After centuries of denial, suppression and marginalization, the contributions of Afro-Hispanics/Latinos to the arts, culture, and the Spanish spoken in the Americas is gradually gaining recognition as Afro-descendants pursue their quest for visibility and space in Spanish America. Hand in hand with this development is the young generation of Afro-Latinos who, are proud to identify with the black race. Ironically, the young African student has very little knowledge of the presence and actual situation of Afro-descendants in Spanish-speaking America. This is because many African universities still follow the old colonial system which excludes knowledge of the presence and cultures of the once enslaved Africans in the Spanish speaking world. Thus, while Afro-descendants are fighting for visibility and recognition in Spanish America, they remain almost invisible in the African continent. The aim of this paper is to propose a curriculum, Afro-Hispanic Peoples and Culture, as a general studies course in African universities. Such a curriculum would create in Africa the much-needed visibility and contributions of Afro-descendants in Spanish-speaking America, and also foster collaborative works between young African academics and their counterparts in the Americas.
Identity is one of the social constructs that gives a sense of belonging to an individual or a group. While establishing one's identity does not necessarily pose a challenge in one's own country of origin because of certain degrees of homogeneity in language, culture, skin colour, etc., it could be otherwise, whenas a descendant of another race a group is the target of a dominant culture. This paper adopts Link & Phelan's (2001) conceptualization of stigmatoexamine whetherthe return to African traditional religious practices by some Afro-descendants is the ideal coping strategy against the discrimination and identity threat they are subject to.
Spanish in the United States is a heritage language spoken by the largest minority group. It finds itself in a permanent diglossia situation with the more dominant English language and plays a subordinate role in the linguistic landscape. In spite of a noticeable increase in enrollment in Spanish language classes in higher institutions of learning, as well as a growing interest in Hispanic language and culture, data reveal a gradual loss in Spanish retention in the third generation of US born young Latinos/Hispanics. The conclusion is that since Spanish in the United States is already confronted with the "three generation-pattern" or "three generation rule in the third generation of Latino/Hispanic children born in the U.S., it can be said that Spanish as a heritage language in the United States is endangered.
The apparent lack of recognition of the need for Spanish as a foreign language is surprising in Nigeria where only one federal university offers Spanish (Uchechukwu, 2014). Even the Spanish government's Action Plans for Africa (2001Africa ( -2012 (Serrano, 2014). This paper presents the situation of Spanish in Nigeria and poses the question of the country's standin this emerging trend in the West African sub-Saharan region. , efforts at the diplomatic level to foster bilateral relationships through cultural exchange, and introduction of Spanish as a foreign and international language into the African continent did not have any resonancein Nigeria. Investigations however, confirm a tremendous increase in learning Spanish in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa with the francophone countries in the forefront
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