The Antithesis of Our Heritage: Why FBA Distorts Black American Identity

Introduction

Across social media, a conflict has emerged among African and Afro-descendant people that many now call the “Diaspora Wars.” These exchanges are often charged with hostility and confusion, fueled by cultural misunderstandings, attempts to gatekeep Black or African identity, and expressions of internalized white supremacy. What might have been opportunities for dialogue and solidarity have instead too often become a space for ridicule, insults, and division.

One of the loudest voices in this war of words has come from individuals identifying as Foundational Black Americans (FBA). While the idea of honoring African American history and struggle is important, many who claim the FBA label have used it as a platform for anti-African rhetoric. Their arguments are frequently reduced to name-calling, stereotypes, and a rejection of Africa itself. This is not only harmful to the possibility of unity but is the very antithesis of the lineage they claim to represent.

From the 18th century to the present, African American thinkers, leaders, artists, and activists have drawn strength from Africa. They have spoken of Africa as homeland, as spiritual foundation, as political ally, and as a source of pride. To deny that connection is to distort African American identity and to betray the very inheritance passed down by generations who affirmed their ties to Africa in the face of slavery, segregation, and systemic racism. In this article, I will trace those voices across time to show how Africa has been central to African American identity both politically and philosophically.

II. Africa in Early Black Voices

From the earliest days of African presence in North America, the memory of Africa remained a defining force. Enslaved Africans carried with them languages, spiritual practices, agricultural knowledge, and cultural traditions that became the foundation of Black life in America. Even when laws and systems of slavery worked to erase African heritage, memory and identity persisted in song, religion, foodways, and oral history.

By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as the voices of free and literate Black people began to be heard in print and in public life, Africa emerged as both a symbol and a rallying point. For some, Africa represented the ancestral homeland, a place to be cherished despite forced removal. For others, it symbolized strength and dignity in the face of white supremacist claims of Black inferiority. In both cases, Africa was not a distant abstraction but an active element of how African Americans defined themselves and their struggle for freedom.

This period gave rise to some of the earliest written reflections by African Americans on Africa’s meaning. Figures such as Phillis Wheatley, Paul Cuffe, Richard Allen, and David Walker each offered perspectives that, while different in emphasis, affirmed Africa as integral to African American identity. Their words laid a foundation that later generations would return to again and again, demonstrating that connection to Africa has always been part of the African American intellectual and political lineage.

Phillis Wheatley: Africa as Homeland and Equality’s Proof

Phillis Wheatley, the first published African American poet, gave one of the earliest written reflections on Africa. Kidnapped from West Africa as a child and enslaved in Boston, Wheatley referenced Africa in her poetry not simply as a lost homeland but as a way of confronting racism. In her famous poem On Being Brought from Africa to America (1773), she described Africa as her “Pagan land,” reflecting the Christian worldview of her time. Yet she transformed this reference into a radical moral claim: “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, may be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.” For Wheatley, Africa proved that Blackness was no barrier to salvation or human equality. Her words challenged white Christians to recognize the dignity of African people, making Africa a cornerstone in her critique of slavery and racial prejudice.

Paul Cuffe: Africa as Opportunity and Promise

Paul Cuffe, the African American and Wampanoag Quaker ship captain and merchant, linked Black life in America to Africa through commerce and migration. In 1811, he sailed his ship to Sierra Leone, a colony for freed slaves, to explore the possibility of settlement and trade. Unlike those who saw Africa only as a distant origin, Cuffe viewed it as a land of future opportunity. He believed African Americans could contribute to Africa’s development through education, industry, and Christianity, while also finding relief from the crushing racism of the United States. In 1815, at his own expense, he transported thirty-eight African Americans to Sierra Leone, seeing this as the beginning of a broader movement. On January 16, 1817, he wrote that in Sierra Leone, "These few Europeans hath pretty much control of the colony yet the people of colour are entitled to every privilege of a free born subjects.... Yet It cannot be said that they are equal for the prejudice of tradition is precipitous but I believe much lieth at their doors." For Cuffe, Africa was not an exile but a place of dignity and renewal, a partner in building freedom across the Atlantic.

