Revista Brasileira do Caribe ISSN: 1518-6784 [email protected] Universidade Federal de Goiás Brasil Konadu, Kwasi An Approach to the Study of Culture as People in the African World Revista Brasileira do Caribe, vol. VI, núm. 11, julio-diciembre, 2005, pp. 261-283 Universidade Federal de Goiás Goiânia, Brasil Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=159113676014 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative An Approach to the Study of Culture as People in the African World Kwasi Konadu Winston-Salem State University Resumo Nos último anos, “a diáspora” e os “estudos sobre a diáspora”, além de perceberem as comunidades como imaginadas ou inventadas tem gozado de popularidade ao mesmo tempo que são objeto de crítcas. Ainda que haja uma grande proliferação de programas acadêmicos e de investigações sobre a diáspora africana, a exploração da cultura daqueles que são (supostamente) os objetos de tais esforços sofrem interpretações inexatas da cultura. Portanto, a narrativa e a identidade dos africanos são percebidas como versões plagiadas que são apresentadas através de expressões como hibridismo, criollismo e sincretismo. Os temas tratados neste artigo tratam das interpretações da cultura como um conceito polisémico ou como eixo de definição e interpretação de um habitat temporal. Reavalia-se principalmente fontes secundárias e materiais de arquivo junto com pesquisas realizadas nas regiões caribenhas, bem como no oeste da África, pretendendo-se oferecer uma exploração conjunta sobre a cultura como individuos no mundo africano (e não como “diáspora”) no contexto de estratégias socio-políticas y culturais dominantes utilizadas tanto pelos africanos como por aqueles que controlam a ordem social dentro da qual se encontram os africanos. Palavras-chaves: Mundo africano, Teoria da cultura, Diáspora * Artigo recebido em agosto e aprovado para publicação em novembro de 2005 Revista Brasileira do Caribe, Goiânia, vol. VI, nº 11, p. 261-283, 2005 261 Kwasi Konadu Resumen En los últimos, “la diáspora” y “los estudios sobre diáspora”, además de centrarse en las comunidades como imaginadas o inventadas han gozado de popularidad y a la vez han sido objecto de crítica. Aún que hay una gran proliferación de programas académicos y de investigación sobre la diáspora africana, la exploración de la cultura de aquellos que son (supuestamente) los objectos de tales esfuerços sufrem interpretaciones inexactas de la cultura . Por tanto, las narrativas y la identidad de los africanos son a menudo versiones de plagios presentadas a través de expresiones de hibridismo, criollismo y sincretismo. Los temas tratados en este artículo tratan de la interpretación de la cultura como um concepto polisémico o eje definidor de la definicion e interpretación de un habitat temporal. Reevaluando principalmente fuentes secundarias y materiales de archivo junto con investigaciones realizadas en las regiones caribeñas y del oeste de África, este estudio pretende ofrecer una exploración conjunta sobre la cultura como individuos en el mundo africano (y no como “diáspora”) en el contexto de estrategias socio-políticas y culturales dominantes utilizadas tanto por los africanos como por aquellos que controlan el orden social dentro del que se encuentran los africanos. Palabras claves: Mundo africano, Teoría de la cultura, Diáspora Abstract In recent years, “diaspora” and “diaspora studies,” as well as thinking about communities or identities as imagined or invented, have become popular even fashionable as these imprecise notions have received their share of widespread use and some criticism. While there have been a proliferation of research and academic programs in African “diaspora” studies, the approach to the culture of those who are (supposedly) the subject of such endeavors suffer from inappropriate interpretations of culture. Therefore, the narrative and personhood of Africans are often plagiarized versions presented through the conceptual idioms of hybridity, creole-ness, and syncretism. The issues addressed in this essay are concerned about the interpretation of culture as a multilayered concept or axis around which temporal life is organized and interpreted. By reassessing mostly secondary and some archival materials in conjunction with research in the Caribbean and West Africa regions, I argue for an composite approach to culture as people in the African world (rather than “diaspora”) in the context of dominant socio-political and cultural strategies employed concurrently by Africans and those who manage the social order within which Africans find themselves. Keywords: African world, Culture theory, Diaspora 