The African Burial Ground and Its People (Gladys Creppy- Hetherington)

Professor Mack’s lecture made me very sad and also angry. The African Burial Ground story reminds me that there is still injustice and racism in the United States. Our ancestors struggled during slavery days and the last thing they deserved was to have a building built on top of their resting place.

I have not kept up with the news so this is the first time I ever heard about the African Burial Ground. The lecture really informed about the events that had taken place. I was born in Africa where the people there had never experienced slavery. Everyone was pure African so I never knew slavery existed until I moved to the states. Though my family had no personal experience with slavery, I was still affected by Professor Mack’s lecture because I was imagining what all the family members of the buried had to go through. If anything, I know many wanted justice for their ancestors which many did not get.

One thing I did find interesting was how they were able to learn or interpret so much from just analyzing the remains. For example, in the lecture, it was mentioned that the remains that had filed teeth were originally from Africa. I didn’t even know that they filed teeth in Africa and I was born there. I definitely see why Anthropology has been such a huge apart of African American history. It helps us id and learn more about the lives of the loved ones we never had a chance to meet.

Over the lecture was very informational and really got me thinking about how fair the United States really is. All this talk about freedom and equality goes flushing down the toilet every time an event as discriminatory as the African Burial Ground takes place.

As for the “Ancestral Rites of Return” video, it really brought up my spirit. To see how much love and care was put into reburying our ancestors made very proud. I especially loved the personalized crisps and how everyone came together to throw such a monumental home going for the people who truly put America on top.

I especially appreciated the fact that each family member was able to perform their own celebrations for their ancestors. I believe that was a good way for them to have personally acknowledged and said goodbye to their family members.

I am truly appreciative to Howard for participating in this event. I believe that Howard wanted to learn more about the people buried and what their lives may have been like as slave. I also believe that Howard wanted to bring together the many families who had family members buried and didn’t even now it. Howard truly played a role in bringing closure to many of those families and introducing them to the people they probably would have never known about.

As I think about visiting the Burial Ground, I feel that I will probably be very sad due to the hardships the people had to go through and also hatred toward the people that caused those hardships. I will definitely be an eye opener to me because I have read and learned about slavery but have never had such a close encounter to it.

I learned a lot this week from many different sources such as the website provided to us. The vocabulary words had so much meaning behind them and some I had never even heard before such as Nisibidi which was the ancient writing system for Africans and means love and unity.

The Historical 144th Opening Convocation of Howard University

I must admit I was very annoyed to find out that all freshman seminar students had to go to the Convocation. The event is not on the syllabus and we had to check blackboard to have any idea that attending it and writing a blog would be for a grade. That wasn't the least of my troubles, however. I believe the announcement said that the opening convocation would start at 11 PM. When I arrived at 11:05, it seemed as if I had missed over half of the program. I find it unlikely that the multiple songs by the university choir, procession, presentations of colors, and the like were all performed in those 5 minutes that I missed. Nonetheless, I made it in time to see the presentation of the speaker and hear Dr. Michael L. Lomax's speech on the continued importance of HBCU in society.

I learned that as one of the top HBCU in the country, Howard is going to need to set an example to the rest of the 100+ colleges and universities in the group to continue to provide black students with opportunities to receive college degrees as well as prepare them for the world. I personally liked the part where Dr. Lomax stated many statistics on how graduation rates of black students, specifically black males, were below par in schools all around the U.S. but those numbers were significantly higher in HBCUs.

I also found out that alumni have a much bigger part in an institution's mission than just having passed through. Alumni support, at 11% now, is necessary for an institution to make its way to other corporations and institutions and try to gain support for the goals and objectives in mind. When Dr. Ribeau did the acknowledgments, it was nice to see how many visitors and supporters of Howard were present in the assembly. Faculty and staff were all present and many prominent men and women, including alumni, also showed up to show support for Howard's 144th year of service and truth. In the end, I suppose I'm glad I went.

The New York African Burial Ground

For some reason, I always thought a trip to the New York Burial Ground would be one of the dullest things to do w/ my October weekend. But, After hearing so many interesting facts and history about the site from Professor Mack, my interest peaked. Thousands of people are believed to have been buried there, and scientists and archaeologists, specifically those on Howard University's staff, are working together toward finding out more about each burial and the culture that was buried with them.

