Cites and discusses various forms of satire from Black American, Caribbean, and African cultures. Forms considered include oral ballads ('toasts') antebellum sermons, praise poems, mother-rhyming, ritual insult and theater. Emphasizes the agonistic element and the impossibility of performing Afro-American satire in standard English. (RDN)

For the historian whose charge is to discover those antecedents in the past which can illuminate the present, the study of African history can be highly rewarding, both intellectually and professionally. This essay is addressed to students of history whose prime area of expertise is other than Africa. (RM)

Describes health and nutritional practices and beliefs among Black Americans, from slavery to the present. Links such practices and beliefs to social, political, and ideological factors. (GC)

Discusses the suppression of African culture in America. Finds that multicultural curricula still devalue Black culture. Offers a vision for living a humanely equitable existence and freeing Black children from oppressive learning environments. (DM)

The Nguzo Saba or "Seven Principles of Blackness" provide the fundamental basis for the development of an African America value system that is based on the cultural and historical particularisms of being Black in an American society that devalues Black efficacy and Black people. The fundamentals of this value system, foundational to the Kwanzaa…

Current research reveals that West African musical concepts provided the foundation for the various musical genres created by Black Americans. The Black musical tradition continues to evolve and mirror new values, attitudes, philosophies, and life-styles without the loss of a West African identity. (RLV)

The Caribbean is a rich breeding ground for African-derived music. A synopsis is given of the music of the following countries and styles: (1) Jamaica; (2) Trinidad and Tobago; (3) Calypso; (4) steel pan; (5) Haiti; (6) Dominican Republic; (7) Cuba; (8) Puerto Rico; and (9) other islands. (SLD)

The perseverance of African musical characteristics among American Blacks is an historic reality. African retentions have been recorded in Black music of the antebellum period. Various African scales and rhythms permeate Black American music today as evidenced in the retentions found in blues and jazz. (RLV)

The author reports on his experiences as a Black American travelling in Nigeria and Ghana. He reviews the many similarities and the few differences between the Black American and the African experience from the broad perspectives of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and art. (Author/MC)

Discusses the aims of and need for an African-centered pedagogy. A curriculum that legitimizes African stores of knowledge, builds upon the indigenous language, and imparts a positive, self-sufficient outlook would strengthen the identity and capabilities of Black children. (DM)

Explores psychological, political, and sociological impulses that underlie Black Americans' contact with and interest in Africa. Asserts that Africa and her American descendants can attain a high level of mutual understanding and solidarity only when Afro-Americans change their "American mentality" so that cultural elements of their "Africanness"…

Relates how the author/illustrator discovered similarities between African and American culture and found renewed pride in his African ancestry, while researching for a new book, an African variant of "Cinderella." (ARH)

Discusses the development of social values and the birth of the poet; the first poets and the crystallization of poetic symbols, including Black and White symbols; India as a civilization conquered by poetry; African and African-American poetic resistance to imperialist social values; African combat poetry; and the Black value-setting in the…

This paper illustrates the ways in which the social environment can confer advantages on Black youth with respect to the playing of Afro-American music. The significance of mechanisms that Blacks have elaborated to maintain certain aspects of their culture for the writing of Black history is also explored. (Author/EB)

Blacks, especially Black historians, have a responsibility to define new standards for evaluating the past, rather than using the ideologies and criteria of Whites. (Author/MC)