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Dispersal through slavery See also: Atlantic Slave Trade and Arab Slave Trade Much of the African diaspora was dispersed throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas during the Arab and the Atlantic Slave Trades. Beginning in the 8th century, Arabs took African slaves from the central and eastern portions of the continent (where they were known as the Zanj) and sold them into markets in the Middle East and eastern Asia. Beginning in the 15th century, Europeans captured or bought African slaves from West Africa and brought them to Europe and later to the Americas. The Atlantic Slave Trade ended in the 19th century, and the Arab Slave Trade ended in the middle of the 20th century.[5] The dispersal through slave trading represents the largest forced migrations in human history. The economic effect on the African continent was devastating. Some communities created by descendants of African slaves in Europe and Asia have survived to the modern day, but in other cases, blacks intermarried with non-blacks, and their descendants blended into the local population. In the Americas, the confluence of multiple ethnic groups from around the world created multi-ethnic societies. 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, there was historically a greater European colonial population in relation to African slaves, especially in the Northern Tier. Racist Jim Crow and anti-miscegenation laws passed after the Reconstruction era in the South in the late nineteenth century, plus waves of vastly increased immigration from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, maintained some distinction between racial groups. In the early 20th century, to institutionalize racial segregation, most southern states adopted the "one drop rule", which defined anyone with any discernible African ancestry as African.[6] Dispersal through voluntary migration See Emigration from Africa for a general treatment of recent population movements. From the very onset of Spanish exploration and colonial activities in the Americas, black Africans participated both as voluntary expeditionaries and as involuntary laborers.[2][7] Juan Garrido was one such black conquistador. He crossed the Atlantic as a freedman in the 1510s and participated in the siege of Tenochtitlan.[8] However, Africans had been present in Asia and Europe long before Columbus' travels. And, beginning in the late 20th century, Africans began to emigrate to Europe and the Americas in increasing numbers, constituting new African Diaspora communities not directly connected with the slave trade. Definitions The African Union 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." Between 1500 and 1900, approximately four million enslaved Africans 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.[9] 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. African diaspora populations include: African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Latin Americans and Black Canadians - descendants of West African slaves brought to the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America during the Atlantic slave trade, plus later voluntary immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa and their descendants. Zanj - descendants of Zanj slaves whose ancestors were brought to the Near East and other parts of Asia during the Arab slave trade.[10] Siddis - descendants of Zanj slaves whose ancestors were brought to the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan and India). Also referred to as the Makrani in Pakistan. African Diaspora and Modernity Studies on the African Diaspora have recently moved in the direction of understanding its role in the formation of modern times. This trend is in reaction to the traditional way in which Africans and its diasporans have been placed in history books, namely, as victims or people without much historical agency. Often Africans and their descendants are portrayed as representatives of primitive culture or slavery. The current consensus among specialists is that viewing the contribution of the African Diaspora to the history of modern times gives us a more complete appreciation of global history. The effect of the African diaspora on modernity can be viewed by the history and culture of the people from the African diaspora. African decedents around the world have kept their ties to the African continent creating a global community. They carried with them their culture, family values, views on government, and their spiritual beliefs.