Globalisation and heavy western influences since colonial days have indeed taken a toll on the rich African culture. Even though the strong characteristics of the culture are taking a new identity with modern times, many of its other features remain preserved and celebrated. Africa is one of the most diverse continents culturally and ethnically, and remains true to its roots.
Here is a look at how Afro-Guyanese differ culturally from their brothers and sisters in Africa:
Living in tribes
In many African countries, tribes are in abundance. Countries as small as Uganda can have more than 30 tribes. Each tribe will have their own unique language and way of life.
This does not prevail in Guyana in spite of the fact that Afro-Guyanese with tribal names have been able to trace their ancestral lineage back to Mother Africa. Afro-Guyanese speak English or Creolese because Guyana was once ruled by the British.
Art
Africa has a rich tradition of arts and crafts. Their beliefs and stories are told beautifully through a variety of wood carvings, brass and leather art works. African arts and crafts also include sculpture, paintings, pottery, ceremonial and religious headgear and dress.
Art is becoming a fusion of traditional and modern techniques, but artists still draw inspiration from the masks, statues and figurines of tribal culture. Additionally, art forms in Africa such as textiles perhaps retain the strongest links to traditional black culture, because they express identity and shared history.
However, this is not extensively practiced in Guyana, but several persons do collect such pieces. Art in Guyana is mostly imaginative. Cultural art focuses on a variety of topics like the fusion of the six ethnic groups and the journey from the past to the successes of each race to date.
Dancing
Dance for Africans is a spiritual expression of the soul. There are various styles which are influenced by various tribal customs. It is one of the features of the African culture which remained untainted for several decades in many African states.
Different parts of the body are emphasised by various groups. The upper body is emphasised by the Anto-Ewe and Lobi of Ghana. In Agbor, strong contraction-release movements of the pelvis and upper torso characterize both male and female dancing.
In Guyana, some African-inspired movements are not done with any specific meaning though the rhythm and the gyrations may be very similar even when performed. But the rich and traditional movements of African dances are known to be extremely salacious and racy; most of them are not evident in Afro-Guyanese dance movements.
Folklore
Folklore is an important feature of the African heritage. Their stories represent the passing down of precious information that kept each generation closely knit to remember the past and charter the future with a deep sense of identity.
African folklore and religion represent a variety of social facets of the various cultures in Africa. Different ethnic groups in Africa have different rituals or ceremonies for storytelling, which creates a sense of belonging to a cultural group.
There are different types of African folklores about animal tales which are more oriented towards entertainment, but still have morals and lessons to them. Animal tales are normally divided into trickster tales and ogre tales. In the animal tales, a certain animal would always have the same character or role in each story so the audience does not have to worry about characterisation.
Day-to-day folklores are the more serious, non-humorous tales that explained the everyday life and struggles of an African community. These tales took on matters such as famine, escape from death, courtship, and family, using a song form when the climax of the story was being told.
Folklores of Afro-Guyanese are quite different than those in Africa. Some include the tale of the Massacurra Man – a frightening evil spirit which lives Upper Demerara and Guyana. This water monster is generally active in the late evening as the sun sets. The only ambition of this devil is to drag individuals from the river bank, drown them and breaking their neck. It is believed that the tale of the Massacurra Man has its origins in slavery. It is said that when slaves ran away from the plantations they used the vast water ways of Guyana to escape deeper into the interior. The plantation owner would let loose his slave trackers to hunt and capture them, but they would be killed by the Massacura Man.
Clothing
African clothing is full of life and rich in vibrant colours. They are traditional wears which depict the turbulent African past. For example, Zulu tribes wear a variety of traditional attire for both ceremonial or culturally celebratory occasions, and modern westernised clothing for everyday use. Traditional male clothing is usually light, consisting of a two-part apron (similar to a loincloth) used to cover the genitals and buttocks.
But in Guyana, African wear is traditional with more of a modern flare. Some traditional wears worn in Guyana include the Dashikis and Kaftan dresses. These are usually worn during Emancipation Day festivities on August 1, to some religious ceremonies and weddings.
Cuisine
Various cuisines of Africa use a combination of locally available fruits, cereal grains and vegetables, as well as milk and meat products. In some parts of the continent, the traditional diet features a prevalence of milk, curd and whey products.
In much of tropical Africa, cow’s milk is rare and cannot be produced locally (owing to various diseases that affect livestock). The continent’s diverse demographic makeup is reflected in the many different eating and drinking habits, dishes, and preparation techniques of its manifold populations.
In Central Africa, the basic ingredients are plantains and cassava. A variety of local ingredients are used while preparing other dishes like spinach stew, cooked with tomato, peppers, chillies, onions, and peanut butter. Cassava plants are also consumed as cooked greens. Groundnut (peanut) stew is also prepared, containing chicken, okra, ginger, and other spices. Another favourite is Bambara, a porridge of rice, peanut butter and sugar.
In Guyana, African dishes do not include a mixture of peanut. Some of these dishes locally, include Metemgee which is a thick rich type of soup with ground provision, coconut milk and large dumplings (called Duff), eaten with fried fish or chicken and Conkie, a sweet cornmeal based food cooked by steaming in banana leaves and pumpkin.
African music
Today, songs in Africa reflect a number of different styles such as gospel, jazz and rock, but often have a strong local flavour. Styles such as kwaito (house music), mbube (Zulu vocal) and kwela (jazzy street music often with a penny whistle) incorporate indigenous sounds.
Traditional African music is rarely played in Guyana but borrowings from African music can certainly be heard during the season for remembering Emancipation.
Languages
The continent of Africa speaks hundreds of languages, and if dialects spoken by various ethnic groups are also included, the number is much higher. These languages and dialects do not have the same importance: some are spoken by only few hundred persons, others are spoken by millions. Among the most prominent languages spoken are Arabic, Swahili and Hausa. Very few countries of Africa use any single language and for this reason several official languages coexist. None of these languages are spoken in Guyana.