This essay will discuss the importance of dance in African culture. Africans were forced to change many aspects of their culture when they were bought to America. Some aspects of African culture withstood European influence longer than others. Weaker cultural traits such as language did not last very long, but stronger ones such as music and dance withstood European influence. Some slaveholders would force their slaves to assimilate completely into European society leaving them none of their original culture unless they practiced it in secret. Other slaveholders would allow their slaves more freedom to practice their culture as they pleased believing that this would allow the slaves to work harder for them and give them less reason to run away.
"Afrocentricity, the Adae Festival of the Akan, African American Festivals, and Intergenerational Communication" written by Yaw Owusu-Frempong discusses the importance of African Festivals and dance to the African culture and heritage. Owusu-Frempong discusses how preservation of cultural heritage can be transmitted between generations through dance and other festival activities. Since language was ever-changing cultural preservation could be done through dance and other forms of body communication. Esiaba Irobi argues in "What They Came With: Carnival and the Persistence of African Performance Aesthetics in the Diaspora" that “even after most African peoples lost their languages because of seasoning in the New World, phrases and fragments of their dances remained and survived as choreographic and phenomenological vocabularies of their original identity and cultural history” (Irobi, 899). Dance was a surviving force that can even be seen in today’s American culture.
In "Batuque: African Drumming and Dance Between Repression and Concession, Bahia, 1808-1855" by Joao Jose Reis, the author describes how dance was a form of cultural expression. It was seen as a “healthy distraction” for the slaves from their labors. Slaveholders on the other hand may have viewed it as “a rehearsal for rebellion” (Reis, 202). Whether it be a rebellious act or just a distraction from the slave’s life of servitude, dance was very important to the African people. Many slaveholders would even allow their slaves to leave the home or plantation in order to get together and dance. In "A Window on Slave Culture: Dances at Congo Square in New Orleans, 1800-1862" the author Gary A. Donaldson discusses the dances that the slaves were allowed to attend on Sundays during the time period. Slave owners would allow their slaves some freedom on Sundays to do as they pleased and many gathered together to dance.
Another article that discusses the importance of dance in African culture is Mary Arnold Twining’s "Movement and Dance on the Sea Islands." Twining describes how children are taught to dance before anything else and how dance is a part of daily life. Dance was a very important part of African culture. It was used for celebrations, rites of passage, births, and even war. Dance was used for all different sorts of life events for individuals and for communities. It was seen as a form of communication even after African language had all but disappeared from the slaves. Dance was very important to Africans and African slaves.
