"Something Torn and New"

This was not the first time that I had heard Dr. Mario Beatty give an amazing lecture. I was given the opportunity to listen to him speak in Dr.Carr's Intro to African American Studies class so some of the topics covered I had already heard before. In Dr. Beatty's lecture, the topic primarily covered was Abandonment and Dismemberment. The Dismemberment IS the Middle Passage, the making of African diaspora in the Americas. In the time period of 1492-1776, 6 1/2 million people were brought to the new world and 5 out of 6 people were African and only 1 million of them were white. In the process of explaining the Dismemberment, historical narratives were used. Historical narratives of: loss and emptiness, African continuity and collective synthesis and transformation, and newness that assembles and combines African and European traditions. Without narratives, it would be hard to remember all of the valuable history explaining the Dismemberment. A very important statement that Dr. Beatty made was that "If you lose everything you have, then you become culturally empty." When your empty, you are filled up with colonizers, mottos, values, and their ways of conceptualizing the world. You become brainwashed. Nowadays, the African culture continued in the Americas by storytelling, their religion is still practiced, singing different songs and hymns, and most importantly, family values.

Dr.Beatty discusses 4 out of the 6 conceptual questions in his lecture. 1) Social Structure: The creation and modeling of family patterns, social and political structure roles,traditions and rituals. For example, the prominent role of mother/king/chief.minister. 2) Ways of Knowing: Brazil-Candomble, Haiti and New Orleans-Vodun(spirits) of the Fon and Ewe of the Benin Republic, Cuba-Santeria, Us-reafricanized Christianity. For example, the cross resembles the Kongo cosmogram, water baptism, funerary rites,etc. 3) Science and Technology: Medicine men and women, Blacksmiths and Carpenters, Agricultural cultivation, and Musical instruments like banjoes,rattles, and drums. 4)Cultural Meaning Making: Music,Language, Literature, and Dance. Through these ways, Abandonment and Dismemberment were expressed and still are till this very day. It is "Something Torn and New".

Alexis Thrasher

@02661188

Freshman Seminar