Journal of Black Studies
Volume 27, Number 2 (November 1996)
pages 278-291
Andrew Juan Rosa
Temple University
I am Yoruba, I am Lucumi, Mandingo, Congo, Carabli.
—Nicolás GuillénThe word “black” today covers a whole generation of folk from Kenya, to Brazil, to the United States.
—Gwendolyn Brooks
At a recent lecture at Temple University titled The African Presence in Puerto Rico, a young African woman from the island proclaimed to the audience that the Black experience in the United States is indeed unique and, because of her “mestizo” heritage, acculturation, racism, and struggle were not a part of her historical experience. As I looked on the face of my beautiful African sister, my heart shattered into a thousand little pieces. The lessons passed down to us from our African ancestors in the oral tradition—el que no tiene Dingo, tiene Mandingo—have finally fallen on deaf ears. Their struggle and perseverance to hold on to all that was Africa in the midst of brutal oppression had been, at this moment in time, for naught. The European had succeeded in colonizing the mind of my sister, for instead of locating herself within a rich tradition that dates…