Guest Post by author C.Nichole

Growing up, we were taught about the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The history textbooks made it, and still make it seem, as Americans of African descent only have a history that starts at slavery. And then after that, it teaches about all the struggles through Jim Crow, civil rights movements, etc. but never about the people as a whole, no cultural references. I am an American of African descent. As a child, I can’t recall knowing that people of African descent were in North and South America anywhere other than the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. I didn’t know until about my mid 20’s that the term “African Diaspora” even existed, which is people of African descent that don’t live on or weren’t born on the African continent. [Read more…]