I traveled to Africa as a student in 1998, and 1997. As an over seas student I learned alot then any book can assure; however the one experience that I will sher is that I instantly felt a connection and that was a connection I knew was there.
Many of the experiences were very natural to me aand I felt very relaxed with the Senegalese.
In fact ther mere fact that I was Haitian allowed me to connect to my ancestors and my long lost cultural connection.
Africa is a beautiful continent.
The people are beautiful and their cultur is, like any other culture has interesting dynamics that correlate to my own. In fact there were four other students from the the Caribbean who felt the same as did I. The architecture( post colonial) wer identical of many French caribbean island.
However the connections I related to were recognizably colonial, and African.
Such as the food, the music and social relationship between parent child and grandparents and extended family members.
The post colonial identifications consisted of the mixture of French and African languages that make up Kreyol.
I will dis associate myself from my African heritage.
It would be insulting, disrespectful and rude. And for the record I can name Great, Great Great Grand parents who lived in Haiti byway of Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
I never implied that African Americans have the same experience in life. However they have a shared history that they cannot deny no matter how marginilized their communities maybe.
For example I once lived in a marginilized Black community where a significant amount of the black people were economically inndependent and working.
While a significant number of the people in the community were living on one salary incomes.
I know this because I grew up there and I love visiting my old neighborhood in East Flatbush, Brooklyn; and I would nver ever deny where I spent a significant amount of my Caribbean American experience, in East Flatbush with my very, very Haitian mother and extended Haitian neighbors.
So not all African American in the United States share the same experience, but I do stand by my assessment that Americans in the United States have shared history;whether black or white.
Take care and keep the intellectual stimulation on HIGH !
Happy Haitian Flag Day
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