Afrocubanismo

Last updated

Afrocubanismo was an artistic and social movement in black-themed Cuban culture with origins in the 1920s, as in works by the cultural anthropologist Fernando Ortiz. The Afrocubanismo movement focused on establishing the legitimacy of black identity in Cuban society, culture, and art. The movement developed in the interwar period when white intellectuals in Cuba acknowledged openly the significance of African culture in Cuba. [1] [2] [3] Afro-Cuban artistic expressions helped integrate the marginalized black community into mainstream Cuban society and art. Since its inception, Afro-Cuban Humanities has emerged as a major area of collegiate studies, and Afrocubanismo's influences can be seen in Cuban literature, painting, music, theater, and sculpture.

Contents

Background

Racial dynamics between black and white Cubans had been tense in the decades leading up to the movement's inception in the early 20th century. Slavery in Cuba was abolished in October 1886. [4] Prior to the movement, the Afro-Cuban population struggled with fragmentation and an unbalanced social hierarchy. The Afro-Cuban population consisted of working slaves, freed slaves, and a small number of black middle-class elites and intellectuals.[4] The disparities within the black community were exacerbated by the systematic mistreatment and racist policies inflicted upon them by White Cubans.

In the 1912 Race War (guerrita del doce), civil war erupted between Afro-Cuban farmers and protesters versus Cuban armed forces and White militias. [4] Conflict broke out after Afro-Cuban protesters attempted to stage uprisings out of frustration due to failed protests to stop a law prohibiting black political parties. The end result was the death of an estimated 2,000 to 6,000 Afro-Cuban farmers and workers. [4] [5]

Even after abolition, Afro-Cubans were barred from higher education, white-collar professions, government positions, bars, restaurants, clubs, and given restricted access to public spaces like parks and recreation areas. [5] Afro-Cuban frustration was further worsened by the fact that many had anticipated inclusion and progressive change after Cuba’s War of Independence against Spain, where the majority of Cuba’s armed forces consisted of black and mixed-race soldiers, many of whom were slaves and former slaves. [5] In spite of their efforts in the War of Independence, Afro-Cubans were outraged at the failure of Cuban legislature to enact policies that would benefit the black population. It wasn't until the establishment of universal male suffrage that White Cubans had to acknowledge the value of the Afro-Cuban citizen, since the black population now made up 30 percent of Cuba’s total voting population. [4]

In addition to the political and economic hostilities between the two racial groups, White Cuban attitudes towards Black and African culture were bitter and hostile. Many White Cuban authors held contempt for African customs and traditions. Fernando Ortiz, the founder and advocate of Afro-Cuban studies, described African art and cultural practices in his earlier writings as “infantile,” “barbaric,” “primitive,” “savage,” and “repugnant.” [5] White Cuban nationalists described African expression as an infection that was invading Cuban culture.

Origin of Afrocubanismo

Although thought of mainly as a black phenomenon, the roots of Afrocubanismo originated from White Cuban interests. Afrocubanismo was first developed by formally trained White Cuban elites, not Afro-Cubans. [6] White Afrocubanista art typically depicted black subjects using highly stylized forms. [4] White Cubans appropriated the aesthetics of African art and altered them using Euro-centric techniques and philosophies of aesthetic beauty. White Afrocubanistas were not concerned with accurately portraying Afro-Cuban life or customs. Rather, these Euro-Cubans sought to make traditional elements of African art more palatable for mainstream Cuban society. In an essay entitled "Uniting Blacks in a raceless nation," author Arnedo-Gomez describes this cultural appropriation by White Cubans explaining, “...the movement accommodated and folklorised Afro-Cuban... forms in order to make them acceptable within the dominant European-derived tradition...” [5]

Afro-Cuban responses to White Afrocubanista art were conflicted and ranging. Some members of the black middle class opposed the white portrayals of black identity and culture, finding them racist and derogatory. [6] Some members of the black middle class found merit in the Euro-centric interpretations of African culture. In fact, many Afro-Cuban intellectuals embraced some of the more problematic and questionable elements of the underlying white nationalist beliefs brought to Afrocubanismo by White elitists. [6] Still other Afro-Cubans found that Afrocubanista art, in spite of racist depictions, opened opportunities for Black Cuban art forms to become part of the Cuban cultural sphere. All of these factors contributed to what Arnedo-Gomez calls the “reformulation” of Afrocubanismo. According to Gomez, Afro-Cubans repurposed Afrocubanista art to move away from the stereotypical portrayals that White Afrocubanista artists depicted. [4] Black middle class and working class Afro-Cubans contributed their own influences. “Afrocubanismo was... 'an ideological and cultural product that was neither stable, nor coherent' and... open to divergent interpretations.”

