At the end of June 2020, a video was released to an Instagram account owned by musicians Chole X Halle (a sister duo managed by Parkwood Entertainment). Chatter swarmed the internet of a possible leak. It was a trailer for “Black Is King” a passion project Beyoncé Knowles Carter had been working on for about a year. By June 28th Beyoncé officially posted the trailer to her Instagram account along with Disney+ who posted to Twitter, and the backlash from the African community began. Seventy seconds created a psychological divide between Black Americans and Africans. Seventy seconds was all it took for what Beyoncé intended to unify us, in our shared ancestry, to be criticized and judged as being the appropriation of African culture.
The response from some Africans were disappointing to many black Americans, however not completely surprising. Africans and Black Americans embody a genetic link and tie to Africa that should unify them both historically and psychologically, yet the need to identify with and assimilate into western society seems to be more rewarding for the current generation of Africans. Stating, “We are “normal” people who wear jeans and own iPhones.” “I’m tired of the way African countries are often portrayed in American screens.” “There is this constant joke that Africans wake up and see animals running around.”
The response from some Africans were disappointing to many black Americans, however not completely surprising. Africans and Black Americans embody a genetic link and tie to Africa that should unify them both historically and psychologically, yet the need to identify with and assimilate into western society seems to be more rewarding for the current generation of Africans. Stating, “We are “normal” people who wear jeans and own iPhones.” “I’m tired of the way African countries are often portrayed in American screens.” “There is this constant joke that Africans wake up and see animals running around.”
In a dissertation written by Adaobi Chiamaka Iheduru entitled Examining the Social Distance Between Africans and African Americans: The Role of Internalized Racism, Iheduru mentions that African Americans are resistant to identifying with their African ancestry based on messages internalized from a European dominated colonial experience that has been sustained by race-based intrapsychic processes. If that indeed is the case, why are African Americans being rejected from its African lineage? In the effort to connect to their roots, African Americans have been met with opposition from their African “brothers” and “sisters.” So, what should feel like a going home is instead met with a feeling of exclusion from the African Diaspora. The descendants of Africans in the United States have gone through the most horrific psychological destruction of their identity. Black Americans are more assimilated to white culture in terms of the way they see themselves and move through the social world. What African Americans know of their ancestry has been taught to them mainly through the eyes of their oppressors. None the less, Africans place the blame on Black Americans saying they are culturally watered down, yet at the same time distancing themselves for them. When Black Americans got excited to see black women hold the crown in all National Beauty Pageants in America, no matter their ethnicity, they were ridiculed and criticized for being attention seekers by Africans. Why is that?
The experience of slavery and colonialism has continued to have a negative impact on the self-identity of people of African descent which suggests a social economic inferiority in relation to the dominate western culture. I believe this has increased the need for Africans to be recognized as separate from Black Americans whose self-identity is strongly tied to American slavery and systematic racism. By showcasing and identifying with a more westernized image they reject their “blackness” and their connection to African Americans through their shared ancestry and history, projecting internalized racism created from years of colonialism and centuries of slavery. Africans do this in hopes of escaping the struggles, oppression and suffering that racism has caused for many black Americans.
This event has opened a conversation that must be had. Most Africans have no idea of the way in which they interacted with other tribes on the African continent pre colonialism. Many Africans have a strong sense of division from other tribes in Africa. Yet, its people were once called a people with no history because it was not written before colonialism. Their very nature, regarding how they interact with others in the Diaspora may not even be authentic to the nature in which their ancestors interacted with one another because of what was destroy through colonial rule. When one is moved from a position of thriving to one where they are competing with their neighboring tribe for resource, believe me, the dynamic changes, and the road leads to a state of survival. Conflict is without a doubt the byproduct of scarcity and lack, which is better known as poverty.
The experience of slavery and colonialism has continued to have a negative impact on the self-identity of people of African descent which suggests a social economic inferiority in relation to the dominate western culture. I believe this has increased the need for Africans to be recognized as separate from Black Americans whose self-identity is strongly tied to American slavery and systematic racism. By showcasing and identifying with a more westernized image they reject their “blackness” and their connection to African Americans through their shared ancestry and history, projecting internalized racism created from years of colonialism and centuries of slavery. Africans do this in hopes of escaping the struggles, oppression and suffering that racism has caused for many black Americans.
This event has opened a conversation that must be had. Most Africans have no idea of the way in which they interacted with other tribes on the African continent pre colonialism. Many Africans have a strong sense of division from other tribes in Africa. Yet, its people were once called a people with no history because it was not written before colonialism. Their very nature, regarding how they interact with others in the Diaspora may not even be authentic to the nature in which their ancestors interacted with one another because of what was destroy through colonial rule. When one is moved from a position of thriving to one where they are competing with their neighboring tribe for resource, believe me, the dynamic changes, and the road leads to a state of survival. Conflict is without a doubt the byproduct of scarcity and lack, which is better known as poverty.
How do we begin to bridge the gap in the African Diaspora? How do we heal the wounds of a people who have been ignored for far to long? Someone once said, change your expectations to appreciation because suffering comes from only thinking of yourself. With everything in the universe, there is always a delicate balance where we are all one. Individuals who are not apart of the Diaspora make claims of Africa never being united. Yet, I genuinely believe there was a reason to divide the land, which was to divide the people. How can others possibly know a history that the Diaspora itself knows not? It is time to come together and share those stories. It is time for history in the making.
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