A
YEAR 2016-2017
CENTRE NUMBER:
First of all,the researcher would like to offer his eternal thanks to the Almightty God who blessed him with the perservarance
And the spirit of hard work to complete this research project.He is also using this great opportunity to express gratitude to
Every one which assisted in getting this project done.The researcher is thankful for their guidance and construction of
Criticism as this is what shaped the topic of research to what it has became and for that the researcher is truly grea
INTRODUCTION
Research topic:How did the different type of enslaved Africans maintain their traditional culture on a typical 18th century plantation
Enslavery was an important period in the bristish west indies in the 18th century.It was comprised of
various sectors aimed at one goal.which was to make a profit no matter what followed through..
Enslavement became common when the cash crop of coffeee,cotton,ect.. began to decline in demands
due to the other suppliers in the east which caused a change in cash crop to suger cane, that
required a large labour force that was very cheap so the british followed the portugesse to import
west Africans , which increase in population over time out numbering the white settlers.This caused the white settles to pass laws
retricting the enslave from certain privilllages.which were enforce due to the planter being the owner and being superior to the
enslaved people,forcing the en slaved to drop their original african cultural forms for british culture.and these system of laws were
abused due to lock of care for the enslave in the 18th century.But the enslaved would simply resist
because man would stick to their cutlure and fight to find some loop hold to perform such culture
forms .the whites made a code that stated clearly that all enslaved were under the supreme rules of GOD followed by the king master
and his household and that enslavement was right because it was in the bible.
Rationale- This research will discuss the variuos ways in which the West Africans managed to keep the link between their culture and
Objectives-
Data collection- This research used primary and secondary sources. The inclusion of primary sources will give the research the first
Handdetail needed to prove the statement in question correct. Secondary sources such as information form text –
Data presentation – The data will be presented in the from of a research project utilizing journal extracts,
The Africans came from a society with rich culture to a dull British Caribbean. They had to recreate Africa in their new homeland to
keep their culture forms alive, while as the property of the British plantation.(footnote)African culture forms are the basic everyday
activities of our ancestors that they brought with them from Africa to keep their heritage alive as well as to survive the harsh realities
disregarded the prohibitions against their culture, which help the West Africans to retain some aspects of their culture forms, practices
and beliefs(page 21).this caused the planter to make life on the plantation extremely hard but laws were passed which allowed to the
enslaved to practice on British holidays. Culture forms practiced were: music and dance, language, dress, medicine and food.
They even did this in the Christmas and crop over season they performed the 'john canoe' parade using elaborate headdress and
mask, to show the relationship between the spirit world and social living, the whites didn't understand this and it was permitted. The
Kumina dance and music was used for ancestral worship ,awakes and at funeral(page 43).The enslaved sang to ease the burden of hard
labour. With African music came the instruments such as: drums, rattles, banjos, moth violin, flutes, tambourine and xylophone which
were made out of the environment. Laws were past that the enslaved couldn't use drums has the white settlers found out they were
The Africans believed in a creator but they also believed in many spirits this worshipping of spirit was kept alive through the Kumina
And brightly decorated their music. Myalism was practiced on most estates, the obeah man promised the protection this practice was
done secretly. Upon the arrival of the new enslaved were seasoned and encouraged by the roman catholic to baptized and get married
after a year at the permission of the planter and the two would have to live on the same plantation, this caused a fusion of African and
On the plantation medicine took the format of herbs to cure illnesses these talents of using herbs as medicine came from the Myal-
man or woman which the white settler was afraid of due to them having position of poison so they band myalism but then hide in
bushes at the far end of the plantation were he/she practices and would be visited
On market days. Has new enslaved Africans arrived they were given the name of the plantation being worked on,they had to acquire
the language of their fellows .It would not always be possible to speak the several African languages, For the plantation would be a
found number of several tribes: Eboes, Ashanti, Yoruba, etc. Has must be remembered that no tribe had a common language. The
planter avoided having too much of one tribe on a plantation, has it could cause them to unite and plot. This caused the merge of
African and English language forming a creole or pig language this was learnt by the telling of stories and fables which were passed
the enslaved were mainly interested in ground provisions. This was due to the fact that they were given a garden as law
statede This garden was used to grow ground provisions, pig and fouls These were used to provide sufficient food for survival
and to make Food from culture. Due to the insufficient supply of rotten food in small proportions that the planter would buy
from white settler that was unfit, for the enslaved. Some enslaved would even sell their food at the market to earn money that
would eventually buy their freedom at the cost of the planter. For field worker clothes were bought from the white settle which
were not needed by them but skilled and domestic enslaved wore better clothes has they were mostly around people of high
society and class .when given material by the planter to make working clothes they would often have left over material which
was used for making tradition dresses .children up to the age of 12 went about the plantation naked.
CONCLUSION
IT is established that the enslaved Africans did retain aspects of their culture on the planter.through the evidence provided by the
various sources the aspects of music,dance,medicine,dress,language and religion were some of the African
Culture forms that survived on the British Caribbean plantation during 1800s.The need to have an identity and storng determination
To continue to practice their culture were contributing factors as to why the enslaved Africans wanted to retain their culture.Though
they were opposed,the enslaved Africans resisted the attempts of the planter to weaken the practice their culture through secret
worship and use of the British holidays to express themselves through dance and songs.The enslaved Africans proved to the whites
that they would never have been able to fully deculturalize them and in some aspects they evolved or reconstructed their culture in