Native African Arts and Cultures in the New World; A Case Study of African Retentions in the United States of America

Abstract

Despite the different languages, and cultures in Africa, there is commonality in religious artistic and musical traditions. Did the native Africans sold into slavery retain any of the traditions in the "New World" in general and in the United States of America in particular? There is considerable retention in the Latin American countries, because the slaves had many more rights in South America than in the United States. Consequently, the African slaves in the United States of America gradually lost contact with his past. However, there are certain church rituals and some aspects of the black American music which have been identified as cultural carry-overs in the United States.