Reading Response 11/10
Amiri Baraka, author of Blues People: Negro Music in White America discusses how music can
be used as a device to measure the cultural integration of Africans in North
America from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth century. This book shows the influence of African Americans and
their culture on American culture and history
and the effects that jazz and blues had on America on an
economic, musical, and social level. I enjoyed reading the
chapters from this book because I was able to learn more about African American
history and how music was an important outlet for them. I am not a fan of blues
music, but the history behind it was really interesting and remarkable. Baraka
states that even though slavery ruined many formal artistic traditions, African
American music symbolizes numerous African survivals. This African American
music represents an African approach to culture.
In the third chapter, African Slaves/American
Slaves: Their Music, Baraka views that music is able to
express and maintain a group’s identity. During slavery, Africans were
forbidden from singing their ritual songs because their owners feared a
rebellion. They
were forced into obedience and had to change their work songs and lyrics when
they were on the field (19). These conditions caused a change in their music. The music that was formed was now a mixture of their
original work songs and references to slave culture. The transformation of
their language became a mix of their own language and their European masters'
language. The outlook of slavery influenced the way African culture could be reconstructed
and evolved. For example, drums were forbidden by many slave owners because
they feared its power to be communicative amongst the slaves and lead to violence
or revolt. The end result being that the slaves used other objects to create
similar beats and tones to that of drums.
During the time of
slavery, slaves were not allowed to get an education. The main method of
education in the slave community was storytelling. Baraka states, “Another
important aspect of African music as the use of folk tales in song lyrics, riddles,
proverbs, etc., which, even when not accompanied by music, were the Africans
chief method of education, the way the wisdom of the elders was passed down to
the young” (28). African American music supports the
African viewpoint and records the historical experience of an oppressed people.
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