Kongo Across the Waters

Robin Poynor and I embarked upon the Africa in Florida project several years ago (much longer than either of us would like to admit). Our conversations and research for Africa in Florida inspired Robin to develop an exhibition (and book) that continued to explore the 500 years of African presence in North America through an in-depth look at Kongo culture, which originated in central Africa.  Watch a video of Robin discussing how Africa in Florida led to this other exciting project.

Kongo Across the Waters is a collaboration between the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. The traveling exhibition originated at the Harn Museum and recently opened at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. It will travel to additional venues.

This project recognizes the longevity of the Kongo peoples and their well-documented history. While popular myths about the wildness of Africa were abundant in past centuries, leaving a residue even today, European powers recognized and admired the Kongo as a national entity.  However, Kongos were also among the earliest enslaved Africans to be brought to the Americas.  Their impact is apparent in archaeological excavations and African-American folk culture.  Conversations about the diaspora are further enriched within the exhibition due to the inclusion of several contemporary artists who mine Kongo history, religion, philosophy and iconography in their own art.

The Kongo Across the Waters website is full of great resources and the book is available from University Press of Florida.

Updates from Mexico

Sagrario Cruz-Carretero (Institute of Anthropology at University of Veracruz, Mexico) presents on Africa in Florida: Five Hundred Years of African Presence in the Sunshine State at Feria Internacional del Libro Universitario (FILU), Xalapa. 

The panel discussed the merits of the book, Africa in Florida, and what it means for Mexicans who are coming to terms with their own complex heritage, which includes historical linkages between Mexico and Florida.  Cruz-Carretero contributed Chapter 8, "From Florida to Veracruz: The Foundation of San Carlos Chachalacas" in which she writes about a community of free Blacks in the 18th century who migrated from northern Florida to Veracruz, Mexico. Her chapter demonstrates the complexity of racial categories at that time, which were further complicated by the various policies of several different governments.

A presentation about Africa in Florida in Feria Intercional del Libro Universitario (FILU), Xalapa; organized by of the University of Veracruz, Mexico.May 12, 2014.  

From right to left: Dr. Álvaro Alcántara (Historian specializing in people of African descent in Mexico and Latin America); Dr. Carlos Casas Mendoza (Anthropologist specializing in festivities and identities between ethnic groups in Mexico and Brazil), Sagrario Cruz Carretero (Anthropologist and historian specializing in people of African decent in Mexico) ; and Dr. Rafael Figueroa (Historian specializing in the popular music of Mexico and the Caribbean).

 See also:
http://www.uv.mx/noticias/2014/05/14/vivimos-en-una-sociedad-pigmentocratica-sagrario-cruz/

http://formato7.com/2014/05/13/se-realizo-un-analisis-de-los-grupos-afroamericanos-cruz/

SUNY Orange (Middletown, NY)

Florida oranges are great, but this time I was in New York...thanks to an invitation from Dr. Vincent Okock and SUNY Orange Global Initiative. Vincent Odock, Professor of Business and Economics, is from Nkim village in Cross River State, Nigeria--the same place where I've been doing research for over 20 years. I enjoyed sharing both ends of my research "Africa" and "Florida" with this audience and was extremely impressed with all the questions from the SUNY Orange crowd (must be all that good Vitamin C). For those who aren't familiar with the Cross River region in West Africa, take a look a Chapter 3 ("Cross the Water" including an interview with the poet Adrian Castro) and Chapter 16 ("Abakua Communities in Florida: Members of the Cuban Brotherhood in Exile" by Ivor L. Miller).

Leopard society masquerades in Nigeria (Ebonko), Cuba (Ireme), and Florida (Ireme). Leopard Societies in Nigeria and Cameroon had traveled to Cuba due to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. While these male ritual organizations have many different types of masquerades in Africa, the masquerade associated with the mother of the Leopard spirit is the only masquerade character that is performed in Cuban Abakua tradition. This performance element was then carried to Florida as Cubans migrated to the Sunshine State over many decades. Photos by Jordan Fenton (left), by Amanda Carlson (center), and by Angel Guerrero (right).