As a Black Frenchman from Guadeloupe, author Pascal Archimede realized that African Americans are inextricably linked to Black people around the globe, with shared roots from the mother continent of Africa.
He explores in his book, “Black American History, From Plantations to Rap Culture” the ways in which Black culture in America has evolved and metastasized into the modern day African American culture we find in the United States today. From being brought over in slave ships against their will, to the manifestation of a major cultural and economic force that is nearly unquantifiable, the book explores everything in-between.
Pascal new early on that he had to unearth the true history by which our ancestors lived.
“From a very young age I said to myself that something was wrong, that the history I was learning in school was missing the whole story, [it] was incomplete,” Pascal said.
“Things changed when I went to school, and [I] felt connected to my ancestors.”
From a personal standpoint, being from Guadeloupe, Pascal wanted to write a book detailing how the destinies of the African diaspora are connected, and even transcend our modern-day borders spiritually, linguistically and culturally.
The second real motivation for Pascal writing this book and starting this exploration of our not so distant past was “as a duty of remembrance, a duty of memory” to those who came before.
By paying tribute to our ancestors who have largely been misremembered, misrepresented and largely ignored throughout the ides of history, “Black Americans, From Plantations to Rap Culture,” remembers.
Along with illustrations by Hamed Pryslay KOUTAWA, the history detailed in the book comes to life.
As Nigerian author Chinua Achebe famously stated, “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”
“Black American History, From Plantations to Rap Culture” aims to rectify this great disparity and does so with great diligence.
