A poster of "African Reparation, Reconciliation and Restoration Conference"
The 'African diaspora' is the
diaspora created by the movements and cultures of
Africans and their descendants throughout the world, to places such as the
Americas, (including
the United States,
Canada, the
Caribbean,
Central America, and
South America)
Europe and
Asia. 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).
Definitions
More broadly, the African diaspora comprises the descendants of the indigenous peoples of Africa, wherever they are in the world outside Africa itself.
Pan-Africanists often also consider other
Africoid peoples as diasporic African peoples. These groups include, among others, the
Malay Peninsula (
Orang Asli),
[1],
New Guinea,
[2],
Andamanese, certain peoples of the
Indian subcontinent,
[3],
[4], notably
Dravidians such as
Tamils, and the
aboriginal peoples of
Melanesia and
Micronesia.
[5] See also
Black people.
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 shall "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 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.
[1] Their descendants are now found around the globe. Due to intermarriage and genetic assimilation, just who is a descendant of the African diaspora is not entirely self-evident.
North America
British North America imported only about 500,000 Africans out of the 11 million shipped across the Atlantic.
[2] Nevertheless, the United States has preserved two surprisingly distinct genetic populations: one of mostly African ancestry, the other overwhelmingly European.
[3] All other New World states (except Canada) that enslaved African have unimodal Afro-European genetic admixture scatter diagrams. Indeed, two thirds of white Americans have no detectable African ancestry at all, other than the prehistoric African ancestry shared by all humans. Only one-third of white Americans have detectable African
DNA (averaging 2.3 percent) from ancestors who passed through the endogamous color line from black to white.
[4] Furthermore, U.S. government's surveys continue to categorize on a strict color-line. The federal census has no provision for a "multiracial" or "biracial" self-identity and, until 2000, forbade checking off more than one box. The
EEOC has strict regulations defining who is black or white and implicitly denies the existence of mixed people.
Latin America
At an intermediate level, in
Latin America and in the former plantations in and around the Indian Ocean, descendants of enslaved peole 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), few if any are considered Black today.
[5] In places that imported many enslaved people (like
Arabia or
Puerto Rico), the number is larger, but all are still of mixed ancestry.
[6]
Europe
Main articles: Afro-European
Most of the presence of people of African descent living in Europe is not due to slave-trade, but to recent
human migration, chiefly
refugees. There are about 1.2 million
British Afro-Caribbeans, a group largely attributable to immigration from the
British West Indies after
World War II. France has about 4 million residents of African descent (largely from Algeria and the Magreb generally), the Netherlands ca. 700,000, and
Germany ca. 300,000. Altogether, the European population with African ancestry is estimated to ca. 5 million.
There is also some
sub-Saharan DNA admixture in the
genetic history of Europe.
Examples
A few examples of populations who are seen as "Black" or who see themselves as "Black" because they descend from native Africans are: African Americans, many Latin Americans, and most residents of the Republic of South Africa (basically those with "obvious" African features).
'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 with high levels of admixture as well. The difference is that, contrary to the USA, membership in the Black ethnicity is usually by upbringing and not by an imposed concept of
one-droppism.
'
Afro-Arabs' — Various people of the
Middle East whose ancestors were brought during the
Arab slave trade period.
[7]
'
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 | Country population | Afro-descendants | [8]population |
|---|
| Caribbean | 31,475,027.00 | 87.4% | 28,646,333.58 |
|---|
| Haiti | 8,608,504.00 | 95.00% | 8,308,504.00 |
| Jamaica[9] | 2,758,124.00 | 89.20% | 2,708,477.77 |
Jamaica[10] | 303,770.00 | 85.00% | 258,204.50 |
The Bahamas[11][12] | 62,752,136.00 | 3.0% | 1,900,000.00 |
The Bahamas[13] | 16,491,461.00 | 1.8% | 300,000.00 |
The Bahamas[14] | 25,730,435.00 | 10.00% | 2,573,043.50 |
The Bahamas[15] | 298,444,215.00 | 12.90% | 38,499,303.74 |
The Bahamas[16] | 33,098,932.00 | 2% | 662,210 |
The Bahamas[17] 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- 3.8 million, Dominican Republic- 3.3 million, Jamaica - 2.5 million,[18]
Canada
Main articles: African Canadian
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 all black Canadians. Blacks of Caribbean origin may be denoted as "Caribbean Canadian" or "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 - 1.6 million split evenly between African-Caribbeans and Africans. See also Black British.
