Back to the Roots: Reconnecting Africans in Diaspora Through Cultural Media, Education, and Personal Narratives

Abstract

This chapter narrates the terrible effects of how the Slave Trade, for over 500 years, has led to a total disconnect of people of African descent around the world. Over 50 million energetic, brilliant, and active Africans were trafficked as slaves mainly from the coast of West Africa to the United States, West Indies, Europe, and Caribbean to work as slaves in gold and silver mine, sugar cane plantations. The search for ancestral roots for Africans in the Diasporas can be very tormenting, emotional, and devastating. This reflects in the homecoming of the African. Furthermore, cultural media is embedded in the culture of people. This is because the political, economic, and social lives of a people are determined by the culture and tradition of a people. Specifically, the cultures of various nations, societies, and communities around the world are determined by the basic elements of culture which are universal in nature. These six elements as identified are (1) belief, (2) values, (3) norms and sanctions, (4) technology, (5) symbols, and (6) languages. As such, as the cradle of humanity, particularly in central Eastern Africa, archeological excavations have proved that the origin of humans and the “Hominidae clade” date to around seven million years ago. In pre-history Africa, like in other continents, there were no nations, but people lived in groups. Therefore, some of the challenges of reconnecting Africans in the Diaspora with their roots in Africa include lack of political role for traditional rulers in African countries, population explosion, poverty and disease, effects of Slave Trade, colonialism, neo-colonialism, and globalization. One can argue that while colonialism, neo-colonialism, and globalization have contributed to the disconnect of continental Africans from their culture, the concept of colonial mimicry as written by Dei (Rereading Fanon for his pedagogy and implications for schooling and education. In G. J. S. Dei & M. Simmons (Eds.), Fanon and education: Thinking through pedagogical possibilities (pp. 1–28). Peter Lang, 2010) has continued to perpetuate the disconnect. Furthermore, the idea of colonial mimicry proposed by Dei (Rereading Fanon for his pedagogy and implications for schooling and education. In G. J. S. Dei & M. Simmons (Eds.), Fanon and education: Thinking through pedagogical possibilities (pp. 1–28). Peter Lang, 2010) illustrates the dilemma of immaterial and material dispossession and the in-between spaces or dwelling of those in the Caribbean-Diaspora as will be demonstrated through their lived experience.

This chapter although written by three people with different growing up experiences connects us at a spiritual level as children of African ancestry. Slavery and colonization tried to fragment us and disconnect us, but writing this chapter enabled us to pick up our threads and tie them together. As Fanta and I (Kathy) write this last concluding paragraph, Leonard Wandili is no longer with us. He joined the spirit world more than a year ago. Leonard, although not with us, we feel you and we cherish your contribution to this chapter. We miss you tremendously and you will always be remembered for your generosity, kindness, and your warmth. We dedicate this chapter to you.