Major Themes

While rooted in White ideologies and problematic conceptualizations of African culture, the Afro-Cuban perspective on the themes of the movement were more concerned with social justice, equality, and questioning of the status quo. [6] The purposes behind Afrocubanismo’s various expressions were different. For some White Cubans, the significance of Afro-Cubanismo was the revalorization of African art as an expression of Cuban identity. Some scholars, like Fernando Ortiz, advocated that Afrocubanismo and African derived art forms were important for the anthropological pursuit of acknowledging the history behind Cuban identity in all forms. [5] These White Afrocubanistas idealized the concept of a "raceless" Cuba where all its citizens shared a single national identity. The problem for Afro-Cubans with this idealized view of Afrocubanismo and race was that it trivialized the experiences of blacks in Cuba and ignored the serious systemic racial issues underpinning Cuban interracial relations. “...Ortiz can be cited from the mid-1930s onwards referring to Afrocuban arts as "an abandoned [cultural] treasure," something of value to be carefully studied and protected, and is in vocal in his support of the analysis of all forms of Afrocuban music and literature.” [5] Even in his notably racist earlier works that attack African customs, Ortiz inadvertently captured the depth, complexity, and richness of African cultural practices and expression. “...Ortiz even in this earliest study provide[d] detailed descriptions of African-derived deities, their personalities, their iconic representations, the altars and shrines devoted to them, the religious ritual associated with their worship, and the songs and dances incorporated into such worship. Indeed, the majority of Ortiz's study mutely testifies to the complexity and poetic cohesiveness of the religious beliefs which he condemns as savage and dangerous.” [5]

Black Afrocubanistas were less focused on describing and idealizing African art and more concerned with capturing the reality of African life. The poetry of Nicholas Guillen, an Afro-Cuban poet, celebrates black street culture and music. [4] Afro-Cuban literature of the 1930s was often political and served as a form of protest and criticism of the dominant White nationalism of Cuba. Afro-Cuban visual arts too served as a statement against the homogeneity of White Cuban culture. [4] Many black Afrocubanista artists used their art to counter the ideals of equality and the perceived unity among blacks and whites that White Cubans claimed existed. Afro-Cuban art served to question the ideologies of White Cubans. "…Guillen’s poetry celebrated black street culture and Arozarena and Pedroso ‘chant to workers and the dispossessed and criticise what Arozarena described as the bourgeois conception of Afro-Cuban culture’. [4]

Some Afro-Cuban poets and artists actually rejected the term “Afro-Cuban” and its use as a classifying term for African-derived art. Nicholas Guillen and Arredondo, two black Afrocubanismo authors, rejected the term because it felt constructed, it separated between categories of black Cuban and white Cuban, and it made the goal of a single unified mulatto Cuban identity impossible. In this sense, themes of Afrocubanismo also include this type of anti-Afro-Cuban perspectives held by some black intellectuals. Afro-Cuban literature was often written to express criticism over the prevalent racism and glossing over of social issues of racial inequality.

Major Artists

Related Research Articles

Black people is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in socially based systems of racial classification in the Western world, the term "black" is used to describe persons who are perceived as dark-skinned compared to other populations. It is mostly used for people of Sub-Saharan African descent and the indigenous peoples of Oceania. Indigenous African societies do not use the term black as a racial identity outside of influences brought by Western cultures. The term "black" may or may not be capitalized. The AP Stylebook changed its guide to capitalize the "b" in black in 2020. The ASA Style Guide says that the "b" should not be capitalized.

Transculturation is a term coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1940 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures. Transculturation encompasses more than transition from one culture to another; it does not consist merely of acquiring another culture (acculturation) or of losing or uprooting a previous culture (deculturation). Rather, it merges these concepts and instead carries the idea of the consequent creation of new cultural phenomena (neoculturation) in which the blending of cultures is understood as producing something entirely new.

Nicolás Guillén Cuban poet, journalist, political activist, and writer

Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista was a Cuban poet, journalist, political activist, and writer. He is best remembered as the national poet of Cuba.

Lydia Cabrera Afro-Cuban anthropologist (1899–1991)

Lydia Cabrera was a Cuban independent ethnographer.

