Black Culture Discussion Thread

[gry60]

Pan-Africanism in Africa sort of died after the independence decades (1960-80s). The reality is that there's more to being African than the color of our skin (which doesn't apply to many native populations of the continent).

The main roadblock is the reality that the Ethiopian has little in common with the Senegalese; the Egyptian and Congolese don't share many common issues, of any. The Mauritanian and South African love under different climates, which influences their understanding of the world. Even at the individual country level, the cultural differences may be so great that people from different ethnic groups barely see themselves as part of the same nation. How do you make them buy into this idea of the shared continental destiny that is Pan-Africanism, especially after the colonial element (the common enemy) as been removed?

 

[Present]

What is she even talking about?

Probably working for the CIA

 

[tokes99]

Get Nigerians and Ghanaians to argue about jollof rice, and you'll see why pan-Africanism stops at the Atlantic coast.

what’s hilarious about jollof rice ting is that all the west african countries have their own version (supposedly seirra leone has the title) but ghanaians & nigerians (makes sense as it is the largest country) are/seem to be by far the most vocal…

 

[Rootin4EverybodyBlack]

What is she even talking about?

Probably working for the CIA

Glad somebody said it because that just sounded like a big *** word salad to me

 

[Quincy McCall]

Glad somebody said it because that just sounded like a big *** word salad to me

She can do that sometimes-- I think that she was trying to say that black people somehow have been conditioned to be imperialist and have tied our destiny to America. Honestly, outside of studying Stokely Carmichael in my teens, I haven't had much interaction on what Pan-Africanism actually is, so I wanted to hear others input on what it is; especially if we have Pan-Africanists in here. Appreciate the feedback so far

 

[HankHill]

Pan-Africanism in Africa sort of died after the independence decades (1960-80s). The reality is that there's more to being African than the color of our skin (which doesn't apply to many native populations of the continent).

The main roadblock is the reality that the Ethiopian has little in common with the Senegalese; the Egyptian and Congolese don't share many common issues, of any. The Mauritanian and South African love under different climates, which influences their understanding of the world. Even at the individual country level, the cultural differences may be so great that people from different ethnic groups barely see themselves as part of the same nation. How do you make them buy into this idea of the shared continental destiny that is Pan-Africanism, especially after the colonial element (the common enemy) as been removed?

This part. I don't think people realize how large and diverse Africa is. Struggling to see why they haven't all banded together and operate under pan-africanism minimizes the scale of different ethnicities, cultures, language, etc. thats there.

 

[Raji Lowenthal]

African countries trying to get the bag like everybody else, later for all that kumbyah mess. C.R.E.A.M translates into any language. Im close with some Nigerians and they have interesting views.

 

[Quincy McCall]

 

[DCAllAfrican]

What would happen to the black community if black celebrities/rappers/artists agreed to endorse going to the gym, fasting/eating healthy, drinking water, and living a drug/alcohol-free life?

We know damn well they wouldn't be allowed to promote positive messages.

 

[Present]

 

[fluid hips]

I bet. I’m just curious, you have this giant continent with various cultures, beliefs etc and folks over here are just like “Africa!”

Yea folks don't realize it's the most diverse continent. Basically a British person and Russian person don't have a lot in common even though they are Europeans. Different language. Different alphabet.

Basically pan Africanism becomes a thing in the west when living in "the white man's world"

Introduction to African Languages

With anywhere between 1000 and 2000 languages, Africa is home to approximately one-third of the world's languages.

alp.fas.harvard.edu

With anywhere between 1000 and 2000 languages, Africa is home to approximately one-third of the world's languages.

 

[Rootin4EverybodyBlack]

She can do that sometimes-- I think that she was trying to say that black people somehow have been conditioned to be imperialist and have tied our destiny to America. Honestly, outside of studying Stokely Carmichael in my teens, I haven't had much interaction on what Pan-Africanism actually is, so I wanted to hear others input on what it is; especially if we have Pan-Africanists in here. Appreciate the feedback so far

Ah, okay. Thanks for clarifying.

I think Black ppl in America do that because this is where most of us grew up and still live. It’s hard to envision your destiny being on a whole other continent when a lot of us don’t even have the means to move across town.

Also, the way ppl in America generalize Africa as if it’s one monolithic place doesn’t make sense. Everybody in the continent isn’t even what we traditionally consider to be “Black”, they’re not all on the same page, there are significant cultural differences. It always seems like these discussions are in the context of “the rest of African descendants are on board, the American ones are just messing it up”, when that’s not even remotely true.

