CAAS Summary

CAAS 111 was a very interesting class that taught me not only about the way that Africans were uprooted from their homeland and taken to foreign nations, but how they brought their culture with them and infused into into the ways of life in these new places. The European colonialism that took place in Europe after the Berlin Conference was catastraphic for the Africans as the Europeans took over there political, social, economic, and cultural world. However, these people persisted throgh this tough time. Africans in Jamaica despite wanting to follow Garvey's back to africa mindset, have instituted a great culture of Rastafarianism which looks to Haile Salisse as their Messiah. Within the Americas, despite initial troubles in becoming assimiliated equally to the society, many Africans integrated through sports which send the trend for overall societal integration. This class provided a lot of information in an interesting and exciting way.

racial integration

Racial integration in sports is very  important. It allows people of different skin colors to have a common goal, in a championship, and allows them to work together and alongside each other to achieve this goal. While natural integration theoretically may be the best way for this process to begin, forced integration may be the only way for two different races to originally become mixed in sport. Once in the sport, players from both races can show equal aptitude for playing the sport and in essence show an equality that may not have otherwise been realized. Once the sporting attack has been completed, the hope is that the equality seen on the playing field will be remembered and held up in schools, on the streets, and in business also.

Robert Charles

Robert Charles was an African American living in New Orleans. After an altercation with some policemen, he shot two of them. After this, there mass riots in New Orleans while the witch hunt for Charles went underway. By the time Charles was found and killed, 28 people had been killed in the riots. Charles gained a lot of support from the black community, even after his death.

Ida B. Wells

Wells did not sit passively as blacks in American were being persecuted and suppressed. She became a writer for the Memphis Free press and launched a major anti-lynching campaign through the press. After the paper as destroyed, she moved to Chicago and continued anti-lynching crusade. In London she founded an anti-lynching committee in 1893.

Fugitive Slave Act

The fugitive slave act was passed in 1850 and allowed slaved owners to cross state lines to reclaim runaway slaves. This jeopardized the frights of free blacks. This was the foundation for many people moving to Liberia through the ACS like Samuel Williams.

Capoeira

Capoeira was a great way for Africans in Brazil to communicate with each other, and to keep part of their original culture alive. This self defense/martial arts/dance was a means of resistance for slaves in Brazil. The capoeira paradox is that it is seen as dangerous, yet occasionally useful.

ACS and Byden

I think that even though the American Colonization Society was set up by white people with the main purpose of preventing a revolt in the US, Byden was hugely in favor of it. Byden wanted all black people to return to Africa, as he is the "father of pan-africanism." While clearly not all of these people returned to their native country of Africa, the ACS enabled many to return to Africa (Liberia specifically).