Négritude is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the African diaspora during the 1930s, aimed at raising and cultivating "Black consciousness" across Africa and its diaspora. Négritude gathers writers such as sisters Paulette and Jeanne Nardal, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, Abdoulaye Sadji, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Léon Damas of French Guiana. Négritude intellectuals disavowed colonialism, racism and Eurocentrism. They promoted African culture within a framework of persistent Franco-African ties. The intellectuals employed Marxist political philosophy, in the Black radical tradition. The writers drew heavily on a surrealist literary style, and some say they were also influenced somewhat by the Surrealist stylistics, and in their work often explored the experience of diasporic being, asserting ones' self and identity, and ideas of home, home-going and belonging.

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Puerto Rican historian, writer and activist

Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, was a historian, writer, collector, and activist. Schomburg was a Puerto Rican of African and German descent. He moved to the United States in 1891, where he researched and raised awareness of the contributions that Afro-Latin Americans and African Americans have made to society. He was an important intellectual figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Over the years, he collected literature, art, slave narratives, and other materials of African history, which were purchased to become the basis of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, named in his honor, at the New York Public Library (NYPL) branch in Harlem.

Afro-Cubans Ethnic minority in Cuba

Afro-Cubans are Cubans who are of West African and largely Yoruba ancestry. The term Afro-Cuban can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural elements found in Cuban society such as race, religion, music, language, the arts and class culture.

Fernando Ortiz Fernández was a Cuban essayist, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist and scholar of Afro-Cuban culture. Ortiz was a prolific polymath dedicated to exploring, recording, and understanding all aspects of indigenous Cuban culture. Ortiz coined the term "transculturation," the notion of converging cultures.

Black is Beautiful is a cultural movement that was started in the United States in the 1960s by African Americans. It later spread beyond the United States, most prominently in the writings of the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko in South Africa. Black is beautiful got its roots from the Négritude movement of the 1930s. Negritude argued for the importance of a Pan-African racial identity among people of African descent worldwide.

Cuban literature

Cuban literature is the literature written in Cuba or outside the island by Cubans in Spanish language. It began to find its voice in the early 19th century. The major works published in Cuba during that time were of an abolitionist character. Notable writers of this genre include Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda and Cirilo Villaverde. Following the abolition of slavery in 1886, the focus of Cuban literature shifted. Dominant themes of independence and freedom were exemplified by José Martí, who led the modernista movement in Latin American literature. Writers such as the poet Nicolás Guillén focused on literature as social protest. Others, including Dulce María Loynaz, José Lezama Lima and Alejo Carpentier, dealt with more personal or universal issues. And a few more, such as Reinaldo Arenas and Guillermo Cabrera Infante, earned international recognition in the postrevolutionary era.

Cuban art

Cuban art is an exceptionally diverse cultural blend of African, South American, European, and North American elements, reflecting the diverse demographic makeup of the island. Cuban artists embraced European modernism, and the early part of the 20th century saw a growth in Cuban avant-garde movements, which were characterized by the mixing of modern artistic genres. Some of the more celebrated 20th-century Cuban artists include Amelia Peláez (1896–1968), best known for a series of mural projects, and painter Wifredo Lam, who created a highly personal version of modern primitivism. The Cuban-born painter Federico Beltran Masses (1885–1949), was renowned as a colorist whose seductive portrayals of women sometimes made overt references to the tropical settings of his childhood.

Afro-Argentines are Argentines of primarily Sub-Saharan African descent. The Afro-Argentine population is the result of being brought over during the transatlantic slave trade during the centuries of Spanish domination in the region, which had a major role in Argentine history. Although in recent years many descend from or are recent immigrants from Africa.

Black Power is a political slogan and a name which is given to various associated ideologies which aim to achieve self-determination for black people. It is primarily, but not exclusively, used by Black American activists and proponents of what the slogan entails in the United States. The Black Power movement was prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, emphasizing racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture, promote and advance what was seen by proponents of the movement as being the collective interests and values of Black Americans.

Racism in Cuba refers to racial discrimination in Cuba. In Cuba, dark skinned Afro-Cubans are the only group on the island referred to as black while lighter skinned, mixed race, Afro-Cuban mulatos are often not characterized as black. Race conceptions in Cuba are unique because of its long history of racial mixing and appeals to a "raceless" society. The Cuban census reports that 65% of the population is white while foreign figures report an estimate of the number of whites at anywhere from 40 to 45 percent. This is likely due to the self-identifying mulatos who are sometimes designated officially as white. Many Cubans argue that every Cuban has at least some African ancestry. Several pivotal events have impacted race relations on the island. Using the historic race-blind nationalism first established around the time of independence, Cuba has navigated the abolition of slavery, the suppression of black clubs and political parties, the revolution and its aftermath, and the current economic decline.

