African American Diaspora

From lecture, we learned that Maafa refers to a disaster synonymous to Holocaust that represented the Atlantic slave trade. This was the largest forced migration in history, bringing at least 10 million (alive) to the New World. The tragic nature of this business was displayed in the film "Amistad". The Africans were forced by being kidnapped then put on an overcrowded ship. They were fed very little and frequently contracted diseases. The vast number of slaves who did not make the journey shows how disastrous this Maafa was.

The lecture also spoke about how the Maafa was a social death. The slaves lost their social identity as well as customs and culture. Chapter 3 of the Painter textbook talks about how once in the New World, these slaves were faced with many new religions and languages. Furthermore, it states that "many cultural attributes-ideology, ethics, psychology, and health-emerged under the umbrella of religion." (Painter 47) It goes on to talk about how for a period of time slaves were encouraged to become Christians so that at one point they could be set free. Even though this was not upheld for very long, the tradition of practicing Christianity remained for many people. Since the slaves were alienated from their homeland, they were forced to adapt to the culture of the New World and form a different social identity replacing the one they lost.