Absence Identity Theory is a socio-cultural theory that breaks down the structure and practice of relationships between Black people from different cultures - African American, Afro Caribbean and Continental Africa. It is defined as ‘socio-cultural’ because it relies heavily on research done by sociologist on the Black family, Black communities and Black neighborhoods in the United States (U.S.). There are tensions between the African American cultural experience and other Black cultural experiences. Some of those tensions are outlined in the essay, BLACK LIKE BARACK (2009) by Joan Morgan. How those tensions developed and how and why they divide Black people along geographical-cultural lines is explained by the Absence Identity Theory. For the purpose of this paper, ‘absence’ is any act, condition or state of being that is or has been lost, missing, recovered, saved or survived. ‘Identity’ is who or what a people are and who or what a people have become because of their life experiences and life experiences are inextricably tied to a place. Identity is also connected to place.
The formation of Black cultural identity begins with citizenship, a ‘place of birth geography’ and how that place negotiated and implemented white supremacy ideology in the lives of the Black people. It is the energy / vibration of the place that first informs Black folk that they are Black. Navigating Blackness – in a place that negotiated and implemented white supremacy ideology- could prove to be dangerous, glorious or both depending on how much one could make themselves ‘absent-while-present’ from situations that dehumanized or attempted to bit by bit destroy the esteem, pride and dignity one must possess to achieve personal and professional goals but most importantly, to feel human.
Place as cultural marker and cultural identifier of Black people is the foundation of being ‘absent-while-present’. This term defines and describes what freedom is not. It is being seen and not heard, it is being looked upon while simultaneously being looked down upon. It is being present in ones’ own consciousness while absent in the consciousness of others, except as an object to be used and exploited for profit or to be feared. It is to be what Ralph Ellison called an “Invisible Man”. It is experienced by Black people on conscious and subconscious levels and acted out in healthy and unhealthy ways. Identity is always connected to a place. The state of not knowing and not being able to find the missing part of the self or more directly not being able to answer the question, ‘where did I come from?’ creates a dis-ease within that cannot be eased until Black people become “present” (Baldwin, 57) in their own lives and cease being the people that white supremacy made. To reach that point of self awareness requires a trip to what the old folks in the U.S. Black community call the old landmark- a trip back in time to learn how life use to be lived and why it had to lived a certain way. Absent-while-present describes a place “…where identity is almost impossible to achieve” (Baldwin, 102).
The Absence Identity Theory outlines the effects of being absent (absence) --from Africa, from traditional African cultural norms (rituals) and / or from African centered thought and practice-- on the identity of Africans in the Diaspora. The theory is designed to “guide future thoughts and behavior” (freedictionary.com/theory) about the African continent and Black Africans in the Diaspora. In other words, to change the way people think about a place with the hope of changing their behavior toward Black cultures unlike their own while serving to promote the study of Africa and its complexities, geographically and culturally and toward African people who identify as Black, who are the generational inheritors of U.S history by birth into a place that has a history of blatant dislike and disrespect of Black people or by recent immigration in the U.S. that makes one a 1st, 2nd or more generation immigrant. The over- arching goal is to give all Black African peoples opportunities-- through the acquisition of self knowledge to be change agents who help to bring elements of the traditional African village into the African Diaspora experience.
The Absence Identity theory contends that a village value system exists in the U.S. The research done by Elmer P. Martin and Joanne Mitchell Martin supports this contention in their sociological study, The Black Extended Family (1978) Additional research don by Ifa Priest, Awo Falokun Fatunmbi confirms the presence and the “sanctification of the extended family” in his work, Inner Peace: The Yoruba Concept of the Ori (2003) while Manu Ampim discusses the initiation rites (rituals) in the village value system that served to help each member of the extended family “grow and develop into responsible, community-oriented adults.” Black African identity grounded in the village way of life complete with the ritual of the ‘rites of initiation’ that begin at “birth” and end with “ancestor-ship” is absent in U.S. Black culture as a norm for developing “responsible, community oriented adults.” Thus, Black cultural identity is developed in a place, the African village, and in the U.S. Black extended family. Research shows that both institutions serve to benefit its members but one is absent of the rituals needed to create community and the other is absent of the resources needed to maintain community. The movement from rural to urban or village to city is a migration pattern (urbanization) that causes the abandonment of some traditional ways that should stay in place for the betterment of the human family.
Understanding the absence of the traditional ways or more contemporary ways of developing human beings is a very large part of understanding the Absence Identity Theory.
