Black Americans- What do you think of Africa?

Just want to hear from you guys!

[GeographyNow]

Last week I met with Haitian-American Geograpeep Dan in Togo who was on a west Africa trip with his mom. It kind of made me think of this question. If you are Black and from the Americas (Whether USA, Canada. Caribbean or Latin-America) What is your perception of "Africa?" Would love to hear from you guys

[siggydegal]

I’m second generation Somali American so I'm only speaking as an observer not from a Black American/ADOS perspective. My observation of my black American friends and black Americans in general is that while some of them want to visit Africa to see where their ancestors originate from, most black Americans view themselves as simply American and rightfully so. At the end of the day they built this country, fought for this country, and contributed to the culture and history of the US. Plus it would be kinda hard for them to fully reconnect with their African roots since unfortunately most black americans don’t know what tribe/ethnic group they actually descend from. I’m only one generation removed from Somalia and it was process to reconnect, so I can only imagine being 400 years removed from Africa and trying to reconnect. Lastly, Black Americans are their own ethnic group because they have their own culture, traditions, food, music, dialect etc so I think because of that there’s not this sense of urgency for most of them to connect with Africa. Again just my observation, i’m curious to hear from black americans on this topic :) Barbs your next question should be if white americans feel the need to connect to Europe lol 😆

[Steelairship]

I don't feel any need to reconnect in particular, but I would love to travel to African countries to experience different cultures.

[Tyleya]

I am ADOS. I like to say I am JB…Just Black. I want to know about Africa. I want to visit. Back in the 90’s Black Americans were given the false narrative that all of Africa is poor and hungry. A lot of us are learning that, that isn’t true. So I would love to visit all of Africa.

[Rottilargo]

It’s more of a mourning feeling to be honest, especially as Africa gets richer & more politically stable & the stigma of extreme poverty fades what’s left is a reverence for the culture (that frankly can shade into over romanticizing it sometimes) and a desire to reconnect, and to visit & to experience the cultures. But there’s always a lingering sadness about having to approach people that should be family as strangers and having to approach cultures & foods & governments that we should be intimately familiar with as curious, clueless foreigners. I’ve never visited but I want to someday, there’s still so much joy to find even amidst mourning

[jordandomingue]

I’ve visited 8 countries in Africa, mostly west and east Africa. The issue is that we have no accurate way to actually connect to specific countries or groups of our ancestors. My time in Cameroon was especially enlightening. I spent over a year and half there. There seems to be an uneasy anxiety in how Africans interact with African Americans. This brings on a interesting dynamic of African Americans being disconnected from America and Africa. Socially, African Americans have far more cultural ties to Americans within their region regardless of race.

[pistonjab]

Love that your asking questions like this, the perfect amount of sensitivity and boldness, would love to see more of this.

[introspectiveamateursalser]

I feel like Africa is misrepresented in the media and we only talk about the bad aspects of its history. I want to visit Africa for myself, particularly West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana) and Egypt.

[RatedRJerichoFan]

Well I've been to Africa before. And at one point I felt I needed to reconnect with "my roots" but nowadays I can definitely respect African culture customs and everything but I feel for me as a Black American we're just too culturally disconnected at this point, it be one thing if my parents were from Africa but I have no family there and everything I know is here in the Americas, so at this point my "roots" are in America. Even when I went there I was still viewed as an outsider not as a "fellow African"

[Saivignon.baby]

I’m Black American (from the US) and this is a very sensitive topic. There has been a historic urge to reconnect with Africa and all of the traditions in west Africa. This is slowly changing to a more rooted identity in being Black American (from the US) as a unique ethnicity. There is a current surge in BA pride and the culture that we independently cultivated during the past 400 years in the US. More and more people have been using the African American Heritage flag (not the Pan-African flag) as well. IMO we are the same race and have similar origins but we are different ethnicities and different peoples. I would love to learn more about west African traditions but as west African traditions and not as my own traditions that may have been lost.

[maahes]

I'm from Jamaica in our culture we honor Africa, one day I will visit the continent, I wanna visit multiple countries.

[jnegative]

No, I wouldn’t say there is an urge to connect with my African roots. I like their food and culture, but I am American through and through and I love my country.

[kingjames]

As a black American who is a historian, I’ve always wanted to visit Africa. Not sure if it’s the need to connect but it’s on my bucket list. Proud Black American

[ZXNovaBoom]

I have a desire to connect with all of my ancestry. While I may be primarily of West/Central African descent, I also have some Irish-Celtic blood in my veins too. It's not really anything complicated. I just wanna know more about my lineage.

[KLady]

I'm intrigued by Africa, yet I feel so disconnected as I don't know exactly where I come from, even in my disconnection, my desire to connect is so strong, especially if I could know from where I originate....there is a longing to know, a longing to connect....

[zacharymccann]

As an African American, I'd definitely love to visit various regions all over Africa, I find the continent very unique and interesting. I don't have any personal or cultural connection, nevertheless I'd love to visit and spend some time there.

[blackblack]

I'd love to go to Africa, personally. I'd love to immerse myself in a country somewhere, I've eaten foods from around Africa and have always been interested.

Though, as a Black American, the responses you'll find are going to be mixed. You might see a lot of people say they want to go and 'reconnect with their ancestors' or something like that, but a lot of people who say that are doing it cause it's a trend right now. There's also a lot of black people who want NOTHING to do with Africa. So, from an inside looks, it's 50/50. Everyone's reasoning on the subject will vary too.

I've always been interested in learning other black peoples' responses to the subject of Africa, from all over the diaspora. It's interesting.

[healheartandmind]

Africa is my mother land, my roots. I got to live in Nigeria and get to know my roots and my extended family/relatives. I feel it's important to connect with our roots. It's a wonderful and humbling experience 💖

[stutterstudios]

My grandma 👵🏾 always says: if they wanted us, they wouldn’t have sold us to America.

America is home, Africa feels like extended family you hear about but don’t know that well.

[donovanlocust]

I've always wanted to go to Africa. It's a really interesting continent and there's so much I want to learn about it.