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In the reading from Inhuman Bondage, a section in chapter 4 relates to a subject that we have discussed in another of my classes, Popular Music of the United States. This section refers to the fact that the Portuguese enjoyed hearing the native African music. They “enlisted the slaves to perform at plays and other types of public entertainment, even at royal functions” (94). In contrast, the British forced the slaves to dance to bagpipe music on the ships in an effort to force cultural assimilation. Ironically, the British as well as other European nations became much more interested in authentic African culture and music, especially from the mid 1800s to 1920s. In New York City, young Scottish and Irish men imitated African culture as a means of social critique in a form of musical theater called minstrelsy. They used the African American’s situation to highlight the discrimination they faced as Scotch-Irish. However, the original purpose of minstrelsy changed to fit an upper middle class audience in both America and Europe. Minstrelsy troops attempted to portray an authentic view of slave life on plantations through skits and music, but often there was more Scotch-Irish and European influence than African, and life on plantations was always idealized. It is interesting that the Portuguese displayed this interest in African culture so much earlier than the emersion of minstrelsy and that this interest remained prominent in both America and Europe until the early 1900s. It is also ironic that although the British attemped to assimilate the Africans’ music, their ancestors were later intrigued by an imitation of authentic African culture.
On a separate note, I think the issue that “mihan” raises the in post about the “Curse of Ham” is very interesting. It seems common for Europeans to use religion as a means of justifying slavery as well as colonization, but it also appears that in this way, they possibly twist the meaning of their religious texts merely to suit their own intentions.