Roots Rising

By Roland McFadden, January 29, 2026

Slavery was designed to strip Africans of their culture, family, and identity.  However, enslaved Africans developed strategies to maintain part of their African culture. For example,  Gullah Geechee people  located in  South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida use storytelling, songs, folktales, basket weaving, and praise houses to maintain African traditions and worldview.

In addition,  African hair braiding  was used as a tool to maintain African culture during slavery. Prior to slavery, African societies used  braiding patterns to communicate identity, including family lineage, age, marital status, spirituality, and social rank. When Africans were forcibly removed from Africa,  they maintain these traditions. Cornrow patterns were  used In South America to map escape routes or hide seeds for survival after escape. Hair braiding was a tool of resistance and freedom.

 However, cultural survival wasn’t limited to hair braiding,  African preserved their culture through food.  Okara, rice, yams, black-eyed peas  originated  in Africa. Dishes like gumbo, jambalaya, Hoppin’ john can be traced to West and Central Africa.

Beyond these methods, enslaved Africans used oral traditions to maintain their culture. They used folklores, stories, songs  and religion were used to record history and maintain values.  For example, Vodou in Haiti and Cuba helped preserved African cosmology, music and dance.

Despite efforts to ease African identity during slavery, enslaved Africans exhibited resilience by preserving African culture.. African culture continue to influence American culture today.