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Global Africa: Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies

Abstract

Due to the generational distance between contemporary African Americans and the earliest generations of enslaved Africans, the deep cultural connection between these two groups has not been sufficiently explored. Moreover, much of the existing literature on African culture in the Americas primarily focuses on retentions related to religion, music, food, and language, often missing other critical aspects of cultural continuity within the African diaspora, such as African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Niger-Congo linguistic ties, naming practices, and African epistemologies. This exclusion limits our understanding of how the historical movement of Africans and the persistence of African cultural legacies, have shaped African American identity. This paper argues that a profound cultural link exists between African heritage and the culture of enslaved Africans. It will also draw some examples of escaped enslaved people who fled to New France (present-day Northern Canada), illustrating how African traditions persisted, adapted, and influenced the cultural practices of African American descendants. Through an examination of shared cultural elements—particularly in language, African ways of knowing, folklore, and spirituality—this study emphasizes the enduring cultural ties between Africa and its diaspora in the Americas.**

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