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From: gustavus@iglou.iglou.com (IHCOYC XPICTOC)
Subject: Re: African languages in North America
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Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 11:45:55 GMT
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Jon Harald Haug (jonhaug@telepost.no) quoth:

: In my country (Norway) there is a lot of interest, and rather good 
: knowledge, of American history. One unknown part of it, however, is the 
: fate of the native languages of the African slaves after their arrival in 
: America. For obvious reasons, they did not have the same opportunities to 
: keep their own languages, as immigrants from the European continent. If I 
: am right, all African Americans today are speaking only English. Does 
: anyone know how long African languages did survive in the USA (or the 
: colonies preceding it)?

I know little about the survival of African languages in the continental 
United States.  You may want to do some checking into Afro-Cuban and 
Brazilian cultural traditions, especially religious systems like 
"voodoo," Santeria, and Candomble'.  I understand that Yoruba was 
preserved for ritual purposes in these religions in both Cuba and Brazil, 
and other African languages like Efik and Ewe also survived, albeit in 
garbled forms, in Cuba.  

If you read Spanish, a good place to start is Lydia Cabrera's "El 
Monte," or just do a search under her name.  Most of the material on this 
has not been translated into English.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
IHCOYC XPICTOC                                      gustavus@iglou.com
           Ecce domina quae fidet omnia micantia aurea esse
                        et scalam in caelos emit.
