Culture
Underlying the diversity among the peoples of African descent in the various countries of the Americas is a profound common link which is perhaps most evident in their expressive culture.
Confronted with alien environments and social structures that ran counter to their various ethnic and familial traditions, they used their traditional heritage to interpret and change their new world environments and social circumstances. These traditions continued to be the source of philosophical and aesthetic values. Africans maintained and/or adapted the elements of their African heritage to these conditions which enabled them to make sense of their lives. Dynamic cultures that are uniquely African-American have resulted from the interplay of these forces. They have left an indelible imprint on the Americas - defining the distinctiveness of African peoples here, while making a unique contribution to the definition of the Americas and Americans.
There is almost no popular American cultural form which has not been created, or at least influenced, by people of African ancestry. American music, dance, language, visual art, religion, festivals, cuisine and attitude are embedded with African elements. African cultural forms have given birth to jazz in the United States and the tango in Argentina; to Santeria in Cuba and Candomble in Uruguay; creole in Haiti and papiamento in Curacao; and carnivals from New Orleans and Jamaica to Brazil where the rhythms of merengue, calypso, samba, and guanguanco mix with the flavors of gumbo, feijoada, and rum.
Of course, this African base was not simply transferred across the Atlantic. Various factors, not the least of which is the particular socio-economic position in which the majority of people of African descent have found themselves, have contributed to the formation of group identities and to the establishment of spaces for creation and struggle.
People of African descent have created and maintained families and communities, fraternities and sisterhoods, as well as unions, religious, social and political organizations. All have been instrumental in fostering both the individual and collective good and nurturing the continuing development of African-American cultural forms.
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