During the trans atlantic slave trade era, slaves were taken from africa into foreign lands, since their slave masters had a problem of pronouncing the actual native name of their slaves, the slaves were force to drop their native names and receive foreign new names that the slave masters could pronounce. Now i know that oral literature was not new in african tradition, that is, africans before the slave trade era were familiar with the concept of passing down traditions and heritage orally since they could not read or write and it worked for them. i want to know why the slaves after being taken to a strange land, found it okay to throw away their heritage and accept foreign ones, when they could have orally transmitted their heritage to their descendants who are oblivious of their origin. information like language, surname, village, clan, kindred, traditions and folklores could have been passed from parents to offspring in each generations so that blacks in foreign lands today oblivious of their origin will find it easy to trace where they came from. imagine how helpful it could have been had parents in each generation from the slave trade era sat their kids down in secret and tell them things like "look we are from ekama village from the clan of umuafor from the kindred of ozalla" e.t.c, the parents will make sure the children learnt their native language and customs and traditions and songs and dance steps and deities, then these children in turn will transmit this information to their own children who will in turn transmit it to their own children, that way, blacks in different part of the world today who are descendants of slaves would have had no problem tracing their roots, i find it sad that so much was lost

Majority of the slaves where actually broken. I personally believe their spirit was broken, and they lost the last iota of hope in them, what was left was acceptance.

I also believe they kbew the journey back home was impossible as such taking up the new origin was theast option.

I also believe that since majority was actually sold into slavery by their own kits and kin, then they did not feel wanted anymore.

I believe too that a lot of them must ha e told the story of their origin, but the fight and story for freedom was stronger as such many of the literature died naturally.

Finally, I believe that subsequent generations has integrated into the new culture and society naturally.

eginaP:
Majority of the slaves where actually broken. I personally believe their spirit was broken, and they lost the last iota of hope in them, what was left was acceptance.

I also believe they kbew the journey back home was impossible as such taking up the new origin was theast option.

I also believe that since majority was actually sold into slavery by their own kits and kin, then they did not feel wanted anymore.

I believe too that a lot of them must ha e told the story of believe that subsequent generations has integrated into the new culture and society naturally.

fair enough

Beware of your mouth and fingers.what are you saying, don't you have a sense of humor.?A slave turn master,an akpu or bobozi eater now eat with plates and eats salad,. You want him to encourage his children to go and be in such life? Check am naaaaaaa,eno make sense na ...oboy if na you nkor

You can't blame them they lost all hope of coming back home.... And their future generation had no chance than to follows the white man culture

Cause they were slaves.

Culture is practical (food, dressing, language, etc.). Oral transmission couldn't have gone far. And these people didn't have the means of putting their culture into practice. They dress in what they were offered. They cook and ate what they were given. And they spoke how they were instructed to. Their babies grew into this. It was slavery and not immigration and the slave master relationship was comprehensive.

Slavery wasn't just about taking a group of people outside their homes. Conscious efforts were made to make them more suitable for the work they were going to do. They were taught to cook and eat what the master can eat. If the master found it difficult to pronounce any name, he would change it at will without the concent of the bearer. More so, the slaves of the past do not consist of one generation alone. Some slaves were born into a slavery, a period when local languages and religions were forbidden. Such people didn't even have a heritage to keep cause their parents were not given the choice of doing things their way. Babies were named in accordance with the masters' religion. Their spirit was broken over a period time and as humans, they had to adapt.

You will not understand why they did such maybe because you ain't in their shoes.

Bro...ask a househelp how life is via his or her end and he or she will tell you as e dey be talkmore of slave in foreign lands

How was it ever going to be possible to carry on your heritage if you were the only Efik man among, 2 Igbos, 3 Yorubas and 2 Ashantes?

shantti:


During the trans atlantic slave trade era, slaves were taken from africa into foreign lands, since their slave masters had a problem of pronouncing the actual native name of their slaves, the slaves were force to drop their native names and receive foreign new names that the slave masters could pronounce.

Lol... you funny! ...slave masters trying to pronounce the names of their slaves! I understand where you're coming from in this post. What you don't understand is the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.... how slaves were treated. No slave master ever wanted to know the names of slaves because slaves were not seen as human.... they were seen as animals bought to work and were treated the same... like animals. To your main question.... passing down culture. Slaves were from different cultures.... the slave masters made it their duty to separate as much as possible those that speak the same language. It was not like families living together for generations. They were also bred and cross bred ... just like animals. Big women were serviced by big strong men to breed healthy strong children.... tribe of the man or woman... neither did relationship matter. That woman became a breeder.... to produce as many children as possible.... what time does she have to pass on culture when the children are slaving in the fields?... and the big strong ones are servicing other breeders to produce more healthy children?... even at times the son is made to service his own mother?...in which case a bag is placed over the son's head? ... the reason why the word "motherfvcker" is such an offensive word.... like nigger.. it has a history. To date... the first thing Whites do... is to make every effort to destroy one's culture. That they did in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Was there ever a land they did not invade without plundering or destroying the cultural heritage? Aren't African historical records from the Great Library of Alexandria (Egypt) stashed in the Vatican? When the US invaded Iraq... didn't they,raid and destroy the museums? Same went on during slavery. But there are pockets of slaves who got away... formed settlements deep in the forests and passed on what they remembered of their culture or what was passed down to them.... never mind it was contaminated! The Ndyuka aka Djukas of Suriname is one such group. Then like Haiti... which revolted and defeated the Whites to become the first Black country....they are the closest to maintaining some degree of African culture. The rest... just lost... ignorant of their original culture... and are now trying to learnbas much as possible. The most they know is they are descendants of Africans period.