ISBN:
978-1-78744-720-2 (electronic bk.)
,
1-78744-720-0 (electronic bk.)
,
978-1-58046-984-5 (ISBN der Printausgabe)
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (XV, 270 Seiten)
Series Statement:
Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora 88
Keywords:
Afrika Westafrika
;
Maske
;
Karneval
;
Tradition
;
Brauch
;
Diaspora
Abstract:
In recent decades, there has been an explosion of scholarly interest in African-styled traditions and the influence of these traditions upon the African diaspora. In this important new analysis, author Raphael Njoku explores the transnational connections between masquerade narratives and memory over the past four centuries to show how enslaved Africans became culture carriers of inherited African traditions. In doing so, he questions the scholarly predisposition toward ethnicization of African cultural artifacts in the Americas. As Njoku's research shows, the practices reenacted by the Igbo and Bight of Biafra modelers in the Americas were not exact replicas of the African prototypes. Cultural modeling is dynamic, and the inheritors of West African traditions often adapted their customs to their circumstances--altering and transforming the meaning and purpose of the customs they initially represented.With the Bantu migrations serving as a catalyst for ethnic mixing and change prior to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, African-themed cultural activities in the New World became dilutions of practices from several ethnic African and European nations. African cultures were already experiencing changes through Bantuization; in this well-researched and engagingly written scholarly work, the author explores the extension of this process beyond the Africancontinent.
Description / Table of Contents:
Introduction -- On Origins of Masking: History, Memory, and Ritual Observances -- Aspects of Society and Culture in the Biafra Hinterland -- Bantu Migrations and Cultural Transnationalism in the Ancient Global Age, c. 2500 BCE-1400 CE -- Bight of Biafra, Slavery, and Diasporic Africa in the Modern Global Age, 1400-1800 -- Igbo Masquerade Dances in the African Diasporas:Symbols and Meanings -- Unmasking the Masquerade: Counterideologies and Contemporary Practices -- Idioms of Religion, Music, Dance, and African Art Forms -- Memory and Masquerade Narratives: The Art of Remembering.