Richard Allen: Africa as Refuge, But America as Home

Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, offered a more cautious vision of Africa. In the early 19th century, when colonization schemes sought to deport free Blacks to Liberia, Allen rejected the idea of forced removal. Allen argues that most Africans (it is important to note that Allen identifies his people as Africans) in the United States have been deliberately kept in ignorance stating only a few can read or write, and fewer still have advanced education. To send such a population “into a far country, among heathens” with the expectation that they could civilize or govern themselves is unrealistic, especially when they themselves have been denied education and Christian instruction. He sees the scheme as a way for slaveholders to rid the United States of free African people, who set an example of liberty that might unsettle the enslaved. He highlights that laws in the South even forbid the enslaved education, making it clear that colonization is designed for the benefit of white slaveholders, not Free African people. At the same time, he acknowledged Africa as a possible refuge for those who wished to go freely. “African Methodists began migrating to Sierra Leone and Liberia in the first half of the 19th century. In these locales, they hoped to find a respite from the oppression they faced in the American South. The AME Church grew in these regions and, later, in South Africa. By the AME denomination’s bicentennial year in 2016, there were six African episcopal districts spanning various regions of the continent.” 

In sermons and writings, Allen affirmed Africa as a homeland of ancestry and as part of God’s plan for Black people, but he rooted his political energy in fighting for equality in the United States. His vision revealed the duality many African Americans felt: tied by heritage to Africa yet determined to claim their place in America.

David Walker: Africa as Greatness and Prophecy

David Walker, the fiery abolitionist and author of the Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829), spoke of Africa with passion and defiance. Walker recalls that the “sons of Africa or of Ham” were the originators of learning. He points to the construction of the pyramids, the channeling of the Nile, and other great works, which later influenced Greece, Rome, and the rest of the world. This legacy of African intellectual and cultural achievement encourages him when reflecting on the degradation of Black people in America. He highlights Hannibal of Carthage as a “mighty son of Africa” and one of the greatest generals of antiquity. Hannibal nearly conquered Rome, and Walker suggests that if Carthage had been united, Rome itself might have fallen. He warns his readers to learn from Carthage’s disunity, comparing it to the divisions among African Americans that allow their enemies to oppress them. 

By invoking Africa’s past, Walker refuted the lie of Black inferiority. He also rejected colonization schemes, arguing that sending African Americans “back” to Africa was a white ploy to strengthen slavery. For Walker, Africa symbolized dignity and divine justice. He prophesied that Africa would rise again, and he linked that destiny with the liberation of Black people in the United States. In his vision, Africa was both a proud history and a promise of future redemption.

Taken together, the voices of Phillis Wheatley, Paul Cuffe, Richard Allen, and David Walker reveal the centrality of Africa to the earliest expressions of African American identity. Wheatley used Africa to assert the spiritual equality of Black people, insisting that African origin was no barrier to salvation or humanity. Cuffe envisioned Africa as a partner in freedom, a land where commerce and migration could build dignity and self-determination. Allen balanced pride in African ancestry with a firm claim to America as home, reflecting the complexity of belonging in two worlds. Walker, more radical, proclaimed Africa’s greatness and predicted its rise, while rejecting efforts to exile Black Americans under the guise of colonization. Though their approaches differed, each affirmed that Africa was inseparable from who African Americans were and what they aspired to be.

III. Africa in the Abolition and Emancipation Era

As the 19th century unfolded, the struggle against slavery intensified both in the United States and across the Atlantic world. The Haitian Revolution had already demonstrated that enslaved Africans could overthrow bondage and establish an independent Black nation. In West Africa, Sierra Leone and Liberia emerged as contested spaces of settlement for freed people of African descent, sponsored by British and American colonization schemes. These developments kept Africa at the forefront of Black political debates, whether as homeland, site of return, or symbol of resistance.

