"Historical and Cultural Atlas of African Americans"
History matters because it helps us as individuals and as societies to understand why our societies are the way they are and what they value.As Professor Penelope J Corfield says: "Why on earth does it matter what happened long ago?
The answer is that History is inescapable.
African American culture has African American culture has made enormous contributions to the cultures of the world.
The impact is particularly significant in the American context because African American culture is a major component of what constitutes being American.
In this regard Africa in America has meant that America is more than a European nation or an African nation, it is a combination of two important elements as well as many other cultural influences that provide the special character of the American nation.
African American culture is also African at it's most elemental and functional fundamental level; from the construction of sentences to the choosing of music, the legacy and heritage of thousands of years of human response to the African environment impacts upon the 370 years of the African American sojourn in North America.