themselves as "cattlemen" to distinguish th emselves from black

b " 71 "cOW oys..

Many words associated with cowboy culture and originating from

this relationship have found their way into American English. For exam­ ple, bronco (probably of EfiklIbibio and Spanish origins) was used cen­ ruries ago by the Spanish and by enslaved Africans working with cattle and

horses. Buckra, also deriving from this relationship, comes from mbakara, the EfiklIbibio word for "white man. " Buckaroo, also coming from

mbakara, was used to describe a class of whites who worked as bronco­ busters. Dogies, a word that even found its way into popular cowboy songs, as in "get along little dogies ," originated from the Ki.mbundu kidogo, a little something, and (ki) dodo, small. After the Civ il War, when

large catrle roundups became necessary because of neglect during the war, black American cowboys introduced such Africanisms to cowboy language

and songs.

Wolof Influences on American English

As noted above, the Wolof arrived in large numbers in the American South between 1670 and 1700 as a result of political disturbances in

Senegambia with other Senegambians.74 The Wolofs were the largest group of Africans to come to the American colonies in the seventeenth century and were predominantly house servants. Having extensive, close contact with Euro-Americans, they may have been the first Africans whose cultural elements and language were assimilated into and retained within

the developing culture of America. They also had greater opportunity for admixture and interaction with whites than any other African group in the

early years. As a result of numerous Wolofs on American plantations in the

carly years, Wolof served as a lingua franca during the 1700s, and many words of Wolof origin found their way into American English. The Wolof had a greater im pact on the language than their numbers would indicate. For example, one Wolof/Mande word now used throughout the world is "okay," Ot "O.K " Americans were mystified by its origins from

the time of its popularization around 1839. Clues were found in the

428 Writing Aftican HistOiJl

nineteenth-century black English of Jamaica and Surinam, and ' In t

fOrm k(. "th

Gullah speech of South Carolina, all of which have numerous 1"

~~,e w?rd. !wo ,prime examples from ~ande and ,,':'olof ~re 0

It or all right, and Wolof, waw ka)', all correct. O. K. is recorded ~he speech of black Americans from 1776, but was probably USed I.'Mh In the 1700s.

Another Wolof word popular in black English is "dig, " as in "di 1 ili man. " This word originates from Wa lof dega, meaning either "look ~ or "to understand ," used to mark the beginning of a sentence and ) nounced similarly to the English "digger." In black English of the I I)~; "dig" meant "to understand something." For example, in W'olo fi~ dt'g'l %j, "Do you understand Wolof?"

D avi d Dalby draws a direct parallel between the Wolot' term ga.y and the American term guys, used informally ro mean "persom" flf

"fellows. " In Wolofit is always used as a plural. Other Africanislll filund s in American English include "uh-hum" (yes) and "unh-unh" (no). whilh occur in various parts of the world but nowhere as frequently and regu­ larly as in Africa and the United States. The word "cush" was used in th American South during the slavery period ro descri be "cornmeal soakcJ in water." A similar word is used in \'\1olof for millet meal soaked in \'Vater.

Honkie, a term pop ular during the 1960s, was first used to descri be white men who would drive to the African American communi£), anJ honk automobile horns for their black dates. The word hong in \X 'olnl means red or pink, and whites are described in most African languages a!>

"Red. " The word Jambo, considered an abusive term by African Americans, is respectful in Wolof and a common family name throughout West Africa.

Several Wolof words were popularized during the jazz. era. For example, "jive" in Ebonics means "misleading talk, " which is code lan ­ guage originating from the Wolof word jey. The American words "hep." "hip" and "hippie" translate roughly into "to be aware or alive to what is going on, " including drugs_ In Wolor, the verb hipi m eans "to open one's eyes." The American slang "cat" means a person , as in hep-cat or cool cat, and is similar to the Wolof kai used as a suffIX following the verb. The Wolof lexicon jamboree is now a standard parr of Am erican language. Originally, a jamboree was a noisy slave celebration. A jam­ session in the old days of the plantation was slave musicians and slaves assembling for dance and entertainment. The origin is the Walof word for slave, jaam.

"What Africa Has Given America" 429

The verb "sock" in the sense of "to strike" or the sexual connotation of "sock it to me, Baby" is found in Wolof and has a similar sound and meaning, "ro beat with a pestle. " The word "bug," as in jitterbug or Bugs Bunny, denotes an enthusiastic person. The word "fuzz" has been used by African Americans ro mean "police." Historically, it meant a policeman, or those who patrolled the plantation at night and hunted down runaways on horseback. In Wolof the word jaJ, pronounced between fas and fuss,

means a horse. Enslaved Africans used the term "masa" for master, leadjng many

planters to believe their slaves could not use the king's English properly. However, the word mansa was a ti rle for many kings of\'\1est Africa; dur­ ing the empire of ancient Mali, it meant chief or leader. (One such leader of note was Mansa M usa_) Enslaved Africans saw the masters as persons of authority and simply used their indigenous word for leader, mafn}sa. O n the American plantation, the "n" in mansa became silent.

A large number of Wolof words survived in American English because many Wolof interpreters were used during the early European voyages along the coast, and thus the Wolof names for African foodstuffs, such as yam and banana, became parr of standard English.