★ France - 2 million of Sub-Saharan African descent.
★ Netherlands- 300, 000 of Surinamese descent.
Russia
While there may have been black people in Russia early on[19] the first blacks in Russia was the result of slave trade by the Ottoman empire[20] and their descendants still live on the coasts of the Black Sea. Czar Peter the Great was recommended by his friend Lefort to bring Africans to Russia for doing hard work. 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 for building of sea forts and canals in Russia.
During the 1930s fifteen Black American families moved to the Soviet Union as agricultural experts.[21]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.[22][20]
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 [24].
See also Racism in Russia.
See also
★ African American
★ African-Canadian
★ African Caribbean
★ Afro-Cuban
★ African immigration to Puerto Rico
★ Afro-Brazilian
★ Afro-European
★ (Afrodeutsche / Schwarze Deutsche - Black Community in Germany)
★ African-Filipino
★ Afro-Latin American
★ Afro-Mexican
★ Australoid
★ Black people
★ Black French
★ Black people in Ireland
★ British African-Caribbean community
★ Capoid
★ Chagossians
★ History of Africa
★ Negroid
★ Siddi (African community in South Asia)
★ Maafa
★ Black British
External links
★ "African Diaspora", a resource list, Columbia Universities, African Studies
★ "The Blacks of East Bengal: A Native's Perspective," by Horen Tudu
★ "Negrito and Negrillo", by M. Stewart
★ "Pan-Africanism in South Asia," by Horen Tudu
★ ''Report of the Meeting of Experts from Member States on the Definition of the African Diaspora'', African Union, April 2005
★ "West Papua New Guinea: Interview with Foreign Minister Ben Tanggahma"
★ "Museum of the African Diaspora," Online exhibits and other resources from the San Francisco-based museum.
★ "African Diasporic and Indigenous cultures of Colombia and Brasil"
★ African Diaspora and Study Abroad Brazil African Studies
References
1. Pier M. Larson, Reconsidering Trauma, Identity, and the African Diaspora: Enslavement and Historical Memory in Nineteenth-Century Highland Madagascar, ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 56, no. 2 (1999): 335-62.
2. Hugh Thomas, ''The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870'' (New York, 1997), 793, 804-5.
3. Heather E. Collins-Schramm, et al., "Markers that Discriminate Between European and African Ancestry Show Limited Variation Within Africa," ''Human Genetics'', 111 (September 2002), 566-99.
4. Mark D. Shriver and others, "Skin Pigmentation, Biogeographical Ancestry, and Admixture Mapping," ''Human Genetics'', 112 (2003), 387-99.
5. Harry Hoetink, ''Caribbean Race Relations: A Study of Two Variants'' (Lon-don, 1971), xii.
6. Clara E. Rodriguez, "Challenging Racial Hegemony: Puerto Ricans in the United States," in ''Race'', ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek (New Brunswick NJ, 1994), 131-45, 137. See also Frederick P. Bowser, "Colonial Spanish America," in ''Neither Slave Nor Free: The Freedmen of African Descent in the Slave Societies of the New World'', ed. David W. Cohen and Jack P. Greene (Baltimore, 1972), 19-58, 38.