In the United States, abolitionist movements grew stronger, fueled by the voices of formerly enslaved people who could testify directly to the horrors of bondage. For African Americans, Africa remained a powerful reference point. It was used to refute claims of Black inferiority by pointing to Africa’s ancient civilizations, to critique colonization schemes that sought to exile free Blacks, and to inspire visions of redemption and liberation. In this period, Africa was no longer only the land of ancestral memory but also a political stage upon which freedom, dignity, and destiny were contested.

Two figures in particular, Frederick Douglass and Henry Highland Garnet, offered influential but contrasting perspectives. Both drew upon Africa as a vital element of African American identity, yet they differed in whether they believed the future of Black people would be secured in the United States or in Africa.

Frederick Douglass: Africa as Heritage, America as Destiny

Frederick Douglass, perhaps the most influential Black abolitionist of the 19th century, frequently invoked Africa to counter white supremacist claims of Black inferiority. In speeches and writings, he pointed to Africa’s ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Ethiopia, and beyond as proof that Black people had a history of greatness long before slavery. By lifting up Africa’s past, Douglass reminded Americans that the degradation of slavery was not the natural condition of African-descended people but a violent interruption of their heritage.

However, “Douglass self-identified as a citizen of the USA and rejected all arguments that African-Americans had any racial, national or spiritual connection with African peoples...because he was convinced that Anglo-American civilization provided far greater opportunities for individual and collective betterment than relocation to Africa.” Douglass was firmly opposed to colonization schemes that sought to send free Blacks to Africa. He denounced the American Colonization Society, insisting that African Americans were entitled to claim the United States as their rightful home. “This is our country,” he wrote, declaring that Black people had earned citizenship through their centuries of toil and suffering. Yet, in 1854 Douglass “ventured that the liberation of the American Negro slave was inextricably intertwined with the "liberation" of knowledge about ancient African civilization, especially the sub-Saharan "Negroid" origins of Egyptian civilization and what he called the fundamental unity of all Negro peoples.”

Henry Highland Garnet: Africa as Future and Redemption

Henry Highland Garnet, a contemporary of Douglass and an equally passionate abolitionist, saw Africa as both ancestral homeland and future destiny. A Presbyterian minister and fiery orator, Garnet often reminded African Americans, “Remember that you are Africans, and that you must redeem Africa.” Unlike Douglass, he believed voluntary emigration to Africa could provide Black people with the opportunity to build self-governing nations free from the racism of the United States.

Garnet was an early Pan-Africanist who envisioned a global Black struggle against slavery and colonialism. Through organizations like the African Civilization Society, he encouraged migration to Africa as a way to spread education, commerce, and Christianity under Black leadership. His commitment was so strong that near the end of his life, he accepted an appointment as U.S. Minister to Liberia and died there in 1882. For Garnet, Africa was not just the past but also the future, the place where African-descended people could reclaim dignity, sovereignty, and freedom.

Douglass and Garnet represent two different yet complementary currents of African American thought in the abolitionist and emancipation era. Douglass lifted up Africa as a source of historical pride while insisting that the battle for freedom must be fought on American soil, where Black people had a right to citizenship. Garnet, by contrast, looked to Africa as both homeland and future, advocating voluntary migration and envisioning Black-led development across the continent. Together, they reveal the richness of African American engagement with Africa: whether as heritage or destiny, Africa remained central to how Black leaders understood the struggle for liberation.

IV. Africa in Racial Uplift and Pan-Africanism

The late 19th and early 20th centuries marked a turning point for both African Americans and Africans. In the United States, Reconstruction’s promises had collapsed under the weight of white supremacy, Jim Crow segregation, and racial violence. Black leaders responded by developing new strategies of racial uplift, focusing on education, economic advancement, and intellectual achievement as means to counter systemic oppression. At the same time, the Harlem Renaissance and the growth of Black institutions gave rise to a cultural flowering that looked outward to Africa as a source of identity and pride.

Meanwhile, Africa itself was undergoing seismic change. European powers had carved up the continent during the “Scramble for Africa,” subjecting millions to colonial rule. But alongside colonial oppression came growing resistance, with early nationalist movements beginning to form. African Americans watched these developments closely, recognizing that the fight against Jim Crow and the fight against colonialism were linked struggles against global white supremacy.

