History - preview

I hope this short video can help you learn more about African American history, especially the history and stories during civil rights. 

 Before I read some articles about the African American history, the image of their history for me is only their tragedy life during the slavering time. However, after gaining some history background, I find the civil rights movement also plays a vital role in building African Americans' identities. 

During my reading I find the talents music and speech gifts of African Americans emerge from the ancient time of Africa and developed dramatically during the modern times in America. 

Although I start thinking the connections between African American history and their oral traditions, I find it is hard to have any process. Thus I start searching article related to this field of study.Occasionally I read an interesting article: “Word! The African American Oral tradition and its Rhetorical Impact on American Popular Culture.” This article is written by Janice Hamlet, an associate professor of Communication at Northern Illinois University who teaches rhetorical theory and criticism and culture and communication.

           Interestingly, the style of this article is different from other academic sources I found. It is an introduction article for her African American oral traditions courses to the secondary school teachers. In order to make the courses more attractive to the readers, Janice makes her article more reader-friendly and interesting than other academic articles. Janice utilizes her knowledge about African American history and her comprehension of popular culture to attract people's attention and raise their interests of African American oral traditions.

Although the key word “African American History” does not show up in the title of this article, the discussions about the relationships between oral traditions and African American history occupy the majority space of her article. She mentions that the oral tradition plays a critical role in African American culture.These dramatic impacts began with African s’ pre-slavery existence, highly developed during the slavery times, and it still has tremendous influences on African Americans’ current life.

 During the ancient times, spoken power is part of the Africans’ traditional beliefs. “All activities of men and all the movement in nature rest on the productive of the word”. Africans believed in “Nommo,” which represents the power of spoken words. For example, in traditional African American culture, the new born babies are treated like things until their father give them names and speak the names out. 

Lacking writing systems and other recording methods, the traditions and culture were mostly transmitted through oral methods like stories and songs. “They infused their storytelling with dramatic power that appealed to the emotions: it satisfied inner craving, cloaked a temporary release from the misery of chaotic experience”.

In the article “Talk that Talk: Storytelling and Analysis Rooted in African American Oral Tradition,” I also learn some other information about the of storytelling traditions in African American culture, which gives me a more integrate picture of African American history and culture. We will talk more about that article in my next blog "History – Storytelling."

 Nurtured in the traditional African environment, African American oral traditions were shaped during the slavery time. Africans were transported to America after a long journey. For the sake of better enslavement, slave owners separated them from their indigenous language community in order to avoid their communication with each other. Janice states that in order to communicate with Africans from other indigenous language community and get used to the new environment, these Africans created a new language which combined English with African. 

  Moreover, the special functions like “a desire for personal presentation, verbal artistry, and commentary on life circumstances” are the unique characteristic of African American English.  They use their new language to share their painful experiences and disclose their anger. As a result, this orality was rich in metaphor, allusion and imagery and prolific in the use of body language and nonverbal nuances; and these features can also be found in the way of current African Americans’ communication.

 The musical expression and the traditions of black church are the most significant reflections of “Nommo” in current African American people’s life. In a black church, the oral traditions not only reflect in the sermons of the African American preacher, but also the feedback of their audience, which is known as “call-and-response”.

I still remember when I listened to the worship of the pastor in that Black church during my civil rights trip, there were always someone responding to the pastor and kept saying “That’s right” or “Yeah.” At the beginning, I thought their behavior was really impolite and disrespectful. However, after a while, I found myself more involved into the whole worship, and had a feeling of being part of the whole process. After obtaining some knowledge of “call-and-respond” in African American oral traditions, I think maybe due to their “impolite” response, the whole worship tends to be more friendly and emotional. Now I understand that not only through their speeches, but also their responses, laughs or even frequent applause are parts of African American oral tradition.

Furthermore, the “Nommo” also roots in the hip-hop culture, particular in Rap music. The emergence of hip-hop culture is the cultural exchange and political situation of black alienation and disillusionment. The young generation of African American uses rap as a way to claim their own culture to express their willing of “creating their own representations instead of being represented by others”. 

After learning these interesting knowledge about African American history and culture. I believe that it is easy for you to figure out that the traditions of storytelling are critical in the whole language system of African Americans. 

In the next blog we will discuss more about the significant features of Amfrican American oral traditions - storytelling. 

Hamlet, J. D. (2011, Spring Vol.74, No.1). Word! The African American oral tradition and its rhetorical impact on American popular culture. Black History Bulletin, pp. 27-31.