7. A Legacy Hidden in Plain Sight (washingtonpost.com)
8. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
9. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/jm.html>-People
10. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/jm.html> Dominican Republic | 9,183,984.00 | 84.00% | 7,714,546.56 |
Jamaica[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/jm.html>]| Cuba | 11,382,820.00 | 62.00% | 7,057,348.40 |
Jamaica[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/jm.html>]| Trinidad and Tobago | 1,065,842.00 | 58.00% | 618,188.36 |
Jamaica[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/jm.html>]| Guyana | 767,245.00 | 36.00% | 276,208.20 |
Jamaica[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/jm.html>]| Suriname | 439,117.00 | 41.00% | 180,037.97 |
Jamaica[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/jm.html>]The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>-People]
11. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html> Belize | 287,730.00 | 31.00% | 89,196.30 | |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Barbados | 279,912.00 | 90.00% | 251,920.80 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Netherlands Antilles | 221,736.00 | 85.00% | 188,475.60 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| French Guiana | 199,509.00 | 66.00% | 131,675.94 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Saint Lucia | 168,458.00 | 90.00% | 151,612.20 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 117,848.00 | 85.00% | 100,170.80 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Virgin Islands | 108,605.00 | 79.70% | 86,558.19 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Grenada | 89,703.00 | 95.00% | 85,217.85 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Bermuda | 65,773.00 | 61.20% | 40,253.08 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Cayman Islands | 45,436.00 | 60.00% | 27,261.60 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Saint Kitts and Nevis | 39,129.00 | 90.00% | 39,129.00 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| British Virgin Islands | 23,098.00 | 83.00% | 19,171.34 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Puerto Rico | 3,927,188.00 | 8.00% | 314,175.04 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Europe | 150,458,620.00 | 2.3% | 3,512,183.06 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>] France[http://paceebene.org/pace/nvns/nonviolence-news-service-archive/in-officially-colorblind-f]
12. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070205.wxfrance05/BNStory/International/home
13. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html> United Kingdom | 60,609,153.00 | 2.0% | 1,212,183.06 | |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>] Netherlands[http://www.cbs.nl/NR/rdonlyres/2DAFB377-8622-4A6F-9700-8E93EB8EDD61/0/pb01e067.pdf]
14. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html> Portugal | 10,605,870.00 | 0.9% | 100,000.00 | |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| South America/Central America | 319,038,336 | 35.3% | 112,645,204.92 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Brazil | 188,078,227.00 | 44.70% | 84,070,967.47 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Colombia | 43,593,035.00 | 21.00% | 9,154,537.35 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>] Venezuela[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Venezuela.pdf]
15. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html> Ecuador | 13,547,510.00 | 3.00% | 406,425.30 | |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Honduras | 7,326,496.00 | 2.00% | 146,529.92 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Nicaragua | 5,570,129.00 | 9.00% | 501,311.61 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Costa Rica | 4,075,261.00 | 3.00% | 122,257.83 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Panama | 3,191,319.00 | 14.00% | 446,784.66 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Uruguay | 3,431,932.00 | 4.00% | 137,277.28 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| North America | 440,244,038 | 11.8% | 39,264,513.74 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>] United States[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html]
16. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html> Canada[http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/demo52a.htm]
17. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html> Mexico | 108,700,891.00 | <1.00% | 103,000 | | |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Sub-Saharan Africa | 760,000,000 | 99% | 767,000,000 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Outside Africa | 5,821,000,000 | 2.9% | 168,879,165.2 |
The Bahamas[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bf.html>]| Total | 6,581,000,000 | 14.2% | 935,879,165.20 |
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.
Top 10 African Diaspora populations
| Country | Population | Rank |
|---|
| Brazil | 84,070,967 | 1 |
| United States | 38,499,303 | 2 |
| Colombia | 9,154,537 | 3 |
| Haiti | 8,308,504 | 4 |
| Dominican Republic | 7,714,546 | 5 |
| Cuba | 7,057,348 | 6 |
| Venezuela | 2,573,043 | 7 |
| Jamaica | 2,708,477 | 8 |
| France | 1,900,000 | 9 |
| United Kingdom | 1,212,183 | 10 |
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 [post 1400] 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.
[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/br.html cia factbook]
18. http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2004/World_Population_2004_chart.pdf
19. Black colchians black russians yes they exist
20. Лили Голден и Лили Диксон. Телепроект "Черные русские": синопсис. Info on "Black Russians" film project in English
21. A New York Times review of family memoir entitled ''Three Very Rare Generations''
22. MediaRights: Film: Black Russians
23. Лили Голден и Лили Диксон. Телепроект "Черные русские": синопсис. Info on "Black Russians" film project in English
24. ''The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday Economies After Socialism'' By Caroline Humphrey Cornell University 2002 p36-37
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español![Cafe Havana, Guam\](images/articles/thumbs/cafehavanathumb.jpg "Cafe Havana, Guam\")