In this period, three thinkers stand out for how they engaged Africa: Booker T. Washington, who viewed Africa as a field for his philosophy of industrial education; W. E. B. Du Bois, who made Africa central to his vision of Pan-African liberation; and Carter G. Woodson, who fought to reclaim Africa’s history as a weapon against racism. Together, they illustrate how Africa remained an essential reference point in the age of racial uplift and Pan-African thought.

Booker T. Washington: Africa as Field of Practical Uplift

Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute, extended his philosophy of industrial education to Africa. He believed that African Americans, trained in agriculture, industry, and practical trades, could serve as models for African development. Washington encouraged the spread of Tuskegee’s approach abroad and welcomed African students to study in the United States. While he did not advocate mass migration to Africa, he saw the continent as a place where African Americans could contribute knowledge and skills, helping to promote progress under colonial rule. “Washington actively propagandized against the atrocities taking place in the Congo Free State under King Leopold. He became vice president of the Friends of the Congo in addition to lobbying the White House on issues related to the Congo. In the wake of the Liberian Crisis Booker T. Washington would host and facilitate negotiations on behalf of Liberia.  Serving  as key negotiator Washington managed to ensure the security of  Liberia from encroachment by French, British and German colonial forces in Africa.”

Washington’s view of Africa reflected his larger philosophy: dignity and advancement would come through hard work, education, and economic strength. He saw the African and the African American in a shared struggle for liberation, equality, and justice.

W. E. B. Du Bois: Africa as Center of the Global Color Line

W. E. B. Du Bois placed Africa at the heart of his global vision. He declared that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line,” and for him that line ran directly through Africa. Du Bois celebrated Africa’s civilizations in works such as The Negro (1915) and later The World and Africa (1947), rejecting racist portrayals of the continent as primitive. More importantly, he was a founder of modern Pan-Africanism. Beginning with the Pan-African Conference of 1900 and continuing through multiple Pan-African Congresses, Du Bois sought to link African American struggles to the liberation of Africa from colonial rule. His commitment was lifelong, culminating in his move to Ghana in 1961, where he worked on the Encyclopedia Africana until his death. For Du Bois, Africa was both a civilizational foundation and the political future of the Black world.

Carter G. Woodson: Africa as Historical Weapon Against Racism

Carter G. Woodson, known as the “Father of Black History,” understood Africa as central to the project of reclaiming dignity for African-descended people. In his Journal of Negro History and works such as The African Background Outlined (1936), he highlighted the histories of Egypt, Ethiopia, Mali, and other great African civilizations. Woodson argued that white supremacy thrived on historical erasure, teaching that Black history began with slavery. By restoring Africa’s contributions to human progress, he sought to arm African Americans with the knowledge that they were heirs to a long legacy of culture, science, and power. For Woodson, Africa was not only the past but also a tool for resistance in the present, a reminder that knowledge itself was a weapon in the struggle for equality.

Washington, Du Bois, and Woodson represent three distinct yet complementary ways Africa remained central to African American thought in the early 20th century. Washington viewed Africa as a field for practical uplift, where African Americans could share skills and demonstrate progress. Du Bois placed Africa at the core of a Pan-African vision, linking its liberation to the destiny of the diaspora. Woodson emphasized Africa’s history as a foundation for pride and a weapon against racism. Together, they carried forward the long tradition of African Americans affirming Africa as heritage, inspiration, and political horizon.

V. Africa in the Harlem Renaissance and Mid-20th Century Leadership

The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s marked a cultural explosion in African American life. Writers, artists, and musicians embraced Black identity with new pride, and many looked to Africa as a source of inspiration. For some, Africa was a distant and mythic homeland, imagined through art and poetry. For others, it was a living presence, felt in rhythm, blood, and cultural memory. This era deepened the dialogue about what Africa meant to African Americans, setting the stage for more explicitly political connections in the decades to come.

