Everything about The African Diaspora totally explained
The
African diaspora was the movement of Africans and their descendants to places throughout the world - predominantly to the
Americas, then later to
Europe, the
Middle East and other corners of the globe. Much of the African diaspora is descended from people who were
enslaved and shipped to the Americas during the
Atlantic slave trade, with the largest population living in
Brazil (see
Afro-Brazilian). People of Sub-Saharan descent) number over 900 million, representing around 14% of the world's population.
History
Prehistoric Africans who left the continent within the past 100,000 years are the ancestors of all non-African humans. But as communities began to form, especially in
Egypt and the
Middle East, these migrations were greatly reduced because the only land route out of the African continent is through the
Sinai Peninsula. After the rise of civilization and the development of
sailing, black Africans traveled to the Middle East,
Europe, and
Asia in a number of occupations. Many of these individuals settled in Europe and Asia and invariably intermarried with the local populations. Today research has discovered
mitochondrial DNA and
Y chromosome haplotypes in Europeans and Asians that indicate distant African ancestry. But these early migrations out of Africa are dwarfed by those associated with the
Atlantic and
Arab slave trades.
Dispersal through slavery
Much of the African diaspora was dispersed throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas during the
Atlantic and
Arab Slave Trades. Beginning in the 9th century, African slaves were taken from the
northern and
eastern portions of the continent into the Middle East and Asia. Then beginning in the 15th century, Africans were taken from much of the rest of the continent, especially
West Africa, to Europe and later to the Americas. Both the Arab and Atlantic slave trades ended in the 19th century.
The dispersal through slave trading is representative of one of the largest migrations in human history. The economic effect on the African continent was devastating. Some communities created by descendants of
sub-Saharan African slaves in Europe and Asia have survived to the modern day but in most cases Africans intermarried with non-Africans and their descendants blended into the local population. In the Americas, the confluence of multiple racial groups from around the world created a widespread mixing bowl effect. In
Central and
South America most people are descended from European,
American Indian, and African ancestry. In Brazil, where in 1888 nearly half the population was descended from African slaves, the variation of physical characteristics extends across a broad range. In the United States, racist
Jim Crow and
anti-miscegenation laws maintained a distinction between racial groups lead to the adoption of the
one drop rule which defined anyone with any discernible African ancestry as African even though the strictest application of that rule would categorize nearly all Americans as African.
Juan Garrido was one such black
conquistador. He crossed the Atlantic as a
freedman in the 1510s and participated in the siege of Tenochtitlan.
African immigration has become the primary force in the modern diaspora. It is estimated that the current population of recent
African immigrants to the United States alone is over 600,000.. Countries with the most immigrants to the U.S. are
Nigeria,
Ghana,
Ethiopia,
Eritrea,
Egypt,
Sierra Leone,
Somalia, and
South Africa. Some immigrants have come from
Angola,
Cape Verde,
Mozambique(see
Luso American),
Equatorial Guinea,
Kenya, and
Cameroon. Immigrants typically congregate in
urban areas, moving to
suburban areas over time.
There are significant populations of African immigrants in many other countries around the world, including the
UK and
France.
Intra-Africa
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza writes that often diaspora studies focus too much on the Atlantic slave trade. He describes the four dominant dimensions of the global African diasporas: the intra-Africa, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and Atlantic diasporas. The intra-Africa diaspora concerns itself with the movement of people between the nations of Africa. It is still an emerging area of research for Western scholars.
Indian & Pacific Oceans
More broadly, the African diaspora comprises the descendants of the indigenous peoples of Africa, wherever they're in the world outside Africa itself. Some
Pan-Africanists also consider other
Africoid peoples as diasporic African peoples (
Negrito). These groups include, among others, peoples of the
Malay Peninsula (
Orang Asli);
New Guinea (Papuans);
Andamanese; certain peoples of the
Indian subcontinent, notably
Dravidians such as
Tamils; and the
aboriginal peoples of
Melanesia and
Micronesia.
