Where can you Find a Mix of African Spanish and French Cultures
African Spanish and French Cultures
The increasing globalization in the world opened up the barrier for people and let them experience different cultures. People can learn different languages and assimilate different types of cultures in the world into their daily lives, thus creating a new way of doing things. In various cultures, one may find something strange that is maybe normal to others. From a global perspective, there are traditional cultures that stand out because they have roots in ancient civilizations.
To understand cultural studies, it is important to learn about them deeply. The cultures that are on the top in the world are mostly African, Spanish, and French. To comprehend the traditions and values of these different cultures accurately, you must study cultural practices for each.
For those who don’t know, cultural practices are routine behaviors and values shared within a specific community. With a keen eye, you may be able to figure out many examples of the cultural elements around you. Let’s understand African, Spanish, and French separately to analyze the norms and values of these cultures well. So, let’s start!
African Culture
Africa is the world’s second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. In the first place, Africa is a rich and huge continent that has colonization for more than 300 years. Africa has over 50 independent countries and accounts for about 16% of the world’s population. That translates to over 1.2 billion people. Now, while it is easy to homogenize and talk about ‘Black people’, the truth is that within these 54 separate and unique countries, there are in fact over 3000 diverse African tribes.
Two-third of slaves were from West Africa. Like the Spanish, French colonization in Canada harbored dreams of crossing North America through the river. Along the long route of the Cane River, the plantation was developing. The colonial period began from this phase.
The black studies have connections with different ethnic groups with a deviant natural and social environment. The differences occur not only from country to country in Africa, rather it differs even within each country as well. The culture of each ethnic group centers on family and can be found in each group’s art, music, and oral literature. Creoles of African descent have a strong influence on Louisianan culture and vice versa. Louisiana creole attracted few French colonists to make the New World ingredients work.
Spanish Culture
Spain is the world’s second country with the most UNESCO World Heritage cities and third in terms of natural areas. The country is famous around the world for its unique music and dance. It has fantastic beaches with lovely sunshine and therefore many people tend to visit this country for tourism. You should know that Spain is one of the cultural centers of Europe for thousand of years. In Spanish culture, people tend to live their life to the fullest but not in a hurry. Instead, they take their time to deliberately appreciate the world around them. Indigenous people played a critical part in the development of European colonies.
During the Spanish period, a large number of Germans settle up for New Orleans along the German coast. As a colonist, you may argue at different points in cultural perspectives. Spain abolished Native American slavery in the early years of Spanish Louisiana. In Spain, people savor long, multi-course meals and wander vivacious villages and charming cities. Furthermore, this country is home to street culture. With an extraordinary artistic heritage and diverse cultural elements, the country has a very unique Spanish rule which makes it stand in the top list.
French Culture
Broadly, the French culture has a lot of familiar cultural practices and elements from rich African American culture, spawning its take on jazz and blues music in the 20th century. New France – the North American territories claimed by France-once extended from Hudson Bay in present-day Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and from the shores of the North Atlantic to the Great Plains. African slaves interacted with Indian slaves on a daily and intimate basis, effectively undermining the intention of French masters to control the thoughts and actions of their human property. English colonization was in superiority in some regions of France. Get amazed by reading this blog: 5 reasons to use French Translation in USA.
Many people are aware that New Orleans and French-speaking South Louisiana are interlinked. North Louisiana French is familiar with subtle differences in regional groups. The French Creole has been around for millennia and their influence is traceable in history. To the world, the French culture includes good food, remarkable art, and beautiful locations. Ranking 2nd in cultures with the most influence, the French are pretty famous for their flair for romance. You may have heard about colonial Louisiana and the Cuban culture.
Cultural Patterns
Now when you have basic knowledge about all three cultures, you should understand the basic cultural patterns for each of these. They show different aspects including linguistic, religious, or medical practices. So, let’s begin!
Language
The knowledge of most of the individual languages of Africa is still very incomplete, but there are known to be more than 1,500 distinct languages. Due to the great complexity, it has always been difficult to classify the lingoes. Throughout Africa, people speak a variety of languages and mostly each tongue represents a specific area. The four main language families, of this continent, are now Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Afro-Asiatic, and Khoisan.
The Spanish culture has a bit different communication style. Spain has although five official languages including Aranese, Catalan, Galician, Basque (Euskara), and Spanish. In Spanish culture, people stand closely and often touch each other’s arms while conversing. Maintaining eye contact is also important because it delivers a signal that you’re carefully paying attention to their speech.
For the French culture, linguists estimate that there are around 75 regional languages in France. Some of these are taught in schools to the native people, including Occitan, Breton, Basque, Corsican, Alsatian, and certain Melanesian languages such as Tahitian. Every year, 400,000 pupils learn a regional language in France’s state-run and private schools.
Religions
In general, the peoples of northern Africa adhere predominantly to Islam and those in Southern Africa largely to Christianity, although their distributions are not discrete. Some people even have superstitious beliefs about the existence of God in Africa. For instance, African American religious leaders argue that the most important ‘spiritual powers’ are usually associated with things or beings with which people have day-to-day contact or that they know from the past.
In Spanish culture, the most practiced religion is Catholicism and this is highlighted by important popular festivals, such as during Holy Week. Other religions practiced in Spain are Islam, Judaism, Protestantism, and Hinduism, which have their places of worship.
In French Culture, Christianity is in majority in which about 47% overall, with denominations including Catholicism, various branches of Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Armenian Orthodoxy. Moreover, other religions and ethnic groups you’ll find in French culture include Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism amongst others, making France a multiconfessional country. Each of these has different religious practices. Though French and Spanish have links from the 18th century, American people have separated them now.
Where can you find a mix of African Spanish and French cultures?
This question has been circulating. Well, since there is a growing population of free people of color, there can be a lot of cultural differences in a single country. During the eighteenth century, although the French regime consider Louisiana to be a failure in the colonial enterprise, the diverse people of territory proved essential to the nature of imperial relations among French, Spanish, English, and American interests.
From a global perspective, many countries consist of a mix of African, Spanish, and French cultures. The usual suspects lead the list of culturally-diverse countries including Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These and other African countries typically rank high on any diversity index because of their multitude of tribal groups and languages.