Sara Gómez

Sara Gómez aka Sarita Gómez was a Cuban filmmaker. As a member of ICAIC during her early years, she was one of only two black filmmakers in attendance. She was the institute's first and for her lifetime, Cuba's only, woman director. Gómez is known for her first and final feature-length film De Cierta Manera (1974). Gómez was a revolutionary filmmaker, concerned with representing the Afro-Cuban community, women's issues, and the treatment of the marginalized sectors of society. Sara Gómez's filmmaking identifies the problems of colonialism, specifically experienced by previously marginalized communities who were unaware of the possibilities of a better future. "Exposing the roots of the world that had to be left behind and demanding the arrival of the future: her mission was to allow these communities to understand the process of what was happening in their lives, their needs, and possible departures." Gómez's work highlighted inequalities of social class, as well as racial and gender discrimination. She used the lens of her camera and ethnographic knowledge to narrate histories about everyday lives in revolutionary Cuba.

José Antonio Aponte

José Antonio Aponte, often known as “Black” José Aponte, was a Cuban political activist and military officer of Yoruba origin who organized one of the most prominent slave rebellions in Cuba, the Aponte Conspiracy of 1812. He held the rank of first corporal in Havana's black militia, and was the leader of his local Yoruba association. Aponte was a free black carpenter in Havana was proclaimed to be the leader of a plot to rebel against the Cuban government, free the slaves and uplift free people of color, and overthrow slavery in Cuba. The movement struck several sugar plantations on the outskirts of Havana, but it was soon crushed by the government.

Slavery in Cuba

Slavery in Cuba was a portion of the larger Atlantic Slave Trade that primarily supported Spanish plantation owners engaged in the sugarcane trade. It was practiced on the island of Cuba from the 16th century until it was abolished by Spanish royal decree on October 7, 1886.

Isa Soares is a Brazilian-born Argentine dancer and activist involved in creating awareness of the African traditions of Argentina and fighting racism against Afro-Argentine peoples. She was one of the pioneers in developing African dance interpretation and instruction in Argentina.

Eusebia Cosme Cuban-American actress (1908–1976)

Eusebia Cosme Almanza, known as Eusebia Cosme internationally, was an Afro-Cuban poetry reciter and actress who gained widespread fame in the 1930s. Because of racial segregation, Cosme did not pursue an acting career in the traditional Cuban theater, instead focusing on the art of declamation, or poetry reading. She was the sole Cuban woman and one of the few black women to participate in African-themed declamation. Her performances went beyond reciting the poems, as she used gestures, facial expression and vocal rhythm to convey the emotion of the written word. Focusing on works that served as social commentary on race, gender, and the disparity of the position of blacks in both Latin America and the United States, Cosme was recognized as a master of her craft. Beginning her career in variety shows, she performed in Cuba until the late 1930s, before embarking on international tours.

Santería is an Afro-Cuban religion that arose in the 19th century.

References

  1. ↑ Ortiz, Fernando 1950. La Afrocania de la musica folklorica de Cuba. La Habana, revised ed 1965
  2. ↑ Ortiz, Fernando 1951. Los bailes y el teatro de los negros en el folklore de Cuba. Letras Cubanas, La Habana. Continuation of the previous book; contains transcriptions of percussion in notation and lyrics of toques and cantos a los santos variously in Lucumi and Spanish.
  3. ↑ Carpentier, Alejo 2001 [1946]. Music in Cuba, edited and with an introduction by Timothy Brennan, translated by Alan West-Durán. Cultural Studies of the Americas 5 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).[ page needed ] ISBN   0-8166-3229-4 (hardcover); ISBN   0-8166-3230-8 (pbk.) First published as La música en cuba (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1946). Second edition under the same title, Colección popular 109 (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1984). ISBN   968-16-0250-1 (pbk.). Third edition, Giraldilla series (Havana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1988). A standard work on the history of Cuban music up to 1940.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Arnedo-Gomez, Miguel (April 2012). "Uniting blacks in a raceless nation: Afro-Cuban reformulations of Afrocubanismo and mestizaje in 1930s Cuba". Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies. 18: 33–59. doi:10.1080/14701847.2012.716644.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Moore, Robin D. (Summer 1994). "Representations of Afrocuban Expressive Culture in the Writings of Fernando Ortiz". Latin American Music Review. 15 (1): 32–54. doi:10.2307/3085947. JSTOR   3085947.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Moore, Robin (2006). Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale - Cage Learning. pp. 1–5.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.