But the one thing that black folks can be sure of is that their ancestry lies in Africa, which itself has a strong, and vibrant history. And the term African American is an effort to connect the black Americans living in the United States today to the same rich and full ancestral background that men and women who were not enslaved get to enjoy.

The culture of American blacks is very different from that of African culture. An interesting example of this is the conflict that arose when in 1816, a popular movement emerged at the time with the goal of repatriating freed blacks to their ancestral homeland. An American colony was planned in Africa, a constitution drafted modeled after the US constitution, and boats of former slaves were sent to colonize. The black American colonists did not mix with their African counterparts and there were essentially 2 societies there, which went to war with each other many times. The result of this experiment is Liberia, which is still a fragmented society even today.