Interestingly enough, professor Mack stated that at least 10,000 bodies are buried in the site although only several hundred have been found thus far. His personal experiences really tied me more to the facts he was mentioning, making me give them more value. For example, professor Mack was head of osteopathy in 1992 and determined many characteristics of the bodies while he was there. There were lots of babies, neonatal and perinatal alike, were buried along with many adult men and women. Of these women, 65% of them had muscle tears in their chest and hips, and some also fractured their vertebrae. Maybe it's just me, but something about these facts makes me want to look more into what these people might have looked and how they might have behaved in this new environment.

One way of figuring this out is to look at how they were buried. Apparently, 91% of the 419 bodies taken out were in coffins. It is assumed that Africans buried Africans since they were the labor force of the day. Also, since so much care was taken with burying these people, we can also assume that Africans had feelings for each other and tried to take care of each other even in death. One example of this care is a buried coffin that had a sankofa, a heart shaped design based on a bird, inscribed on the coffin. Findings like these change the way we see our ancestors now. It's a shame that the government did not stop the buildings from being constructed and designating the African Burial Ground as a sacred site.

But this site isn't the only one. Professor Mack asked an interesting question when he said, "ask yourselves, 'where are my ancestors buried?'" There are many other African burial sites where our other ancestors may also be hidden or covered under buildings. We may find more men with filed teeth, or wavy teeth, or buried with a coin in their eyes like in the New York site. Perhaps we will find out more about how our ancestors suffered from disease or overworking conditions that may have resulted in their deaths. Or perhaps we could find more underdeveloped or newborn babies buried with their mothers or fathers in white shrouds. These findings, and more, challenge me to find out how Howard University and scholars' role may be able to advance research and discovery in this matter.

After visiting the http://www.nps.gov/afbg/photosmultimedia/multimedia.htm address, my overall impression of the monument and movement is impressive. Considering the trouble people had to go through to get the ground available for excavation and research, it shows how well everyone who worked on the project persevered in order to protect a vital part of our past in order to preserve it and learn from it. It was heartwarming to see how much care was put into burying the bodies and it pains me to see how much of our culture has been lost. I also found it inspiring how much respect people had for the site and even now, I'm not sure how I want to approach the burial ground. I can barely walk in a cemetery comfortably let alone a site of this importance.

NY African Burial Blog

The New York African Burial ground was the topic of Professor Mack’s lecture. This lecture interested in me because it was not only history but it was the present. This burial ground was used all the way from 1650 to 1795. The burials were not discovered until the late 1980’s/early 1990’s. However, it was kept a secret from most of the community. The US government had planned on just excavating the site and then building, until they decided to just build on top of it. Finding this out honestly hurt my feelings and made me sad. To think that if I went to the sites in October, I would be stepping on an estimated 10,000 people’s burials. It hurt to think that some of those people might be my ancestors, the origins of my family that were being stepped on. It disgusted me to the fullest after hearing what these people endured and being treated with so little respect. They are being treated as if they are lower than the dirt on the bottom of someone’s shoes. These people buried went through hell just to survive and then be buried as if they were dogs. The investigations on the bones showed that 65% of the women had muscle tears from pushing or pulling things that were far to heavy for them. (Dr. Mack’s power point) Another woman’s bones showed that she had sustained much abuse. She had a bullet in her bones, a fractured jaw, and a broken arm. (Dr. Mack power point)These kinds of things happened to women all the time because women worked alone in the homes. They had no way to be safe, and if they messed up it could spell the end of their life. Men worked in large groups out in the fields, so there was a small aspect of safety in numbers.

It made slightly happy to know that the people banded together. One reason being that if they had not, they would not have survived so there would not be a large African American population in the US now. Africans buried Africans and tried to bury them the way they would be back home. Then there was a change of rules and there were no more night burials allowed, no more than 12 people allowed to witness burial and they needed permission. The fact that whites imposed these rules on a funeral is sad, and shows how afraid they were that the Africans were planning something.

I feel that I will still be conflicted when going in October, just because of the circumstances and controversy of the burial grounds. I like the idea of the monument and gallery though. The heavy symbolism adds to the historical aspect of things. By using the symbols from other cultures within Africa, it gives a thorough representation of the people that might be buried there. I say that because there is not guarantee that all the people buried came from the same location, but multiple symbols of multiple places, everything is represented in a very symbolic and beautiful way. I listened to narrations on the symbols of Legba, Yowa, Akoma,Nsibidi, and Denkyem. They were all very interesting and hearing about what they meant was very nice. However, it would have been more effective to have a video in place also so I could view the symbol. I feel I am missing information now because I cannot see the symbol but I know about it and what it means. I believe Howard was chosen to study the bones because it is the most qualified school to do so. It is a well known HBCU and everyone respects it. Howard’s involvement in this project does not “inspire” me to use academic knowledge because its involvement is not an inspiring thing. It could have just as well been another school that was chosen so this is not some kind of Cinderella type involvement story. It is not inspiring to me; however, I will still use academic knowledge to aid the community in anyway possible.

