Alright, I seem overly concerned with the well-being of people I don't know in America for unknown reasons today. In particular, their lack of knowledge of their origins. It makes no sense, I know. But I went out of my way to search some distinctly African traits in black Americans (African Americans) to measure how deep the disconnect really is. Sure, these people were deliberately sold into slavery by Africans & African chiefs but I'm sentimental & still feel they should be connected to Africa somehow (if they so wish).
AFRICAN vs NOT AFRICAN.
I've seen a lot of Americans claim that black American music is from Africa & have to say samba from Brazil is the only African-type music in the Americas that I identify as African. Blues, rhythm & blues, hip hop & jazz are just not that distinctly African, so even if they are made by people of African descent, they've become too alienated from the African identity to be classified as African. Some claim athleticism is a distinctly African trait & perhaps it is so but we can't rave on about how athletic we are as black people as a uniting factor. The only other distinctly African art form is also from South America (Brazil), it is capoeira. Capoeira is an African rhythmical martial art from Angola. Reggae is very African-themed but also is not African (N. B. Even if dreadlocks are typically done on African hair, they were not common in precolonial Africa). Drum beating has become universal & is probably the only other trait that black Americans share with Africa as well as the N'goni string instrument & mbira commonly found in capoeira circles worldwide.
YouTube comment: "In pre-colonial & pre-Columbian slavery, people (mainly Europe & Asia) often enslaved tribes & nations close to them. That's why, I think, the Transatlantic slave trade was such a shock. Not only were the people enslaved worlds apart from their enslavers culturally, anatomically & linguistically; it's the scale (numbers) & distance of the whole project that 'absurdifies' it further. I don't think there was ever as massive an undertaking as the Transatlantic slave trade in Asia, north Africa or Europe where slaves couldn't even return to their people after their time of being a slave was done... millions of people being displaced & stripped of their identity by being mixed with other tribes? Nothing of that sort in history has ever happened. The Israelites were just across the river from ancient Egypt & they were several thousands at maximum. Also, the Israelites weren't stripped of their identity. If black Americans weren't stripped of their identity, they would be speaking Igbo, Yoruba (Nigeria), Twi (Ghana), Tsonga (Mozambique) etc. in the Americas; that is how starkly different the Transatlantic slave trade was from other common forms of slavery. There was no 'Alright Kwame, you're old & frail. Here are some finances, you can go back to your tribe.' The black slaves of America died in America, a land that still despises them to this day, that sounds like pure racial hatred than the common 'requiring slave services.'"
On the above YouTube comment; I just noticed that if you need strong slaves to work, you'd sensibly take the male slaves & leave the women. I guess that's another faux pas of the Transatlantic slave trade.
A ray of hope.
I thought black Usonians, typically, were the least African of all black people worldwide & even if that is true, the Gullah / Geechee language in South Carolina managed to keep African words alive in their dialect.
DISCLAIMER: As you might already know by now, I am not American, I don't know what it means to be black American or African American other than what I see on media so don't take offence if my views sound foreign or like someone who has never been to America. I do not have any desire to go to America or be American.
N.B.: Apparently, some West Africa royalty was taken to the Americas during the days of the Transatlantic slave trade, so all kinds of Africans from all classes were selected to be slaves & not just odd people from defeated tribes.