The village is the dwelling place, the home of many people from various tribes (ethnicities) on the African continent. It is perceived to be rural and has existed for as long as human beings have been in Africa. The village value system is a term that describes how the people of the village conducted their lives, it shows what they valued or deemed important in their lives. Research has revealed that the basis for how the village functioned stands on the foundation of the family, for the full development of all of its members, full development meaning from birth to the ancestor-life. Using the village of Ode Remo, Nigeria, what I call the village value system is explained in the context of the West African Religion of the Yoruba called Ifa. While all Africans did not practice Ifa, the Yoruba religion and village life will be used to create examples that support the Absence Identity Theory and other points throughout this paper. This is an acceptable approach based on information provided by Cheik Anta Diop in his book ‘Cultural Unity of Black Africa’. “It is generally conceded that mankind originated in Africa. This makes the African man the father and the African woman, in partnership with the man, the mother [creators] of a functioning family unit. This major step in human development laid the foundation for the organization of all subsequent societies and institutions.” (Diop, 28) Further, Ifa is a religion with a history known through ancient stories and scriptures that are similar to other religious histories of tribes in various parts of Africa hinting at a similar origin or one belief common to many African people. That belief took forms of different characters due to migration to other parts of the African continent.
[1]Ifa is taught through the sanctification of the extended family. Sanctification
means making sacred. In practical terms related to family it means everyone
in the community has a job, everybody gets spiritual and practical training to
advance to the next job, and everybody has a responsibility to train those who
are younger. The six year olds sweep the yard in front of the house and sing to
Esu, asking him to keep disruption from the door. The ten year olds help gather
wood asking Osoosi to guide them to a fresh supply [of wood]. The fourteen
year olds walk to the river for water singing to Osun. Ile awao ni ile ara meaning
Ifa is a mystery school and the school is a family. The school is not a monastery
up on a hill, it isn’t some secret place in a cave, there are no classroom and you
don’t receive a certificate on graduation. It is the structure of the family that is
transcendent, not the faces of the particular people who fill positions of leadership
at any given time.
[2]The absence of the village value system and rituals created a void for Black Africans brought into American Chattel Slavery. The absence of going through phases or rites of passage from child to ancestor is the reason why there is an absence of Black cultural identity among African Americans, Black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean and, I would argue, urban Black Africans. The most vicious part of slavery was its attack on the village value system, the family. The tearing apart of the structure that instilled self-esteem, protection, love, womanhood and manhood was deadly to the identity development of African Americans. The destruction can be felt to this day in the absence that causes a lack of positive cultural “identity, purpose and direction.”
[3] The absence of identity is filled with confusion because America, at its beginning, had no identity unique to one ethnic group, though it has always been presented as being born of Europe through Columbus’ exploration. The absence of a national American identity affected the Black Diaspora in the U.S. because the frontier myth is key to understanding why Black cultural identity had to be an ‘improvised’ identity, one that did not “live in the present” but survived in the present with each moment of each day being in a survival mode to hold on to ones humanity. Black culture was created ‘in the moment’ from historical events beyond the control of those who were creating it, just as jazz, an African American artistic creation, mirrors the creation of Black cultural identity. Based on the myth of the “welcoming land, the limitless opportunity for success and the good fight against darkness” in the form of the indigenous peoples, the frontier myth created interest in the way of life in the colonies for other Europeans to immigrate to the New World which created a greater demand from African labor.
The Black extended family, in the U.S. is an institution that developed to replace the missing (absent) African village and the value system that was present in the village. The village way of life guaranteed the formation of a cultural identity by making sure that all members of the village were valued and their full development through the five stages of initiation rites would prepare them to make decisions in life and to be responsible enough to guide future generations born into the village as they move through their stages of initiation. “The five initiation rites are birth, adulthood, marriage, eldership, and “ancestor-ship” (ManuAmpim.com) and will be discussed further in the section on ‘Absence by failure to be present’.
The goal of the Absence Identity Theory is to explain absences in Black life and culture by identifying elements that were removed from Black cultural practices because of a disconnection with place (Africa, the family, knowing ones place). It attempts to discover what replaced the missing (absent) parts, to define the effects of the absence on the place and its people, and to look for characteristics of the village value system present in the Black extended family in the U.S. The ultimate goal is to communicate the idea (s) of going back to Africa as the source of Black cultural identity in the U.S. and to assist persons, on any level of inquiry, who have questions or have wondered who they are, where they come from and how they are connected to the African continent as a Black person outside of Africa or in Africa but are away from the village and the village value system. Understanding fully that “Black presence in the U.S. is ‘so full of strong feeling perhaps we are oblivious to the loss of anything.” (Henderson, Morison, 27)
[1] Ocelot, Michel, Kirikou Film 1998 and The Griot. Film
[2] Fatunmbi, Awo Falokun. Inner Peace the Yoruba Concept of Ori. Athelia Henrietta Press Publishing in the Name of Orunmila. Brooklyn, NY. 2005
[3] Daniels, Ron. North Star News vantage Point: The Crisis of youth Violence and the Demand for Reparations. October 28, 2009 http://www.northstarnews.com/columns/dr_ron_daniels/article/1610/
