23
At the same time, African traditions nurtured spiritual survival: if Haiti had voodoo and Brazil had candomblé, the Afro-Colombians forged a singular culture at San Basilio de Palenque, with their own language and palenquera music inherited from Africa. This affirmation of identity- more than an organized cult- became the heart of their resistance. In Colombia, freedom was won not only with arms, but also through the persistence of an African memory and a proudly preserved identity. So, in all these examples, Africa and its cultures are omnipresent in resistance movements in the USA; African identity is non-existent; consequently, slave rebellions are very rare and harshly repressed, and essentially without ideology linked to African roots.
The Singularity of the African-American Experience
In contrast to these examples of large-scale, victorious armed resistance, the history of African-American slaves in the United States does not present a unified, triumphant revolution against the slave system on American soil. Although numerous revolts broke out- Nat Turner’ s revolt( 1831), Denmark Vesey’ s conspiracy( 1822), or Gabriel Prosser’ s attempt( 1800)- they were all violently repressed by colonial and then American authorities. Herbert Aptheker, in his book American Negro Slave Revolts( 1943), meticulously documented these insurrections and their brutal repression. It’ s no coincidence that Africa barely features in African-American resistance movements. The training of slaves for North American plantations had a lot to do with it. A significant proportion of African captives destined for the United States underwent a particularly violent and dehumanizing“ training” phase in places like the plantations of the Caribbean( Barbados, Cuba) or Panama, before being transported to the American colonies. This practice was designed to break the spirit of rebellion and reduce slaves to a total submission.
Flashmag! Edition 164 Septembre 2025
23