By the mid-20th century, Africa itself was in transition. Movements for independence challenged European colonial rule, with nations like Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya gaining sovereignty. African American leaders closely followed these developments, understanding them as linked to the struggle against segregation and racial oppression in the United States. Cultural pride in Africa merged with political solidarity, making Africa a reference point not only for poets and artists but also for elected officials and civil rights leaders.

Countee Cullen: Africa as Mythic Homeland

Countee Cullen, one of the most celebrated poets of the Harlem Renaissance, wrestled with the meaning of Africa in a deeply personal way. In his famous poem Heritage (1925), he asked, “What is Africa to me?” For Cullen, Africa was a place of ancestral memory, filled with images of jungles, stars, and ancient gods, yet distant and unfamiliar. His Christian faith complicated his connection to Africa, as he described African spirituality as “heathen” and “outlandish.” Still, the poem conveys both longing and loss, capturing the tension of an African American identity shaped by Africa yet severed from it. For Cullen, Africa was symbolic, an imaginative homeland that stirred pride but also a sense of estrangement.

Langston Hughes: Africa as Living Memory and Global Reality

Langston Hughes approached Africa with more immediacy. In poems like The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1921), he claimed Africa’s great rivers, the Nile, the Congo as part of his own blood memory. Hughes traveled to Africa in the 1920s, visiting Dakar, Nigeria, and the Gold Coast, experiences that deepened his connection to the continent. His writings portrayed Africa as both ancient and contemporary, a place of suffering under colonialism and a source of unbroken strength. In Afro-American Fragment (1930), he acknowledged the distance of slavery but affirmed Africa’s presence in song, rhythm, and blood. Hughes’s vision of Africa was at once poetic, political, and deeply embodied, linking African Americans to the struggles and dignity of Africa itself.

Adam Clayton Powell Jr.: Africa as Political Ally

Adam Clayton Powell Jr., pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church and later a powerful congressman, carried the Harlem Renaissance’s cultural pride into political leadership. He saw Africa as an essential ally in the global struggle against racism and imperialism. During the 1940s through the 1960s, Powell advocated for U.S. recognition of African independence movements and built relationships with leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. In Congress, he argued that segregation in the United States weakened America’s credibility with newly independent African nations. For Powell, Africa was not only a cultural homeland but a diplomatic and political partner, linking Black struggles in Harlem to the rise of free nations across the African continent.

In the Harlem Renaissance and the mid-20th century, Africa was embraced in new ways that combined art, memory, and politics. Countee Cullen captured Africa as a distant yet haunting homeland, evoking both longing and estrangement. Langston Hughes made Africa immediate, alive in song, rhythm, and lived travel, connecting African American identity to Africa’s past and present. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. translated cultural pride into political solidarity, forging ties between Black America and Africa’s independence movements. Together, these voices show how Africa remained central to African American identity, expanding from poetic symbol to global political force.

VI. Africa in Civil Rights and Black Power

By the mid-20th century, Africa was at the center of world politics. Decolonization swept the continent, with nations like Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya gaining independence, while liberation movements challenged colonial rule in Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa. For African Americans, these transformations resonated deeply. Leaders of the civil rights and Black Power movements saw their own struggle mirrored in Africa’s fight against colonialism.

During the civil rights era, Africa became both moral inspiration and political leverage. Martin Luther King Jr. looked to Africa’s independence movements, particularly Ghana, as signs of divine justice and evidence that freedom was inevitable. Malcolm X went further, forging direct ties with African leaders and urging African Americans to internationalize their struggle by bringing U.S. racism before the United Nations. In the Black Power era, the Black Panther Party tied their politics to Third World liberation struggles, framing Africa as a revolutionary front. Huey Newton, among others, insisted that the same imperialist forces exploited Africans abroad and Black communities at home.

Together, these leaders made Africa central to the politics of liberation in the United States, weaving cultural pride, global solidarity, and revolutionary strategy into a single vision.

