“America is not like a blanket — one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt — many pieces, many colors, many sizes all woven and held together by a common thread.” — The Rev. Jesse Jackson
As Jackson infers, American culture is multi-faceted and derived from many disparate contributions. Each individual culture in the United States brings its own aesthetic and thus becomes a part of this country’s complex quilt. Signs of African cultural heritage and tradition are often subtle and may appear to be decorative.

The religious traditions of Africans forced to journey to America can be seen in the objects and symbols that remain in African American cemeteries today. These artifacts suggest the strong and vibrant history of a people, who, in spite of the adverse conditions of slavery, found ways to perpetuate their heritage. They were able to retain their family traditions and religious commitments to the deceased, either by iconography or by more direct representation. This aesthetic developed from combining (or creolizing) writing systems, the particular use of color and asymmetric forms, and the making of objects for daily use. Content was associated with religious beliefs.

Marks and objects in cemeteries that look merely decorative to the uninformed eye may be African signs and symbols. This iconography in cemeteries can be divided into three categories: 1) sign systems of African origins, 2) secular objects as surrogates for ideograms and 3) revival of African traditions, interpreted in new ways. Examples of such African retentions (subconscious transmissions from prior generations) exist in burial grounds and established cemeteries, particularly in the Southern United States.
A cemetery in George Washington National Forest in Amherst County, Va., is a good example. For decades, observers have commented that the gravestones had “strange marks.” Recently, these marks have been identified by this writer as African ideograms originating in Nigeria. The gravestones are inscribed with what appears to be Nsibidi, an Igbo writing system, confirming the survival of Igbo traditions during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Made of high-quality blue slate indigenous to the area and mined from a local quarry, the stones show little damage from weather or time. Subsequently, the place was named the “Seventeen Stones Cemetery.”

The stones were probably engraved between 1770 to 1830, when the Igbo Diaspora was at its height in Virginia. At that time, the Igbo people comprised approximately 70 percent of the blacks in Virginia, a larger percentage than in any other Southern state.

A star symbol at the top of one stone, signifying “congress” or “unity” has similarities to the Kongo cosmogram that depicts the life cycle of birth, life, death and the afterlife. The cosmogram symbol has equal perpendicular crossbars or lines, sometimes contained in a diamond shape or a circle. Here, the linear symbol in the lower register appears to be a combination of the sign for “individual” and “this land is mine.” Together the signs mean the deceased has joined the realm of the ancestors. Both symbols are enclosed in a rectangle, denoting their association. A line separating the symbols emphasizes they are separate but one.

Igbo ideograms were important elements of religious practice and served as mnemonic devices associated with religion and with moral and historical narratives. In Igbo death and burial traditions, Nsibidi symbols honoring the ancestors were thought to protect the deceased. The most appropriate place to honor one’s forefathers was the cemetery. At times, the deceased were consulted for help with day-to-day problems. Items such as chickens, rum and schnapps were offered as gifts for the deceased during a grave-side ceremony.

In the Seventeen Stones Cemetery, an iron pot was found set into the ground, suggesting the possibility of ancestral worship at this site. Historical sources describe how slaves worshiped in the forest by talking to a pot — the retainer for words and thoughts that could not be made public. African inscriptions and accompanying religious practices were outlawed during the period of enslavement. Creating such symbols was punishable by death because of its association with witchcraft. Hence, few examples of African ideograms still exist in the United States.
 
Post-Civil War cemeteries in Virginia also contain examples of Veve, a Haitian writing system created from creolized African writing traditions, such as Nsibidi and the Kongo ideograms from the area now known as Republic of the Congo. African slaves brought Veve to the United States from the Caribbean. Haitian signs used the same methodology as African writing and were thought to protect the wearer, whether living or deceased.

African blacksmiths brought to the Caribbean and the United States during enslavement had been taught signs and symbols during their apprenticeships. These signs have remained pre-eminent in American ironwork for more than 150 years.

Recent field research reveals what appears to be Veve in an African American memorial garden in rural Virginia, but to the untrained eye, Veve can appear to be merely decorative ironwork rather than a conveyor of life concepts. Surrounding groups of graves, wrought iron fences and gates embellished with Veve crests were thought to serve as protection for the occupants.

At some point, a system developed of using ready-made or natural objects to represent values and ideas previously associated with ideograms. It became common to place beside a grave a lamp to light the way to “the other side”or a clock to represent the Kongo cosmogram. These innovations were deemed necessary because of the slaves’ fear of reprisal for displaying African writing or charms. Whites viewed these grave-side objects as secular and thus not related to African religious practices.

The Kongo tradition of placing seashells on or covering a grave was frequently employed at Pine Forest Cemetery in Wilmington, N.C. Shells served as a reminder that the deceased had gone to the watery world of the ancestors, and their reflective properties protected the deceased from haints or bad spirits. An 1896 drawing of Pine Forest Cemetery by Julian Ralph depicted the popular use of seashells in a burial ground. As Ralph toured the South sketching African American rural traditions, he accompanied his drawings with explanatory stories.
One of the most interesting contemporary renewals of African tradition is the use of blue-painted headstones in Pine Forest Cemetery. In some West African cultures, the color blue, used chiefly for architectural embellishment, is considered protective and represents the ancestral world. Ten years ago, during a local movement to improve the appearance of the cemetery, many of the stones were painted a pale blue. Cynthia Brown, the leader of this movement, is descended from a Nigerian-born Igbo who came to North Carolina as a slave. Some of the Pine Forest stones were not painted, although the reason for this is unclear. The recent painting of the stones may be significant as it could be a means of reclaiming African roots.

African American cemeteries reveal an aspect of the history of early African Americans and their attempt to maintain the traditions of the homeland. These cemeteries confirm the existence of African signs, symbols and burial practices brought to the New World. The traditional belief that the soul returns home to Africa connected African Americans to their homeland, thereby allowing them to cheer their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children home.
RACHEL MALCOLM-WOODS is a visiting faculty member in the honors program at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. An art historian and historian, Malcolm-Woods’ speciality is “Material Culture of the African Diaspora.” She is the project director of the Seventeen Stones Restoration and Conservation Project. She is also the curator for the exhibition, Continuities and Innovations: African American Quilts of Virginia, September 12-October 17, 2004, which will be on exhibit in several venues in Harrisonburg and Staunton, Va. For more information, visit the Web site: http://web.jmu.edu/aframquiltsofva.
This article first appeared in The Folk Art Messenger Volume 17, No. 1 Spring/Summer 2004.

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