[11] Estimated population and distribution Continent or region Country population Afro-descendants [12] Black and black-mixed population Caribbean 39,148,115 73.2% 22,715,518 Haiti 9,719,932 95% 9,233,935 + 476,277 Dominican Republic [13][14] 10,090,000 84% 1,109,900 + 7,365,700 Cuba[15] 11,239,363 34.9% 1,132,928 + 2,794,106 Jamaica[16] 2,909,714 97.4% 2,653,659 + 180,402 Puerto Rico[17] 3,725,789 15.7% 461,998 + 122,951 Trinidad and Tobago 1,047,366 58.0% 607,472 The Bahamas[18] 307,451 85.0% 209,000 Barbados 281,968 90.0% 253,771 Netherlands Antilles 225,369 85.0% 191,564 Saint Lucia 172,884 82.5% 142,629 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 118,432 85.0% 100,667 US Virgin Islands 108,210 79.7% 86,243 Grenada 110,000 91.0% 101,309 Antigua and Barbuda 78,000 94.9% 63,000 Dominica 71,293 95,7% (86.8% Black + 8.9% Mixed) Bermuda 66,536 61.2% 40,720 Saint Kitts and Nevis 39,619 98.0% 38,827 Cayman Islands 47,862 60.0% 28,717 British Virgin Islands 24,004 83.0% 19,923 Turks and Caicos islands[19] 26,000 > 90.0% 18,000 South America 388,570,461 28.70% 111,511,261 Colombia[14] 45,925,397 4.0% (black) + 3.0% (Zambo) + 14.0% (Mulatto) 1,837,015 + 1,377,762 + 6,429,556 Venezuela[20] 27,227,930 2,8% (black) 181.157 Guyana 770,794 36.0% 277,486 Suriname 475,996 37.0% 223,718 French Guiana 199,509 66.0% 131,676 Brazil 190,732,694 6.84% (black) + 43.80% if including (multiracial) pardo 13,046,116 + 83,540,920 Ecuador[21] 13,927,650 4.9% 680,000 Peru 29,496,000 2.0% 589,920 Bolivia 10,907,778 ~0.5% 54,539 Chile 17,094,270 < 0.1% 0* Paraguay 6,349,000 3.5% (Mulatto) 222,215 Argentina 40,091,359 ~0.12% ~50,000 Uruguay 3,494,382 4.0% 139,775 North America 491,829,020 9.02% 44,361,299 United States[22] 308,745,538 13.6% 42,020,743 Canada[23] 33,098,932 2.7% 783,795 Mexico 108,700,891 < 0.1% 103,000 Belize 301,270 31.0% 93,394 Guatemala 13,002,206 < 1.0% 100,000 El Salvador 7,066,403 < 0.1% 3,000 Honduras 7,639,327 2.0% 152,787 Nicaragua 5,785,846 9.0% 520,726 Costa Rica 4,195,914 3.0% 125,877 Panama 3,292,693 14.0% 460,977 Europe 738,856,462.00 1.0% ~7,834,100 France[24][25] 62,752,136 8.0% (inc. overseas territories) 3,800,000 United Kingdom 60,609,153 3.3% (inc. partial) 2,015,400 Netherlands[26] 16,491,461 3.1% 507,000 Italy[27] 60,020,805 0.5% ~335,000 Spain 40,397,842 0,5% ~200,000 Germany 82,000,000 0.6% 500,000 [28] Russia[29] 141,594,000 0.03% 40,000 Portugal 10,605,870 2.0% 201,200 Norway[30] 4,858,199 1.4% 67,000 Sweden 9,263,872 0.8% > 70,000 Belgium 10,666,866 0.4% 45,000 Republic of Ireland[31] 4,339,000 1.1% 45,000 Switzerland[32] 7,790,000 0.5% > 40,000 Austria 8,356,707 0.2% 14,223 Finland 5,340,783 0.37% 20,000 Ukraine 45,982,000 0.01% 4,500 Hungary[33] 10,198,325 0.0% 321 Asia 3,879,000,000 0.0% ? China[34] 1,321,851,888 0.038% 500,000[35] Israel[36] 7,411,000 2.8% 200,000 India[37] 1,132,446,000 0.0% 40,000 Malaysia[38] 28,334,135 0.11% 31,904 Hong Kong 7,200,000 < 0.3% < 20,000[39] Japan[40] 127,756,815 0.00782% 10,000 – Pakistan 172,900,000 0.0% 10,000 Oceania Australia[41] 21,000,000 ?% ? New Zealand 4,468,200 0.2% 11,500[42] (*)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 anthropology (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. The African diaspora refers to the communities throughout the world that are descended from the historic movement of peoples from Africa, predominantly to the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, among other areas around the globe. The term has been historically applied in particular to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas by way of the Atlantic slave trade, with the largest population in Brazil despite some misconceptions (see Afro-Brazilian), followed by the USA[1] and others.[2] However, African Diaspora discourse and scholarship is changing in recent years to include various other populations of African descent who have been displaced and dispersed due to enslavement, genocide, and other global forces. As such, theories about mythical homelands, collective memory, the experience of racism, and the emergence of Pan-African sentiment are common among notions about the African Diaspora. In the contemporary moment, the ever-increasing demand for labor accounts for the ongoing displacement of Africans.[3] Although four circulatory phases[4] of migration out of Africa has been identified to talk about the African Diaspora, other scholars have entertained the possibility for various forms of diasporization among African-descended people (e.g. McKittrick, 2006). With regard to all historic migrations (forced and voluntary), the African Union 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." |
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