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Rhythms In Ancient African Communication |
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Ancient Africans were quite sensitive to harmonious and disharmonious rhythms. For example, when strangers met for the first time, each focused on determining whether the other's rhythm was in tune with the Rhythms of Nature. Such was done because it was far more important to relate rhythmically than to make a point about business or whatever. If the strangers blended in rhythm, then they could converse meaningfully with fewer words. In fact, the use of Proverbs was perfect for these interactions because there was so much symbolism in Proverbs. Symbols are something that stand for or represent something else. Symbols in Proverbs stand for its own meaning and something more-similar to what happens from Synthesis and is present in Allegory (a story within a story that embraces thoughts on multiple planes of existence). An expression crystallizing the essence of Symbols is: "A picture is worth a thousand words." Thus, the words Ancient Africans chose in speaking to each other were heavily symbolic. In addition, the speakers could imply extensions on the meaning of a symbolic word as well as get more meaning out of what was said and left unsaid. Outsiders who understood the superficial story of an allegory but not the deeper story or the symbols were suspected of having a disharmonious rhythm. Besides being deemed "suspicious" (possessed by evil spirits and an "Evil Eye") and not being one of the people, they were dealt with at a distance and kept isolated from the group.
When Africans were brought to the Americas as slaves, these practices had several effects. Although European enslavers separated Africans from different tribes so as to shut down their communication, the slaves' allegory/symbolic skills allowed many slave strangers to relay secrets, even when Whites were present. Examples are in The Negro Spirituals ("Wade in the water..."). Despite their acceptable messages for Whites, they were conveying hidden messages related to escape routes. Meanwhile, the evil European captors diluted and polluted the natural communication rhythms of African slaves-- by the captors wiping out the slaves ability to think in a balanced Right and Left brain fashion; by shattering the slaves' Ethos and World View; by fashioning social disharmony and envy among the slaves; and by the establishment of a slave social hierarchy. Affected slaves thereby entered into a Delusional World.
By being in a somewhat organized Delusional World (believing what was not real and not believing what was real) greatly complicated the African Retention related to "suspicious" Blacks. Furthermore, this Retention often backfired because most slaves labeled "suspicious" were not possessed with evil spirits but rather merely possessed a different philosophy of life created by the happenings within slavery. This African Retention continues to backfire to this day because most Black Americans who have designed their own rhythms outside familiar Afrocentric Tradition are capable and willing to help struggling Black people but are rejected by the very people they desire to help. One reason is that the struggling Blacks who live in a Delusional World believe that people who present them with the truth are wrong and need to be isolated. A second reason is that struggling Blacks have fashioned a world out of what has been made available to them and despite the disadvantages of that world, it and its rhythms are so familiar as to prevent them from wanting to change.
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D.
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