Inuyash fan's African Burial Ground paper

The African Burial Ground is an interesting place. It was once a cemetary filled with corpses of free and enslaved Africans. The entire cemetary itself had a estimated 10,000-20,000 bodies. Yet, despite so large a cemetary, it was lost and forgotten until almost 200 years later.


The Dutch had established the African Burial Ground when they were in control of New York. The Dutch brought slaves from mostly West Africa. The slaves were captured and forced unto ships headed to the New World. Once in New York, the slaves helped to build the city we now know as New York city. Many died- from sickness, starvation, and exhausation. The graves were without tombstones. Sadly,their names are lost to history.

Eventually, the British took control and forced the Dutch to surrender New York. The British paved over the ABG (African Burial Ground). As of result, it was forgotten and lost for almost 200 years until 1991. In 1991, the goverment of New York was building a new building when the construction workers found human remains. ( Though the city knew of the cemetary, the goverment thought it would be destroyed under all the concrete). Construction was stopped and archaelogists investigated. They found 40 percent of the corpses to be that of kids. Only a small plot was recovered with 419 bodies. The rest is lost under buildings and concrete- perhaps destroyed.
A few signs were found with the corpses:
Nsoroma "Guardianship"
Denkyem "Adaptability"
Akomantosa "Understanding"
All these signs are from a West African culture. These signs stand for many things such as Matie Masie which means "Wisdom and Prudence." The African Burial Ground teaches us many things like that art and beliefs of the West African culture. It helps us learn from the past for if we cannot learn from the past we cannot learn from the past, we cannto prepare for the inevitable future.
Sancova- "Learn from the past".