African Acculturation
...om their homeland. Africans experienced two shocking transitions. The “Barracon Phase” which occurred prior to the Africans journey across the Atlantic, and upon their arrival in the New World, African slaves underwent a second period of transition known as the “Seasoning Process.” These transition periods were a crucial time for Africans because at this point they realized that this was a completely different type of slavery. For those Africans who survived the Middle Passage into the New World impacted the development of a unique African American culture. People from many different places and speaking different languages were packed into the holds of ships. Despite the inhumane treatment of African slaves many were able to maintain some parts of their culture, particularly religious traditions and beliefs, oral traditions, music, and dance. Europeans attempted to suppress African culture in an effort to control slaves by making them dependent upon their white oppressors. Africans were isolated from their families, given new names. They were not allowed to speak their native language but were taught a “language of obedience,” and a new religion as well as belief system was imposed upon the African slaves (Lecture 09/05/02). However, this process was not accepted passively by many African slaves. As part of their survival process, Africans had to be able to reinterpret the culture of their new environment and accommodate their own culture to fit this oppressive environment that slavery created. “The similarities between many European and African cultural elements enabled the slave to engage in many traditional activities or to create a synthesis of European and African cultures” (Blassingame p.20). The similarities in cultures were advantageous to many African slaves. In religious worship Africans adapted old traditions to their new situation. For example, Christian forms were similar to African religious patterns, “Jehovah replaced the Creator, and Jesus, the Holy Ghost, and the Saints replaced the lesser gods” (Blassingame p.21). African slaves were a diverse group of ethnic backgrounds. Many spoke different languages, had different religious beliefs and values, and different social structures. “All the nations and people I has hitherto passed through, resembled our own in their manner, customs, and language; but I came at length to a country, the inhabitants of which differed from us...