 

[Present]

Americans get America wrong too.

A Canadian is just as much an American as a Chilean.

 

[maq25060]

Americans get America wrong too.

A Canadian is just as much an American as a Chilean.

Yeah but no one uses the terms in that manner. Not even you in this post.

Folks ain't calling us united stateans.

 

[Present]

Yeah but no one uses the terms in that manner. Not even you in this post.

Folks ain't calling us united stateans.

The United States of America = Americans from the United States.

United Stateans does have a certain ring to it though.

 

[maq25060]

I guess in the English language United Statesmen would be the best term, but that's gonna get ugly real fast...

 

[fluid hips]

Everyone north of Mexico is a gringo

 

[wavycrocket]

One of the best shows on tv. It’s straight up entertaining, fun and real. It’s wild that we don’t know/see about this. They have 4 seasons. I’m shocked to never hear of them

 

[tomdiginson]

 

[Public Enemy]

 

[finessence]

They need to stop putting blonde hair on our black kids man. Any color for that matter. S*** is sickening.

I don’t know what’s up with this trend of black people dying their hair. Male and female

 

[tomdiginson]

Semi-related, but I feel I never hear much about pan Africanism from Africans.

Pan-Africanism played a crucial role in achieving independence for Ghana and Kenya. However, it is not talked about as much by Africans due to the Western opposition and their efforts to eliminate supporters during the 1950s and 1960s. See Pio Gama, Patrice Lumumba, and Kwame Nkrumah. They've eliminated and removed the previous teachers/leaders and replace them with their own set.

 

[HankHill]

They need to stop putting blonde hair on our black kids man. Any color for that matter. S*** is sickening.

I don’t know what’s up with this trend of black people dying their hair. Male and female

Id rather folk dye their hair blonde than put that bigen tar in it

 

[gry60]

Pan-Africanism played a crucial role in achieving independence for Ghana and Kenya. However, it is not talked about as much by Africans due to the Western opposition and their efforts to eliminate supporters during the 1950s and 1960s. See Pio Gama, Patrice Lumumba, and Kwame Nkrumah. They've eliminated and removed the previous teachers/leaders and replace them with their own set.

European meddling alone doesn't explain why Pan-Africanism has had skeptics on the continent.

Sankara was a Pan-Africanist, but he was opposed by a number of his contemporaries, Houphouet-Boigny being the most notable one.

The movement led to the creation of the OAU, now known as the AU (African Union), which is intended to work like the EU. However, it met a lot of criticism on the continent, due to its inability to denounce African dictators who oppressed ordinary Africans.

And then, there's the tribalism:

Another criticism of Pan-Africanism is that it is irrelevant for contemporary issues affecting postcolonial Africa, and it is thus "stuck in the past".[84] Pan-Africanism has been accused of placing too much focus on a superficial monolithic "African" or "black" identity while ignoring the complex ethno-religious differences and conflicts that exist among Africans (especially in Nigeria, where independence leaders abandoned national unity after independence in favour of promoting the interests of their own ethnic groups over others)

It's like American racism, except everybody is black.

Finally, one can look at what has been happening with Black Tunisians and African immigrants in South Africa to realize that the roots of Pan-Africanism in Africa were never that deep.

 

[tomdiginson]

European meddling alone doesn't explain why Pan-Africanism has had skeptics on the continent.

Sankara was a Pan-Africanist, but he was opposed by a number of his contemporaries, Houphouet-Boigny being the most notable one.

The movement led to the creation of the OAU, now known as the AU (African Union), which is intended to work like the EU. However, it met a lot of criticism on the continent, due to its inability to denounce African dictators who oppressed ordinary Africans.

And then, there's the tribalism:

It's like American racism, except everybody is black.

Finally, one can look at what has been happening with Black Tunisians and African immigrants in South Africa to realize that the roots of Pan-Africanism in Africa were never that deep.

How can the roots grow deep if they are uprooted not long after being planted? That is what Western meddling has done. Then they back certain regimes and influence elections, coupes etc that further prevents the ideology from spreading.

Houphouet-Boigny was aligned with the west. He didn't like communism, he didn't recognize China nor did he mess with the Russians. He still believed in France having their hand in Africa etc. So it's no surprise to anyone as to why he was severely against the idea of Pan-Africanism.