Definitions
The
African Union has defined the African diaspora as "[consisting] of people of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union." Its constitutive act declares that it'll "invite and encourage the full participation of the African Diaspora as an important part of our Continent, in the building of the African Union."
Most societies that apply the "black" label on the basis of a person's ancestry justify it as to applying to members of the African diaspora. Between 1500 and 1900, approximately four million enslaved African were transported to island plantations in the
Indian Ocean, about eight million were shipped to Mediterranean-area countries, and about eleven million survived the
Middle Passage to the
New World. Their descendants are now found around the globe. Due to intermarriage and genetic assimilation, just who is a descendant of the African diaspora isn't entirely self-evident.
A few examples of populations on continents away from Africa who are seen as "Black" or who see themselves as "Black" because they descend from native Africans are: African Americans and many Latin Americans.
African Americans — (see description above) or visit
African American.
Afro-Latin Americans — Among the
Afro-Latin American populations in South and Central America, there are populations that identify as
negros. Some identify as Afro-Latin Americans when they've high levels of admixture of other ethnicities, as well.
Afro-Arabs — Various people of the
Middle East whose ancestors were brought during the
Arab slave trade period.
Siddis — Black people of African descent in
Pakistan and
India. Many share the similar name "Saeed" (Sheedis, Shudra, and Siddi).
Estimated population and distribution
| Continent / Country |
ountry population |
Afro-descendants |
opulation |
| Caribbean |
39,148,115 |
73.2% |
30,671,508 |
| Haiti |
8,924,553 |
97.5% |
8,701,439 |
| Dominican Republic |
9,507,133 |
84.00% |
7,985,991 |
| Cuba |
11,423,925 |
62.00% |
7,082,834 |
| Jamaica |
2,804,332 |
97.4% |
2,731,419 |
| Trinidad and Tobago |
1,047,366 |
58.00% |
607,472 |
| Puerto Rico |
3,958,128 |
8.00% |
316,650* |
| The Bahamas |
307,451 |
85.00% |
261,333 |
| Barbados |
281,968 |
90.00% |
253,771 |
| Netherlands Antilles |
225,369 |
85.00% |
191,564 |
| Saint Lucia |
172,884 |
82.5% |
142,629 |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
118,432 |
85.00% |
100,667
|
| Virgin Islands |
108,210 |
79.70% |
86,243 |
| Grenada |
90,343 |
95.00% |
81,309 |
| Bermuda |
66,536 |
61.20% |
40,720 |
| Antigua and Barbuda |
78,000 |
94.90% |
63,000 |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis |
39,619 |
98.00% |
38,827 |
| Cayman Islands |
47,862 |
60.00% |
28,717 |
| British Virgin Islands |
24,004 |
83.00% |
19,923 |
| Europe |
190,856,462.00 |
2.1% |
4,017,583 |
| France |
62,752,136 |
3.0% |
5,000,000 |
| United Kingdom |
60,609,153 |
1.9% (inc. partial) |
2,015,400 |
| Italy, |
|
1.3% |
755,000
|
| Spain |
40,397,842 |
1.3% |
505,400 |
| Netherlands |
16,491,461 |
1.8% |
300,000 |
| Portugal |
10,605,870 |
2.0% |
201,200 |
| Russia |
400,000 |
0.12% |
141,594,000 |
| South America/Central America |
425,664,476 |
23.9% |
101,532,873 |
| Belize |
301,270 |
31.00% |
93,394 |
| Guatemala |
13,002,206 |
2.00% |
260,044 |
| El Salvador |
7,066,403 |
< 0.01% |
0* |
| Honduras |
7,639,327 |
2.00% |
352,787 |
| Nicaragua |
5,785,846 |
9.00% |
520,726 |
| Costa Rica |
4,195,914 |
3.00% |
125,877 |
| Panama |
3,292,693 |
14.00% |
460,977 |
| Colombia |
45,013,674 |
21.00% |
9,452,872 |
| Venezuela |
26,414,815 |
10.00% |
2,641,481 |
| Guyana |
770,794 |
36.00% |
277,486 |
| Suriname |
475,996 |
47.00% |
223,718 |
| French Guiana |
199,509 |
66.00% |
131,676 |
| Brazil |
191,908,598 |
44.70% |
85,783,143 |
| Ecuador |
13,927,650 |
3.00% |
417,830 |
| Peru |
29,180,899 |