African lexical items found their way into American English speech. The American Southern dialect in particular has been greatly influenced by Africa. Black servants, who raised the children of the Southern aristoc­ racy, passed on their d istinctive pronunciations, wnich then became uniquely southern. The musical quality of Southern speech is also believed ro have derived from Africa. Generations of interaction with African speech patterns gave white Southerners their distinctive drawl. Charles Dickens, commenting on the speech of Southerners, noted that there was litrle difference between the speech of wh ites and slaves. Edward Kimber, a traveler in the South in 1746, wrote that "one thing they [whites] are very faulty in, with regard to their Children, which is, that when young, they suffer them toO much to prowl am ongst the young Negroes, which insensibly causes them to imbibe their Manners and broken Speech."75 Black speech patterns are now found in the larger speech pattern of Americans, particularly among the youth.

W hite Southerners have adopted and assimilated African speech patterns and have retained expressions and words that were once Africanisms but are now Americanism, such as (aside from those already mentioned) bowdacious, bozo (s tupid), cooter (turtle), goober, peanut, guy, hippie, hullabaloo, hully-gulJy, jazz, jamboree, juke(box), moola (money), pamper, Polly Wolly-Doodle, wow, daddy, buddy and tote, to

430 Writing Aji-ican History

name a few. Other English words first used by Africans include b anan

banjo, Kola (as in Coca-Cola), elephant, gorilla, gumbo, okra tat.. , ' "T. tOte

and rurnlp.

White Somherners also borrowed the elaborate African social . . , h . f d d k' h tll­quette system, Wit ItS terms 0 en earment an inS ip in speakin

. hb . b . I " " d " I '" I!. r,nelg ors, uSing sue tit es as aunty an unc e as signs of r~Spelt It\( elders. This tradition of respect for elders not only cominued but al so '" reinforced by African social etiquette in the New World.

Other Cultural Influences

Finally, Herskovits noted similarities between black and white rel igio~h behavior, particularly in Pentecostal sects, such as ri ruaJ danc ing, drum­ ming, trances, and speaking in tongues. He traced many of these behaviors to the Sango cult. That trance form is characteristically African, but it i, often found among whites who belonged to churches wirh large number, of African Americans and those of certain Pentecostal sects.

Other Africanisms found among white Americans, according to Peter 'Wood, are such practices as leaving gourds on poles for birdhou.sc~

and using African techniques of alligator wresrling. As late as the 193(h, whites used funerary portery in a manner identical to blacks. Both African and Europeans cuIrures contributed fairly evenly, given the circumstances. to what was to become American. Cui rurally, Americans shared many experiences-some born in Europe and some in Africa. For example. African house servants learned new domestic skills, including the an of

quilting, from their m istresses. They took this European quilting tech­ nique and Africanized it by combining it w ith their applique ~tylc, reflect­ ing a pattern and form still found in the Akan and Fon textile industries of West Africa, patterns and forms which then influenced whitc Americans.

Conclusion

A variety of African cultures has contributed to the richness and diversity of American and African American life. Many years ago, Melville Herskovits identified five areas in which African culrure influenced rhe United States: music, speech, social etiquette, cuisine, and religion. Today. we know much more abom how American life in those areas has been

"What Afi'ica Has Given America" 431

atTccted, and we are also discover ing the location and narure of African

origins for what has now become so fully "American." For example, African culrure has conuibmcd substantially to

American musical traditions, particularly through spirituals, jazz, blues, gospel, and bluegrass. All these musical forms haye influenced popular American music, w ith spiriruals remaining the most indige­ nous music to develop in America, coming close to bluegrass as the nlOst authentically American music. M any Africanisms, such as the banjo, became Am ericanisms. Indeed, today the banjo is more charac­

teristic of whites than blacks, and Appalachian ban jo music is now con­ sidered as American as apple pie, without any d istinguishing Africa n

characteristics. Contrary to the popular belief that only West Africans contributed

[0 North American culture, other African groups, especially the Bantu of Central Africa, also brought their own unique contribution s. W est Africans had more of an influence on w hite American culture because of their dominant p resence in the plaotatjon "Big House," and scholars

had previously assumed the same West African dominance in black American culrure. However, recent scholarship suggests a Bantu origin for much of the African American culture because, unlike the more numerous Senegambians (Mandes), rhe Central Africans brought with them a common culture and language that gave them greater focus

despite their smaller number. Among others, Winifred Vass has docu­ mented survivals of Bantu vocabulary in American place names, folk­

lore, lexicon, and literature, and Dena Esptein bas shown that the banjo

is of African origin. The culture of the Mande had a profound effeer on America by way

of plantation "Big House" interactions. European culture was transmit­ ted to the Afr icans, but African culture was JUSt as certainly transmitted to the Euro-Americans. This acculturation process was mutual and reci­ procal: Africans assimilated white culture, and meanwhile planters were adopting African customs and practices, includ ing agricultural methods such as rice cultivation, African cuisine ("southern cooking"), open graz­ ing of cattle, and use of herbal medicines and other procedures to cure and treat diseases such as smallpox. The African house servanrs learned new domestic skills from their m istresses, and in turn taught other skills

to them. In sum, a diversity of Africans, including the Bantu of Cenual

Africa as well as the West Africans. signficanrly changed N orth American

culture.