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African Diaspora

Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Object Details

Introduction
The African Diaspora program was created to pay tribute to the widely varied cultural contributions of the black American community while depicting the historical and cultural continuum that links black Americans to their African roots via the Caribbean Islands and Latin America. From the U.S., the Festival featured some 20 craftspeople and foodways demonstrators, as well as two dozen musical performers or ensembles. International contingents came from Ghana, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago. Musicians, dancers, cooks, woodcarvers, hairdressers, basket weavers, and fishnet makers from three continents exhibited the unity within diversity that characterizes the culture of Africans and their New World descendants. Performances covered urban and rural black experiences, secular and sacred life, home and community activities. Visitors witnessed rural lifestyles as reflected in basket making from South Carolina, Mississippi, and Trinidad and Tobago. In the culinary arts area, activities focused on the use of such foods as okra. Children's games and story-telling from Trinidad and Tobago, Washington, D. C. and Ghana were presented. In the music area, sacred and secular forms from West Africa, the Caribbean and the U.S. demonstrated the continuum in the Shango cult, the creation of steel bands, and calypso song. Black music of the U.S. illustrated the movement from country blues and spirituals to gospel, urban blues and jazz. U.S. black dance reflected the evolution of the black experience in America while showing the consistency in the line of the body and the importance of emphasizing certain body positions, and, in many instances, the same body steps. Similar utilizations of the body were seen in the songs and ceremonies of the traditional black church: rural Baptist, urban holiness and congregational. Performances and demonstrations took place in three structures: the church, the market place, and a traditional African house. The African Diaspora program was led by Rosie Horn (Program Coordinator, later Rosie Lee H. Hooks) and Bernice Johnson Reagon (Folklore Specialist). It was organized with guidance from the African Diaspora Advisory Group, whose members included Roy Bryce-Laporte, James Early, Leonard Goines, Pearl Williams Jones, Worth Long, Fela Sowande, A.B. Spellman, Ron Smith, Carol Maillard, and Jane Sapp. Major sponsors included the Governments of Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, and Ghana. The 1974 program constituted a pilot for a multi-year series leading up to the Bicentennial Festival in 1976. Participants from the African Diaspora program were also featured at times on the Festival Stage and in the Children's Program.
Fieldworkers
James Early, Louise Robinson, Carol Maillard, Lyn Dyson
Participants
Music Brothers Chorus, gospel chorus Derrick Bunch, 1957-, bones & quill player, Yazoo City, Mississippi Sam Chatmon, 1899-1983, blues guitarist, Hollandale, Mississippi Contact Africa, children games D.C. Black Repertory, dance Leonard Goines Quintet, jazz quintet Green School Dancerettes, games Jackson Singers, gospel singers Key West Junknoos (Charles Allen, 1945-, William Butler, 1917-, Kenneth Rahming, 1941-, Alvin L. Scott, Lee Whynis), junknoos Band Eddie Knight, 1909-1992, sticks & bones player, Yazoo City, Mississippi Jesse Mays, guitarist, Independence, Mississippi Flora Molton, 1908-1990, street singer Michele Murray, dance workshop Rev. Leon Pinson, 1919-1998, gospel singer, Cleveland, Mississippi Lonnie Lee Pitchford, 1955-1998, guitarist, Lexington, Mississippi Mr. Rhythm, tap dancer Rising Star Fife & Drum -- Rising Star Fife & DrumNapoleon Strickland, 1919-2001, Como, MississippiBernice Turner, Senatobia, MississippiOtha Turner, 1909-2003, Senatobia, MississippiG.D. Young, Como, Mississippi Shock Treatment, urban blues band Silvertones (Tommy Dozier, 1904-1979, Mattie Lee Dozier, 1921-,), gospel group, Myrtle, Mississippi Steel Unlimited, steel band Sweet Honey in the Rock, quartet Everett Townsend, 1920-1975, spiritual singer, Independence, Mississippi Trinidad Steel Band, steel band Trinidad Children Games, games Washington, D. C. gospel ensembles Wulomei (performing troupe from Ghana) Nigerian performing troupes Petit Valley Village Troupe, Trinidad and Tobago Crafts Juliet Amoah, Ghanaian food Errol Bishop, Trinidad and Tobago food Althea Coakley, basket weaver Beatrice Coakley, basket weaver Paul "Sonny" Diggs, arabber Terry Evelyn, mask maker George Ferrell, woodcarver Charles Freeny, U.S. Black food Anna Fuller, cosmetologist Dancella Hillman, cosmetologist JuJu, woodcarver & metalworker Walter M. Kelley, arabber Ardell Lee, fishnet maker Wilson Lee, Jr., woodcarver, Greenville, Mississippi Elliot Manette, steel drum maker Lee Nabors, 1916-1997, chair maker, Oklona, Mississippi Rufus Pinckney, basket weaver Joseph Ernest Smith, woodcarver, Lexington, Mississippi Nigerian artisans Ghanaian artisans Trinidad and Tobago artisans
Collection Creator
Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
See more items in
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1974 Festival of American Folklife
Archival Repository
Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
Identifier
CFCH.SFF.1974, Series 2
Type
Archival materials
Collection Citation
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1974 Festival of American Folklife, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Collection Restrictions
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Related link
Record ID
ebl-1503510202147-1503510202172-2
Metadata Usage
CC0
GUID
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/bk5ca9425ae-ab3f-41d6-b022-6a8ae019961b

Related Content

  • Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1974 Festival of American Folklife

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