3.00% |
875,427 |
| Bolivia |
9,247,816 |
1.1% |
108,000 |
| Chile |
16,454,143 |
< 0.1% |
0* |
| Paraguay |
6,831,306 |
< 0.1% |
0* |
| Argentina |
40,677,348 |
< 0.1% |
0* |
| Uruguay |
3,477,778 |
4.00% |
139,111
|
| North America |
440,244,038 |
11.8% |
39,264,514 |
| United States |
298,444,215 |
12.90% |
38,499,304 |
| Canada |
33,098,932 |
2.7% |
662,210 |
| Mexico |
108,700,891 |
<1.00% |
103,000 |
| Oceania |
|
|
|
| Australia |
21,000,000 |
0.9% (includes partial) |
248,605 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa |
770,300,000 |
99% |
767,000,000 |
| Outside Africa |
5,821,000,000 |
2.9% |
168,879,165 |
| Total |
6,581,000,000 |
14.2% |
936,384,565 |
(*)Note that population statistics from different sources and countries use highly divergent methods of rating the "race", ethnicity, or national or genetic origin of individuals, from observing for color and racial characteristics, to asking the person to choose from a set of pre-defined choices, sometimes with an Other category, and sometimes with an open-ended option, and sometimes not, which different national populations tend to choose in divergent ways. Color and visual characteristics were considered an invalid way to determine the genetic "racial" branch in anthopology (the field of science that original conceived of "race", as a genetic branch of people who could have a relative success together compared with other branches, now considered invalid) as of 1910, thus not fully reflecting the percentage of the population who actually are of African heritage.
Top 11 African Diaspora populations
| Country |
opulation |
ank |
| Brazil |
85,783,143 |
1 |
| United States |
38,499,304 |
2 |
| Colombia |
9,452,872 |
3 |
| Haiti |
8,701,439 |
4 |
| Dominican Republic |
7,985,991 |
5 |
| Cuba |
7,082,834 |
6 |
| France |
5,000,000 |
7 |
| Jamaica |
2,731,419 |
8 |
| Venezuela |
2,641,481 |
9 |
|
2,015,400 |
10 |
|
1,047,366 |
11 |
North America
Several migration waves to the Americas, as well as relocations within the Americas, have brought people of African descent to North America. According to the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the first African populations came to North America in the 16th century via
Mexico and the
Caribbean to the
Spanish colonies of
Florida,
Texas and other parts of the South. Out of the 12 million people from Africa who were shipped to the
Americas during the
transatlantic slave trade, 645,000 were shipped to the
British colonies on the North American mainland and the United States; another 1,840,000 arrived at other British colonies, chiefly the
West Indies. In 2000, African Americans comprised 12.1 percent of the total population in the United States, constituting the largest racial minority group. The African American population is concentrated in the southern states and urban areas.
In the construction of the African Diaspora, the transatlantic slave trade is often considered the defining element, but people of African descent have engaged in eleven other migration movements involving North America since the 16th century, many being voluntary migrations, although undertaken in exploitative and hostile environments.
1.7 million people in the United States are descended from voluntary immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa (sometimes referred to as the African neo-diaspora). African immigrants represent 6 percent of all immigrants to the United States and almost 5 percent of the African American community nationwide. About 57 percent immigrated between 1990 and 2000. Immigrants born in Africa constitute 1.6 percent of the black population. People of the African immigrant diaspora are the most educated population group in the United States — 50 percent have bachelor's or advanced degrees, compared to 23 percent of native-born Americans.