262 Revista Brasileira do Caribe, vol. VI, nº 11 An Approach to the Study of Culture as People.. *** We are not a people of yesterday… We are not a stagnant people, hating motion… Our fears are not of motion. We are not a people of dead, stagnant waters. Reasons and promptings of our own have urged much movement on us — expected, peaceful, repeated motion… Then the time and our need for continuation called for motion. The flow of our warmest blood answered the call. We spread connected over an open land. Ayi Kwei Armah, Two Thousand Seasons Introduction In recent years, “diaspora” and “diaspora studies,” as well as thinking about communities or identities as imagined or invented, have become popular even fashionable as these imprecise notions have received their share of widespread use and some criticism. African “diaspora” studies programs, departments, and scholarship have grown exponentially within the last fifteen years, a growth which witnessed the establishment of academic journals and discussion groups that regard the cumulative nature of these efforts as constituting a “field” distinct from Caribbean or African(a) studies. International initiatives such as the UNESCO Transatlantic Slave Trade Education Project, which is under the broader Breaking the Silence project, are engaged in related and overlapping work as those found at York University in Canada and analogous efforts by Pennsylvania State, Yale, and Tulane University in the United States. While there have been a proliferation of research and academic programs in African “diaspora” studies, the approach to the culture of those who are (supposedly) the subject of such endeavors suffer from inappropriate interpretations of culture and, therefore, the narrative and personhood of Africans are often plagiarized versions presented through the conceptual idioms of hybridity, creole-ness, and syncretism. jul./dez. 2005 263 Kwasi Konadu I say interpretations of culture since what and how we interpret, as ways in the process of making sense, correspond to our very modes of creating and ascribing meaning, which, ultimately, are anchored in our world-sense (i.e., our way of making sense of our reality). Thus, the issue addressed herein is not so much the meaning(s) of culture as an exercise in semantics, but rather the interpretation of culture as a multilayered concept or axis around which temporal life is organized and interpreted given that we are nothing but our culture in physiological, ideational, and spiritual terms. By reassessing mostly secondary and some archival materials in conjunction with research in the Caribbean and West Africa regions, this essay argues for an composite approach to culture as people in the African world (rather than “diaspora”) in the context of dominant socio-political and cultural strategies employed concurrently by Africans and those who manage the social order within which Africans find themselves. This essay begins by distilling two central strategies from the literature on the African “diaspora,” outlines the research perspective employed in the context of those strategies and their historical meaning(s), and then uses Brazil as a case study for the approach to culture as people argued in this paper. Finally, some conclusive remarks are offered. The imperative of a multilayered perspective on culture in the African world correspond not only to the questions of who and where are Africans and how and why did they come to be in the historical and geographical places we find them, but also the praxis of teaching and demonstrating an understanding of the concept of an African world encompassing Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Australia and other geo-political contexts in which communities that show evidence of historical and cultural linkages with Africa exist.1 In the Brazilian context, the recent legislation which made compulsory the teaching of African and African- Brazilian history in schools can be directly implicated on the exigent matter of African historical and cultural knowledge, representation, and propagation (see OLIVA, 2003). Embedded in the theoretical issues of and scholarly dialogues on African “diaspora” studies, preliminary 264 Revista Brasileira do Caribe, vol. VI, nº 11 An Approach to the Study of Culture as People.. research revealed two sets of emergent themes from the works of E. Kofi Agorsah, Sidney Mintz, Richard Price, John Thornton, Abdias do Nascimento, Jose Arroyo, Q. Duncan, J. Huapaya, A. Bedoya, B. Cayasso, Carlos Moore, Nigel Bolland, Robert Farris Thompson, Franklin Knight, Philip Curtin, Michael Gomez, Linda Heywood, Maureen Warner-Lewis, Joseph E.