Martin Luther King Jr.: Africa as Moral Inspiration

Martin Luther King Jr. drew inspiration from Africa’s liberation. In 1957, he attended Ghana’s independence ceremonies, where Kwame Nkrumah declared the birth of a free African nation. King described the event as a powerful symbol that “the old order of colonialism is passing away and a new order of freedom and human dignity is coming into being.” King later recalled, “As we walked out, we noticed all over the polo grounds almost a half a million people. They had waited for this hour and this moment for years. King’s reaction to the Ghanaians’ triumph was outwardly emotional. “Before I knew it, I started weeping. I was crying for joy. And I knew about all of the struggles, and all of the pain, and all of the agony that these people had gone through for this moment” For King, Africa’s independence struggles paralleled the African American fight against segregation, showing that history was on the side of justice. He frequently highlighted that U.S. racism weakened America’s standing among African nations during the Cold War. Africa, for King, was both a mirror and a promise and a sign that the arc of history bent toward freedom.

Malcolm X: Africa as Revolutionary Ally

Malcolm X placed Africa at the center of his global politics. After breaking from the Nation of Islam, he traveled widely in Africa, meeting leaders like Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, and Jomo Kenyatta. He saw African nations as allies who could help bring America’s racial hypocrisy before the United Nations. Malcolm declared, “The same man that was colonizing our people in Kenya and in the Congo was colonizing you and me right here in Harlem.” For him, U.S. racism and African colonialism were both products of global white supremacy. His Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) mirrored the Organization of African Unity, reflecting his belief that African Americans and Africans were part of one worldwide struggle. Africa was not only a homeland but also a revolutionary partner in the battle against oppression.

Huey Newton: Africa as Front of Global Struggle

Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, tied Black liberation in the U.S. to African anti-colonial struggles. The Panthers looked to Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa as examples of revolutionary resistance against imperialism. Newton’s theory of “intercommunalism” described a world where imperialism connected local struggles globally, from Oakland to Luanda. The Panthers even established an international office in Algiers, linking their fight to African liberation movements. For Newton, Africa symbolized the broader Third World struggle, proving that Black people in America were part of an international movement for justice.

In the civil rights and Black Power era, Africa became more than a symbol; it was an active political and revolutionary force. Martin Luther King Jr. drew on Africa’s independence as a moral inspiration and critique of U.S. hypocrisy. Malcolm X forged direct ties with African leaders and sought to internationalize the Black struggle through Pan-African solidarity. Huey Newton  carried that vision into revolutionary politics, framing Africa as part of the global fight against imperialism. Together, they showed that to be African American was to be linked to Africa not only by ancestry but by shared struggle and destiny.

VIII. Why FBA Anti-Africanism is a Break, Not Continuity

The voices of African American history, from Phillis Wheatley in the 18th century to Huey Newton in the late 20th century, testify to a deep and enduring investment in Africa. Whether Africa appeared as homeland, spiritual refuge, cultural inspiration, or revolutionary ally, it remained a defining thread in how African Americans made sense of themselves and their place in the world. Across centuries, leaders, poets, and activists have affirmed that Africa was not distant or irrelevant but inseparable from African American identity.

By contrast, the anti-African rhetoric of some who identify as Foundational Black Americans represents a profound rupture with this tradition. Far from continuing the heritage of African American thought, FBA rejection of Africa denies the intellectual, spiritual, and political ties that generations have worked to sustain. To dismiss Africa as foreign or hostile is to ignore the words of Wheatley, who claimed equality through her African origin; Cuffe, who saw Africa as promise and opportunity; Walker, who prophesied Africa’s rise; Du Bois, who made Africa the center of Pan-Africanism; King and Malcolm X, who drew inspiration and solidarity from Africa’s independence; and artists like Hughes, who found in Africa a living memory and source of strength.

Instead of being “foundational,” the anti-African posture of FBA discourse is revisionist and ahistorical. It erases the very lineage it claims to defend, replacing centuries of identification with Africa with hostility and caricature. To cut off Africa from African American identity is to deny the historical record and to embrace a vision rooted not in heritage but in the distortions of white supremacy. True continuity with African American history requires affirming, not rejecting, Africa as a central element of who we are.