Author’s Response Letter
Author: __________________
Please write a reflective and well-ordered letter or email to me addressing the
following questions (Please note that your response needs to be in complete
sentences and logically organized paragraphs. It is in the form of a letter; think of
it as such. You do not need to answer the questions one by one.):
1. What process did you follow for composing this paper?
2. What aspect of the paper was most difficult for you, and what did you
work the longest to improve?
3. What comments, if any, from previous papers did you use in writing
and revising this paper?
4. Of the comments from your workshop partners, which were most
helpful to you?
5. What do you feel is most successful about your paper?
6. What would you like for me to pay particular attention to in your
paper—either something you are particularly proud of or happy with
or something that you are unsure of or have questions about?
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The African American and the African cultures
African American is a term that was coined to refer to the people who are American
citizens as the result of the transatlantic slave trade rather than. Even though the African
Americans originated from Africa, there exist questions about whether or not their cultures are
similar to those of the African people. As a matter of fact, even though the people are similar in
completion and perhaps other aspects, the ways of life are not similar. In fact, in the recent times,
African Americans have increasingly expressed resentment of the term African American as an
identity because of the profound differences between their culture and the African cultures.
Therefore, the essay aims at comparing and contrasting the cultures of the Africans and the
African Americans. In the first part of the paper, the essay will focus on the similarities between
the Africans and the African American counterparts. Then, the paper will discuss the differences
between the two cultures.
The similarities in the African and the African American cultures are evident in several
areas of their cultures. One of the most evident aspects that the African Americans have retained
is the love for music. Music is a very important part of the African cultures. Africans have had
folk songs that have been since long ago, and when the African Americans moved to the United
States of America, they brought with them the musical styles that have evolved to the various
popular styles of music that are enjoyed the world over (Sudarkasa 92). Even though the styles of
music performed by the African Americans may have been heavily influenced by their
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interaction with the white Americans during the period of slavery, the use of rhythm and rhyme
as well as styles such as clapping hands while singing in a styled manner is common in the
African American music. Due to the love for music, the African Americans hold music awards
such as Black Entertainment Television (BET) to celebrate their talents. The music is also
evident in religious activities such as churches that are influenced by music and other forms of
art.
Another common feature in the cultures of the African American and African culture is
the use of artistic features of speech and the integration of art in their everyday lives. For
instance, in the churches services in African cultures, preachers talk in characteristic intonations
depending on the messages and commonly repeating the verses of the Bible (Kitwana 34). In
African American churches, preachers similarly include artistic mechanisms to communicate
with the masses making the summons interesting. Children in the African American cultures also
include art such as songs and poems in their games to make their lives interesting. Also, many
African Americans, just like Africans, are either Christians or Muslims. Both of the religions
were brought to the people of the two cultures by either Europeans or Arabs while still in Africa.
Nevertheless, they include some elements of the different cultures in their practice of the
religions that were foreign to them for instance, African Americans, just like Africans, clap their
hands while in churches in rhythmical ways.
The people from the two cultures significantly differ in several undeniable ways. One of
them is that for the African Americans, they are identified as a single block of people who share
almost the same culture as the result of the slavery and the majority of them coming from the
western part of African. Most of them descended from the Mandingo community. Africans, on
the other hand, are people sharing the same complexion, but with varied cultures from all over
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Africa (Kitwana 34). For instance, while most of the people from the western part of Africa like
Nigeria may speak in a common tongue, like those from the eastern African countries like Kenya
and Tanzania speak different tongues and therefore cannot understand each other. The African
Americans on the other hand majority speak English and Spanish as their fast languages. Also,
people of the varied African cultures differentiate themselves based on their different ethnic
backgrounds. For instance, a Swahili person from Tanzania or Kenya can identify themselves
based on their tribe while another from Nigeria may identify themselves using their particular
West African tribe. The African Americans cumulatively identify themselves as black people
and share the same background of a history based on slavery and the suffering that they
experienced for several centuries. As a matter of fact, according to Na'im Akbar, a professor of
psychology and Florida state university, slavery is a legacy that will remain to tear the Africans
and the African Americans apart (Muhammad). The professor thinks that black Americans still
retain bitter filling against Africans for selling them to the slavery. The ideas of the professor
were echoed by the poet James Tokley who thinks that the Africans cannot identify with their
American counterparts because they do not understand the suffering of slavery (Muhammad).
The family units of the two cultures are also different in several ways. While the African
families are more patrilineal, the African American families show more appreciation for the
mothers, hence more matrilineal. In fact, according to Cheikh T. Sylla, a Senegalese who is the
CEO of an architecture firm in Tampa, marriages between Africans and African American
women do not last because the American women do not accept men as the sole heads of the
families as is the case of their African counterparts (Muhammad). The CEO admits that the only
reason his marriage with a black American woman still lasts is because he accepts her as she is.
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In summary, even though the African Americans descended from Africa and share the
same color as Africans, their cultures are different in several ways. It should be understood that
the African Americans have not retained all the aspects of the African roots, but just adapted
them in their cultures that they built in the USA. Therefore, the two cultures should never be
categories as one because they are divergent from each other.
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Works Cited
Kitwana, Bakari. The hip hop generation: Young Blacks and the crisis in African American
culture. Basic Books, 2002. Print.
Muhammad, Shahida. "I'm Not African American... I'm Black." Ebony. Ebiny Magazine, 2012.
Web.
Sudarkasa, Niara. "Interpreting the African heritage in Afro-American family organization."
Families in the US: Kinship and domestic politics (1998): 91-104. Print.
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