The African-American Identity and It’s Connections to Africa

AllAfrica.com looks at African-American identity and it’s relationship to Africa. From “indentured servant” to “color” to “negro”, blacks have been known by many names, and our concepts of Africa and Africanness have changed through the years. An interesting fact is that free blacks often called themselves “Africans,” hence the “African” Methodist Episcopal Church.

“The free blacks of the pre-bellum America called themselves “Africans.” This is why the early churches founded by these blacks carried the name “African” Witness the African Methodist Episcopal Church(AME) of Richard Allen and co; witness the African Methodist Episcopal Church Zion(AMEZ). Be it noted also that their voluntary organizations were also called African. In all the geographic areas they found themselves, they named their societies African. That is why we had the African society of Charleston, South Carolina, he African Society of Richmond, Virginia, the African Society of Washington DC, the African Society of Baltimore, the African Society of Philadelphia, the African Society of New York, the African Society of Boston, and the African Society of Providence, Rhode Island.”

TheStateOf . . . Our Time in the Wildnerness. Do you think blacks will ever come to be known as “Africans” again? What would people say if you described yourself as African? I think many people would be intimidated. What does it mean to be an “African-American?” Black?