The Puerto Rican Asili: An Afrocentric Revision of Boricua Culture and History

Abstract

This study consists of an Afrocentric historical and cultural revision of the country of Borikén (Puerto Rico). The project interrogates the African aspects that continue to provide Puerto Ricans with a “national” character despite colonialism and other structural challenges. Through archival methodology and a comparative cultural analysis, it offers a new interpretation of Latin American and Caribbean history with regards to African phenomena and experience there. A proposed conceptual overview unites Cheikh Anta Diop’s theory of African Cultural Unity and Marimba Ani’s conceptual framework of the asili and presents the Puerto Rican asili (cultural seed) as unharmonious with a European utamawazo (institutionalized thought) and an African utamoroho (collective cultural behavior). Many African cultural aspects coming from the Bantu, Yoruba and Akan belief systems including some that assimilate Ancient Egyptian (Kemetic) customs, were observed in Puerto Rico and its history, and framed as part of an encompassing African cultural unity.