This presentation gave me mixed feelings on going to the African burial grounds. I want to go for the experience, but I do not want to step on peoples graves and disrespect them in that way. As of now I plan to go but I will most likely be reluctant to walk anywhere to close because I do not want to step on the burials. I feel the burials are sacred and should be untouched.

Convocation blog

This blog entry will be about convocation. Before I go into what I thought about it and reflection, I would like to discuss the amount of confusion I incurred the moment I arrived. I was told in the emails and it also said on the program that convocation began at eleven in the morning. However, when my floor mates and I arrived it seemed as though the ceremony had been going on for a while already, so I think its safe to say I missed a large portion of the event.

Nevertheless, I found convocation to be quite interesting. It made me feel good to know I was part of Howard’s 144^th year of education. I also enjoyed Dr. Michael L. Lomax’s speech. It really got me thinking about what I will do when my time at Howard is done. He urged us the students, the future alumni, as well as the current alumni to step up and be donors to Howard. HBCU’s everywhere are in need of more and more funding, for scholarships to low-income students. With no money, students cannot attend school; and without students, schools cannot exist. It is up to us the future alumni and the current alumni, to donate and provide money for scholarships. Then HBCU’s everywhere can continue to prosper and further the education of young minorities.

On another note, I enjoyed the choir and the orchestra. They were very good. This convocation also revealed to me that I must learn the Alma Mater haha. Overall it was an enriching and enlightening experience

Never Forgotten Only Reborn

 

Posted by Breyona Colley at Sunday, September 18, 2011 5:09:40 PM EDT

Dr.Beatty's lecture was actually kind of eye opening. When I say eye opening I mean that it made you think in ways that you didn't think before and made you realize things that never seemed like they could have existed without someone bringing it to your knowledge and luckily he brought them to mine. The three things that he really opened my mind to was explaining the dismemberment, cultural meaning-making, and social structure.
When explaining the dismemberment I never thought about certain things he pointed out such as, "when you are conceptualized as empty you fill yourself up with whatever is around you, whatever you think will make you whole." or "it is imperative to re-write the history of the Americas emphasizing the African presence." These two statements made me really think. The thing that people never realize is that they are both very true statements that are still in existence today and are relevant to everything we continue to do. When the African slaves were first brought over to America they were broken into the form that the white slave master wanted them to be in. They took their spirit, their overall mindset and changed it to fit their likings, wants and needs, and they changed the way we looked at one another. As the white slave owners continued to do this they took the African mindset to which was beautiful, full, and still consuming knowledge and drained it dry. To this they made the slaves in a way "empty", they had no knowledge of anything that was the past all they knew was what was the past can no longer be the future because it only leads to upsetting the white man which in return means upsetting my neutral state. This makes that statement "when you are conceptualized as empty you fill yourself up with whatever is around you, whatever you think will make you whole," become very real. They were conceptualized as empty which means all they could fill themselves with was what was around them whether it was knowledge, hatred for one another, the new culture to which they were being introduced to, or just the shear fact that they were inferior to that of the white man, this mindset was to take place. And as a young African-American you never really think about the mindset change that occurred during that time period because we never had to experience that change. We have always known what we have been told by our grandparents and parents and through history class and documentaries and all these other things but we never truly experienced that change in a mindset so we never fully understood that concept, or at least I know I did not and still do not. But the one thing that I do understand is that the mindset that is always shared with my generation about the suffering and the change and everything else that was said could not have been fully correct otherwise the next statement which Dr. Beatty made would not be put into perspective or otherwise a factor in the lecture he gave us. The statement, "it is imperative to re-write the history of the Americas emphasizing the African presence," has a whole new meaning when it is broken down. Lets start from the beginning. "it is imperative that we re-write history" now if the mindset was changed from the proud African to the broken African slave like every textbook makes it out to be then why is re-writing the history a necessity? The next part, "of the Americans emphasizing the African presence," now I am no genius or world wide known scholar or anything but I am sure that when they are talking about the African presence they are not talking about the fact that Africans were here and made a change for the better because the white man could not do it on their own and that is why they went looking for someone else that could do the job. I could be completely ignorant to the fact and that could be what they are speaking of but I highly doubt it. So if this mindset that we are always told of that was so broken and destroyed then how is it that we are supposed to re-write the history of their presence being here? How could this broken mindset have changed what we have already been taught? So in other words, basically the mindset we were told they had was not the true mindset. It wasn't as broken and forgotten as they made it out to be but it was strong, intelligent and determined. It was strong enough that it knew it could not be broken, it was intelligent enough to know that it needed to hide what it was and pretend it was just what the white man wanted and it was determined enough to never forget where it came from and to know that it was never going to forget it. So why isn't this side of the African mindset ever talked about or even speculated about within the history books we are forced to learn from? The reason being the African mindset is still in place we are strong, intelligent, and determined enough to let the white man think he has won and broken the mind but in all actuality it's their mindset that has been broken and formed to fit the way we see things.
With the Cultural meaning-making aspect of the lecture it ties in everything that was previously mentioned. The presence of the African mind has never been forgotten it was only reborn into the ways of the country. Such as with Language, there are distinctive African speech communities such as the pre-verbal aspect markers, no copula verb to link subject noun and adjective, non-inversion of subject and auxiliary in questions that was specified by Dr. Beatty's powerpoint. Or with the dancing and even within music and how it has features of antiphony, group nature, pervasive functionality, improvisational character, strong relationship in performance to dance and bodily movements and expression, that is reflected in every aspect of "American" dance and music and yet its roots are actually of african descent. This was also specified by Dr.Beatty's powerpoint. The African presence was never forgotten here it was transformed into a new body to take and morph the America's into what it has become.
Even continuing with the Social Structure aspect of his lecture there is even evidence of the African presence in the creation and modeling of family patterns and political and social structures.The roles, traditions and rituals, that are experienced such as a baptism has an African influence with the water baptisms, or speaking in tongues, possession, or even the funerary rites all have an African influence. The prominent role of mother, is one of a king, chief, minister, sage, and where the elders, ancestors, priests, diviners, blacksmiths and many others have a hidden background of African decent. All this was pointed out by Dr.Beatty's powerpoint. And even when it comes to being a soldier or a laborer or a personal servant or anything along those lines it once again goes back to the African influence that it has had on this country. It goes all the way back to the slave times when they were forced into these positions and now they are no longer jobs of the low class or jobs that people should be ashamed of having but now they stand with honor and have meaning and little do they know that it came with the influence that Africans made when holding these jobs, they made them jobs worth having. Going back to what I said about the African mindset being strong enough to transform or even let the white man believe he broke the African mind, the African mindset was strong enough to trick the white man and now the world that he believed he has created and now lives in is the world that he once tried to destroy.
Breyona Colley

