Outline five characteristics of the african community.

The phrasing of this question is problematic because there is no one singular African community, nor a single culture shared by all African communities. Nonetheless, we can observe certain commonalities based on shared history and geographical proximity. First, there is the extended identity of the African diaspora. The diaspora include all of the African continent as well as African-descended peoples living in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. The African diaspora includes, for example,...

The phrasing of this question is problematic because there is no one singular African community, nor a single culture shared by all African communities. Nonetheless, we can observe certain commonalities based on shared history and geographical proximity. First, there is the extended identity of the African diaspora. The diaspora include all of the African continent as well as African-descended peoples living in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. The African diaspora includes, for example, Afro-Cuban, African-American, and Afro-British cultural communities. These communities may share certain similarities in language or religious expression with the continental African communities from which they are descended. A second characteristic shared by many African communities is multiple languages. Many African communities share a common tribal language, as well as a second national language such as English or French. In some communities, it is common for people to speak up to three or four different languages. 

A third characteristic is the shared history common to geographically proximate African states. For example, countries on the west coast of Africa share similar language, food, and customs, in part due to a shared history of British conquest. The same can be said of East Africa, in which nations close to each other share similar cultural traits based on the influence of Islam. Similarly, these communities may share local cuisine, which can be traced back to influences from colonial settlements or from shared trade routes and cross-cultural interaction. Finally, a fifth common characteristic of African communities is the importance and centrality of folktales and spoken stories. The West African archetype of the griot (or storyteller) is one salient example.