"Jumping The Broom"(7-15-1700)This an

This is an African-American phase and custom for marriage.The significance of the broom to African-American country of Ghana in the 18th century was ruled by the Asante of Ashanti Confederacy.The Asante's urban areas and roads were kept conspicuously clean according to visiting British and Dutch traders with the use of locally made brooms.These same brooms were used by wives or servants to clean the courtyards of palaces or homes.The broom in Asante and other Akan cultures also held spiritual value and symbolized away past wrongs or removing evil spirits.This is where the broom comes into play regarding marriage.Brooms were waved over the heads of marrying couples to ward off spirits.The couple would often but not always jump over the broom at the end of the ceremony.Jumping over the broom symbolized the wife's commitment or willingness to clean the courtyard of the new home she had joined.It expressed her overall commitment to the house.It also represented the determination of who ran the household.Whoever jumped highest over the broom was the decision of who ran the household(usually the man).The jumping of the broom does not add up to a "leap of faith."The irony is that the practice of jumping the broom was largely discarded after Emancipation in America which was consistent with the eventually fall of the Ashanti Confederacy in Ghana in the 1897 and the coming of British customs,Jumping the Broom did survive in the Americas,especially in the U.S., among slaves brought from the Asante area. This particular Akan practice of jumping the broom was picked up by other African ethnic groups in the Americans and used to strengthen marriages during slavery among their communities.Jumping the broom was not a custom of slavery,but is a part of African culture that survived American slavery like the Voodoo religion of the Fon and Ewe ethnic groups or the ring shout ceremony of the BaKongo and Mbundu ethnic groups.With slavery over and superficial hints of racial integration allowed,African-Americans could now have European-style marriages.Jumping the broom had nothing to do with whites.Once African-American could have weddings with rings that were recognizable by anyone as a symbol of marriage,the broom ceremony wasn't required.During this time,jumping the fell out practice from the stigma it carried,and in some cases still carries, among African-Americans who wanted nothing to do with anything associated with that era.The practice survived,and made a resurgence after publication of Alex Haley's books "Roots."