What Africa Has Given America
This reading prompted a lot of thought and perspective into the transatlantic slave trade. Particularly the migration of slaves into the Carolinas and Virginia. My group was assigned to discuss language in its relativity to “what africa has given America”. If you were to answer the question directly, you could say everything. We have given culture, language, music, clothes, and much more.
Language in particular, we take a look into the assimilation of the Bantu people as they were brought over into the Carolina’s. As we dive deeper, we uncover the hidden truths that really aren’t so hidden. In addition, the Mande and Wolof tribe-which had the most predominant presence during the 1700s (most found in the upper Guinea coast). It was the primary language-prior to the entry of the Bantu people in 1703. The Wolof dialect was the movement of its time as it inspired the black American dialect, as fast as terms that could commonly be know as “slang” today.
Examples of such:
“Okay” or “ok”- wolof: waw kay (all correct)
“Dig” or “dig this”- wolof: dega (look here/understand)
“Guys/fellows)- wolof: gay (persons)
Other Africanisms would be “uh huh” meaning yes or “uh uh” meaning no- which are common phrases around the world but not as frequent as America and Africa.
Below is a picture of the modern Bantu tribe
Your entry jogged a thought. I watched a video on Instagram that said Black lingo and White lingo are the inverse of each other. For example “You’ve got the wrong one buddy”(white) and “You picked the right person today”(black). It’s really funny how the world goes around. I didn’t know basic parts of the things I say have African origin as we’re always taught the English language is Latin originated. I always thought African culture to be quite beautiful and the image was a perfect highlight to your piece.
Since slave weren't considered humans, Wolof being included in today's English is interesting to me. I wonder if it was picked up in English because of them mocking slaves or if slaves just had that big of an impact on their slave masters.
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