1. The Origins of African American Culture

2. The Legacy of Africa
The second generation of people of African descent in North America did lose their parents’ native languages and their ethnic identity as Igbos, Angolas, or Senegambians.
But they retained a generalized West African heritage and passed it on to their descendants. Among the major elements of that heritage were
family structure and notions of kinship,
religious concepts and practices,
African words and modes of expression,
musical style and instruments,
cooking methods and foods,
folk literature, and folk arts

3. The Legacy of Africa
Families are the way traditions and culture get passed on through time.
At first most of the Africans who were sent here to work were men and it was difficult to create families.
After about 1750, more women were sent here and the family became easier to create in African American communities.

4. Fictive Kin Relationships
This is a term for the bonds that people create in the absence of historical family connections.
As soon as people began being forced into slavery, they began to create these bonds.
This is an important human act that people in difficult and stressful situations do to help and protect each other. (everyone needs people who love them)

5. Biological Families
By the middle of the 1700s biological families were developing .
The families maintained African ideals and beliefs- for example, West Africans were very serious about avoiding incest- any family ties at all, so slaves picked mates from other plantations.
There were also social classes in Igbo society and some classes were off limits to other groups, so that was observed for a while.
With family being sold all over states like Virginia, it was a little easier to find relatives if you were moved. Relatives would also shelter you if you escaped.

6. Religions
“As a whole, African religious traditions combine belief in a Supreme Being with the worship of other gods and ancestors. They use ritual and magic to communicate among human beings, nature, and the gods. In many African languages, there is no word for God, because in their tradition, every thing and every place embodies God.”
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7. African Roots
The rituals practiced in many traditional African societies are considered to be stepping-stones to the ultimate goal of death and the afterlife. There are rituals that guide one through all of the transitional stages of life, such as birth, puberty, initiation into adulthood, marriage, having children, old age, death, and life after death. These rituals allow participants to know what society expects of them in the next stage of their lives.
Despite the universality of belief in a Supreme Being in Africa, formal, church-like worship of God was not widely practiced. Nevertheless, the concept of God is transcendent, and there is a popular myth, told from West Africa to the Upper Nile, which says that He or the sky, his dwelling place, was once much nearer to the earth.
This is a picture from the Gerewol ceremony in Niger. The Wodaabe people have a male beauty contest, where the men are judged by women and the whiteness of their teeth and eyes is highly valued.

8. African traditions
Besides the Ring shout, there were other ways that people held onto their history-
Shells on graves, which is from the Kongo and Angolan coast of Africa
Items that you might need in the afterlife, like jugs, pitchers, are placed upside down on the grave because the spirit world is upside down.
In South Carolina, especially on the islands, lamps are still placed on graves to help people find their way in the afterlife.

9. Old Beliefs
From their recorded oral histories, it is apparent that Africans in America continued to believe in the supernatural. Select men and women still functioned as priests or conjurers, with the powers to mediate between the human and divine realms. Their skills were sought by those seeking retribution, special favors, or a cure. One later example is that of Gullah Jack, an Angolan priest, who cooked special meals and handed out charms in order to protect the men participating in Denmark Vesey's rebellion.
Obeah, Vodun (Voudo, Voodoo), Santeria, Hoodoo, Palo are all based on beliefs from Africa.

10. Look up these terms Hoodoo Palo Mbanza Geechee Buckra Goober Yam
Great Awakening
African Methodist Church
Denmark Vesey
Gullah
Phillis Wheatley
Obeah
Vodun (Voudo, Voodoo)
Santeria
Hoodoo
Palo
Mbanza
Geechee
Buckra
Goober
Yam
zombie