|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chapter Reference: The Encounter; Colonial Crucible; Independence; Postcolonial Blues
Only in recent years have Latin American historians begun to include much African background. Africa is enormous and culturally complex, and accurate generalizations about it are hard to make. But, because African history intersects Latin American history mostly at one point—the slave trade—students can direct their attention to the major areas from which African slaves began their trans-Atlantic journeys. Earliest and probably most important, overall, was the West African coast, from Senegal to Nigeria. Next in order and importance came the western part of Central Africa, today Congo and Angola, where the Portuguese had extended their influence into the interior in alliance with African monarchs who had converted to Christianity. The last area to produce enslaved human cargos was Mozambique, which, like Angola, retains Portuguese as its national language today. Because of Portugal's central role in the slave trade, Portuguese archives have allowed historians the best look so far at the African background of Latin American history. Note that Spain did not have a large presence in the slave trade. Among African countries today, Spanish is spoken only in tiny Equatorial Guinea. Students focusing on African background should consider patterns of the slave trade to Latin America, how African social structures and customs were preserved in the New World, and how slave culture became the foundation for new religious practices, music and dance, a mixing of genes, and so on—all with an African heritage.
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- What role did Africans play in capturing slaves for trade with Europeans? How did slavery in Africa differ from slavery in the New World?
- What did slaves bring with them to the New World, and what new religious traditions, social structures, and blending of cultures (not to mention gene pools) emerged out of their contact with Indians, other slaves, and people of European descent in Latin America?
- In addition to race, where can African background be observed in Latin America today?
Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
** Andrews, George Reid. Afro-Latin America, 1800—2000. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2004.
Hot off the press, Andrews' history of the African diaspora in Latin America and of Latin Americans of African descent is well-written and should be a starting point for students interested in Latin America's African background.
Davidson, Basil. The African Slave Trade, rev. and enlg. ed. Boston: Little, Brown and
Company, 1980.
Davidson's account of the African slave trade is a readable introduction to the social organization of the main areas where trading occurred and to the impact of slave trading on Africa.
** ________. West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850. London: Longman,
1998.
Written for the nonspecialist, this book is helpful for understanding the African background of Latin America in the context of African history
** Klein, Herbert S. The Atlantic Slave Trade. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1999.
Klein's is one of the best surveys available on the slave trade, with several chapters that will serve students well as an introduction to Latin America's African background.
Sweet, James H. Recreating Africa: Culture, Kinship, and Religion in the African-
Portuguese World, 1441—1770. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Sweet's study is a scholarly treatment, though students will find it an interesting introduction to the connections between Africa and the Portuguese-speaking world.
Telles, Edward E. Race in Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004.
The first chapter of this monograph offers a concise overview of race in Brazilian history, beginning with African connections during the colonial period.
** Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1680, 2nd
ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Widely used as a text on the "Atlantic World," Thornton's study is a good introduction to the colonial connections between Africa and America.
Other Resources:
|
|
|
W. W. Norton | Credits | Site Feedback | Technical Support | Print This Page