Clothing
Starting with clothing the majority of black people whether they are African, African American, Afro Caribbean etc are often seen wearing European inspired clothing. With that being said, African people who's ancestors were not slaves obviously do have their African culture and therefore are often seen wearing their cultural attire at special events such as weddings, christenings, funerals etc. Now its obvious as to why African Americans and Afro Caribbeans are not really seen wearing African attire due to slavery where our ancestors were forbidden from wearing such garments. Also many of us find it weird to wear African clothes because we are so used to and comfortable with following the European trend of fashion. Once upon a time I would never of even contemplated wearing any form of African clothing just because of pure ignorance, however as I have started to appreciate my origins a lot more, I would definitely wear African clothing such as a Dashiki.
Food
Secondly food is next on the list, now on this particular category I can only speak for African Caribbeans as that is what I self identify as. I know that a lot of African Caribbean food has African influences, foods such as okra, yams, plantain, rice, ackee, callaloo etc. Africans and African Caribbeans both share a fondness for hot and spicy food. There are big differences however in the way our foods are prepared, an example could be that Africans tend to use palm oil in their cooking where as African Caribbeans do not. What I found weird was why African Caribbeans eat foods such as ox tail, curried goat, pig feet and tail whilst Africans don't commonly consume these kind of dishes. From what I have read which kind of answers my question was that in slavery times, slaves were often fed the scraps from what the slave owner's did not want. I was very proud to find that two dishes called "cou-cou and conkies" that are consumed in Barbados where my dad is from have possible origins in Ghana where a significant amount of slaves taken to Barbados descend from and are related to "fufu and kenkey" respectively. I have tried jollof rice which I really enjoy, and also plan to go to some Ghanaian and Nigerian restaurants to try dishes such as banku, fufu, egusi soup and others.
Language
Thirdly language, this alongside names which will be mentioned after annoys me the most out of the 5 topics being discussed. For African Caribbeans we have no real African language to speak due to our ancestors not being allowed to pass down their tribal languages. What we have is patois which is basically broken English, French etc with some African influences. Being able to speak an African tribal language allows for one to be able to identify with his/her African heritage. When I here that some of my friends who have African parents but cannot speak their tribal language wherever it be Igbo, Twi or Yoruba etc it pains me because they know exactly what tribe they come from and therefore should be able to speak their tribal language. This annoys me also because for me I have no choice but to speak the colonial English that was forced upon my ancestors whereas you have people that can't speak their tribal language whilst their parents can. From doing some research about Barbados and St Lucia I know I more than likely descend from the Igbo, Fon, Akan and Yoruba ethnic groups and so my ancestors would of spoken these languages. A part of me feels a bit envious when I hear an African person speaking their tribal language because it reminds me of what was stolen from me but it has also inspired me to learn an African language and try to reclaim some lost African heritage, with the aim of going to Africa and learning a language that some of my ancestors may have spoken.
Names
As mentioned previously this is another key area that frustrates me because a name can tell many stories. Too me a name is precious as it indicates where someone comes from culturally. Close to all African Caribbeans have European first and last names due to the effects of slavery which means that it can give no clue as to what tribe a person may originate from. I'm educated enough to know that if I hear the name Boateng the person mentioned is most likely from Ghana and is Akan, Adewale most likely Nigerian and is Yoruba in particular. All over the globe a name can indicate a persons race, country and ethnicity. We as African diasporans are still mentally enslaved due to us still using the European names that were forced upon us many years ago. Our ancestors were not authorized to give us African names which would have been strongly against the wishes of the slave masters. Recently I have thought about dropping my European last name and possibly first name, I think and ask myself from time to time "Would my ancestors be proud of me for using a name that was forced on me and has nothing to do with them nor my race?" of course NOT. So with that being said I have thought about adopting an African name to help reclaim an African identity. Many African Caribbeans have already started doing this in honor of our ancestors. I admit when I younger that I used to laugh at African names for looking and sounding weird but as I have got older I have realized that an African name is a true black person's name and not a European one.
Religion
Lastly religion is another area that has affected black people as a whole, due colonialism where foreign religions such as Christianity and Islam were forced upon Africans and were used to justify slavery. During this process Africans were taught that they were backwards and needed saving and my adopting Christianity and Islam that they would be saved and that their traditional spiritual practices such as voodoo, orishas etc were promoting evil. This has recently made me less religious and very confused because even though I am a Christian I always think to myself that my ancestors were not originally Christians and that the only reason I am a Christian is because it was forced upon my ancestors. But in the Caribbean islands many African spiritual practices are alive such as Obeah, Candomble, Santeria, Orisha, Kele, Shango and others which are fused with Christianity.
Going back to the title of this page, is it fair to say that African Caribbeans are just African racially (genetics) because the majority of us do not speak any African language, wear African clothes, consume African foods, practice and African spiritual traditions nor possess any African names? Is this why some continental Africans see us as culture less people who suffer from an identity crisis? Many people would find what I have written as offensive but in harsh reality it is the truth. We are still practicing forms of self hatred without even realizing it.