The largest African immigrant communities in the United States are in
New York, followed by
California,
Texas, and
Maryland. The census surveys have no provision for a "multiracial" or "biracial" self-identity, but since 2000, respondents may check off more than one box and claim multiple ethnicity that way.
Latin America
At an intermediate level, in
Latin America and in the former plantations in and around the Indian Ocean, descendants of enslaved people are a bit harder to define because many people are mixed in demographic proportion to the original slave population. In places that imported relatively few slaves (like
Argentina or
Bolivia), few if any are considered Black today. In places that imported many enslaved people (like
Brazil or
Dominican Republic), the number is larger, but all are still of mixed ancestry.
Europe
There are about 1.2 million
British Afro-Caribbeans, a group largely attributable to immigration from the
British West Indies after
World War II. Of course these Afro-Caribbeans were chiefly descended from diasporic Africans brought to the West Indies centuries before by the slave trade.
France has about 12 million residents of African descent, largely from North Africa: Algeria (between 4 and 6 million) and the Maghreb generally (around 8 million), the Netherlands ca. 700,000, and
Germany ca. 300,000. Altogether, the European population with African ancestry is estimated at more than 5 million.
The Americas
- African Americans - There are an estimated 40 million people of African descent in the US. Note that this figure (here, and in the chart, above) directly conflicts with information in this same article that says that 30% of US people have genetic content from the [post1400] African diaspora.
- Afro-Latin American - There are an estimated 100 million people of African descent living in Latin America, making up 45 % of Brazil's population. There are also sizeable African populations in Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
- The population in the Caribbean is approximately 31 million. Significant numbers of African-descended people include Haiti - 8 million, Cuba - 7 million, Dominican Republic - 7.9 million, Jamaica - 2.7 million,Puerto Rico
Canada
Much of the earliest black presence in
Canada came from the
United States, comprising former slaves who escaped along the
Underground Railroad to locations in
Nova Scotia and
Southwestern Ontario. Slavery had begun to be outlawed in
British North America as early as 1793. Later black immigration to Canada came primarily from the
Caribbean, in such numbers that fully 70 per cent of all blacks now in Canada are of Caribbean origin.
As a result of the prominence of Caribbean immigration, the term "African Canadian", while sometimes used to refer to the minority of Canadian blacks who have direct African or African American heritage, is
not normally used to denote black Canadians. Blacks of Caribbean origin are usually denoted as "West Indian Canadian", "Caribbean Canadian" or more rarely "Afro-Caribbean Canadian", but there remains no widely used alternative to "Black Canadian" which is considered inclusive of both the African Canadian and Caribbean Canadian communities.
Europe
United Kingdom
1.5 million (inc.
British Mixed) split evenly between
African-Caribbeans and Africans, see also
Black British.
see:
Black British
France
5 million of Sub-Saharan African descent.
Netherlands
300, 000 of Surinamese descent.
Russia
While there may have been black people in
Russia early on the first blacks in Russia was the result of slave trade by the
Ottoman empire and their descendants still live on the coasts of the
Black Sea.
Czar Peter the Great was recommended by his friend Lefort to bring in Africans to Russia for hard labor.
Alexander Pushkin was the descendant of the African slave
Abram Petrovich Gannibal, who became Peter's protege, was educated as a
military engineer in France, and eventually became general-en-chef, responsible for the building of sea forts and
canals in Russia.
During the 1930s fifteen
Black American families moved to the
Soviet Union as agricultural experts.As African states
became independent in the 1960s, the
Soviet Union offered them the chance to study in Russia; over 40 years, 400,000 African students came, and many settled there.
Note that there are also non-African people within the former Soviet Union who are colloquially referred to as "the blacks" (
chernye), and often face social discrimination.
Gypsies,
Georgians, and
Tatars fall into this category .
See also
Racism in modern Russia.
Turkey
Afro-Turks, gives an estimate of 2 million for the people of (full or partial) African ancestry (of any
skin color), who live on the littoral between
Antalya and
Istanbul.
Further Information
Get more info on 'African Diaspora'.
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