Andrew's Rantings: African Americans in Appalachia

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This may seem like a rather odd post, but there is a reason here. One of the classes I teach here at Surindat Rajabhat University is "Socio-Cultural Backgrounds of English Speaking Countries". The scope and purpose of the course is to expose the students to the culture of nationalities they will encounter in the English speaking world. I mainly focused in on the UK, US and Australia. Anyway, at the end we studied art and music. As I researched how to explain American folk music, I began to realize something that I knew but never took the time to consider. See, much of American folk music came from the United Kingdom, England, Scotland and Wales. If you study any of the Appalachian songs from those mountains, you will notice a recurring theme of lovers gone to sea, or people sailing across the ocean. If you think for a moment, there were not too many people in Appalachia joining the navy or taking leisure or business trips across the Atlantic. Not THAT often anyway. The reason for all of these songs is that they came from the United Kingdom, where such travel was much more common. Most of the songs and ballads found in the Appalachian mountains and American folk music in general descended from the British Isles. But American folk music sounds much different than the folk music in the UK, it's very distinct. So I asked myself, "What makes American folk music so unique?"

Ah, now we're getting somewhere. As ghastly and terrible a thing as slavery was, the impact that the African people had as they entered American culture changed everything. Like it or not, America would not be what it is today were it not for the huge influence of African Americans on our society. And this applies even to American folk music. More than most people realize. What is the most American instrument? Perhaps the banjo? Well, honestly that's not an American born instrument, it came from the banjar, an African instrument consisting of a gourd, stick, catgut strings and skin stretched over the gourd. Look at early pictures of the instrument and you'll see that's exactly what early banjos were. Things as "American" as bluegrass and Appalachian mountain music would not sound the way they do had they not been influenced by the rhythm and instrumentation of the African Americans. Don't believe me? Listen to a few banjo licks and you'll hear a rhythm that surely did not come from the British Isles, there's definitely something else going on.

I thought this was an interesting point, because most people would never associate something like Bluegrass or Appalachian mountain music with the African American communities. But when you stop and think about it, there's a lot of association there. These people went through some horrible times at the hands of America (not that they are alone, consider the American Indian nations as well), but they persevered and have in turn influenced America for what it is today. So the next time you hear a banjo and think, "Wow, that sounds really good" (If that is in fact what you think), thank the people who worked hard to make a place for themselves in this country.