Dr. Mario Beatty Lecture

Posted by Gladys Creppy-Hetherington at Sunday, September 18, 2011 6:01:19 PM EDT

Dr. Mario Beatty’s lecture was quite confusing to me. I kind of felt like he was rushing so much and that I could not quite keep up with him at times. Some points did capture my interest, however; the whole idea that Africans were greatly affected by being forced away from their lives and put in such unfamiliar circumstances is something I completely agree with. I know that it was probably not easy on their psyche but I do admire that they were able to adapt and even prosper, to whatever extent, in such harsh and unfair conditions.

I was also very interested when Dr. Beatty discussed how American history does not contain the extreme impact that Africans have had on this nation. I agree with this because all you see or learn in school regarding Africans usually deals with the civil rights movement or slavery. Though these are important events, you don’t really hear about other impacts we’ve had on America such as bringing music and trades such as agricultural cultivation and carpentry that are essentials in the American world. There are so many other events that have taken place in America, that I feel African Americans have had an impact on that are just not mentioned in the “American” history.

In his lecture, Dr Beatty also discussed how Africans to this day, are still changing and adapting themselves to current social conditions just as our ancestors had when they were first brought to America. Dr. Beatty refers to this as an explanation of dismemberment. This can easily be seen in society by the way African Americans dress and comport themselves. We perm our hair so it can be straight like the white men’s, we follow styles that the white man has set, and we act like the white men and cringe away from anything that might somehow associate us with Africa. This is very disappointing to me because when I look around at our race, I see so much wasted potential that could be used to better our entire race. And how we could learn so much from our pass and how we went about life in Africa before it was completely ripped from our hands.

Self governance is also something I truly believe that the African American race should truly take into mind. I believe that we need to break free from the people that have oppressed us for so long in order to regain control of our lives. That is the only way that we would be able to break the boundaries that have been set by our oppressors so in the end, we can achieve the true greatness that we were meant to fulfill.