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 places around the
globe.
The term
is applied in particular to the descendents of the Black Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas by way of the
Atlantic slave trade, with the
largest population in Brazil
(see
Afro-Brazilian).People of
Sub-Saharan descent number at least 800
million in Africa and over 140 million in the Western Hemisphere,
representing around 14% of the world's population.
History
Based on
human genetics, it is widely
believed that
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, human genetic research suggests that
mitochondrial DNA and
Y chromosome haplotypes in Europeans and Asians have 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 to Europe and
later to the Americas. Both the Arab and Atlantic slave trades
ended in the 19th century.
The dispersal through slave trading represents one of the largest
migrations in human history. The economic effect on the African
continent was devastating. Some communities created by descendants
of
Black 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
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. The adoption of the
one drop rule defined anyone with any
discernible African ancestry as African, even though the strictest
application of that rule would categorize nearly all Americans as
African.
Dispersal through migration
From the very onset of Spanish activity in the Americas, Africans
were present both as voluntary expeditionaries and as involuntary
colonists.
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
.
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 Black 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. Their descendants are now found
around the globe. Due to intermarriage and genetic assimilation,
just who is a descendant of the Black African diaspora is not
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 Black Africans are:
- Afro-Caribbeans. People in the West Indies who identify
themselves as of African descent.
- Afro-Latin Americans. Among
these populations in South and Central America are those who
identify as negros. Some identify as Afro-Latin Americans
when they have high levels of admixture of other ethnicities, as
well.
Estimated population and distribution
| Continent or region |
Country population |
Afro-descendants |
Black and black-mixed population |
Caribbean |
39,148,115 |
73.2% |
22,715,518 |
Haiti |
8,924,553 |
95% |
8,701,439 |
Dominican Republic |
9,650,054 |
84% |
8,106,054 |
Cuba |
11,451,652 |
34.9% |
3,999,626 |
Jamaica |
2,804,332 |
97.4% |
2,731,419 |
Trinidad and Tobago |
1,047,366 |
58.00% |
607,472 |
| Puerto Rico |
3,958,128 |
11.30% |
447,268* |
The Bahamas |
307,451 |
85.00% |
209,000 |
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 |
110,000 |
91.00% |
101,309 |
Antigua and Barbuda |
78,000 |
94.90% |
63,000 |
Bermuda |
66,536 |
61.20% |
40,720 |
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 |
| Turks and Caicos
islands |
26,000 |
34.00% |
18,000 |
|
| Europe |
590,856,462.00 |
4.1% |
9,300,999 |
| France |
62,752,136 |
5% (inc. French Guiana and other
territories) |
3,000,000 |
Netherlands |
16,491,461 |
3.1% |
507,000 |
United Kingdom |
60,609,153 |
3.0% (inc. partial) |
2,015,400 |
Italy
|| 59,448,163 || 1.3% || 755,000
|
Turkey |
73,914,000 |
?% |
700,000 |
Spain |
40,397,842 |
1.3% |
505,400 |
Germany |
82,000,000 |
0.6% |
500,000[12228] |
Russia |
141,594,000 |
0.12% |
400,000 |
Portugal |
10,605,870 |
2.0% |
201,200 |
Sweden |
9,263,872 |
?% |
70,000 |
Belgium |
10,666,866 |
?% |
45,000 |
Republic of Ireland |
4,339,000 |
1.1% |
43,000 |
|
Finland |
5,340,783 |
?% |
20,000 |
Poland |
38,082,000 |
0.002% |
5,780 |
Hungary |
10,198,325 |
0.003% |
321 |
|
| Asia |
3,879,000,000 |
?% |
? |
Israel |
7,411,000 |
2.8% |
200,000 |
Japan |
127,756,815 |
?% |
10,000 - |
India |
1,132,446,000 |
.003% |
40,000 |
Pakistan |
172,900,000 |
?% |
10,000 |
China |
1,321,851,888 |
?% |
8,000+ |
Singapore |
4,839,400 |
?% |
6,900 |
| 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% |
152,787 |
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 |
26.0% |
11,703,555 |
Venezuela |
26,414,815 |
Between 10-26.5% |
2,641,481 - 6,999,926* |
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% |
783,795 |
Mexico |
108,700,891 |
<1.00%></1.00%> |
103,000 |
| Oceania |
|
|
|
| Australia |
21,000,000 |
0.9% (includes partial) |
248,605 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa |
770,300,000 |
95.8%-98.4% |
738,160,600-758,197,730 |
| Kenya |
39,002,772 |
99% |
38,612,744 |
Madagascar |
19,625,000 |
0-79%(latter including mixed) |
0-15,503,750 |
Mauritius |
1,227,078 |
27%(including mixed) |
331,311 |
Réunion |
827,000 |
no official figures allowed;estimates for Creoles range from 15% and
59.4%.
Estimates for only African/Malagasy go up
to 35%
INSEE estimated the creole population at 42%
in 1974
|
347,340-491,238 |
| South Africa |
49,320,000 |
79.5%-88.4%(latter including mixed) |
39,209,400-43,598,880 |
| Tanzania |
41,048,532 |
99% |
40,638,047 |
Zimbabwe |
11,392,629 |
98% |
11,164,776 |
| Outside Africa |
5,821,000,000 |
2.9% |
168,879,165 |
| Total |
6,591,000,000 |
13.8%-14% |
907,039,760-927,076,890 |
(*)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 15 African diaspora populations
| Country |
Population |
Rank |
|
85,783,143 |
1 |
|
38,499,304 |
2 |
|
9,452,872 |
3 |
|
8,701,439 |
4 |
|
7,985,991 |
5 |
|
3,000,000 |
6 |
|
2,731,419 |
7 |
|
2,641,481 - 6,999,926 |
8 |
|
2,080,000 |
9 |
|
1,126,894 |
10 |
|
875,427 |
11 |
|
800,000 |
12 |
|
783,795 |
13 |
|
750,000 |
14 |
|
610,000 |
15 |
|
520,726 |
16 |
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.
In the
1860s, people from sub-Saharan
Africa, mainly from West Africa and
the Cape Verde
Islands
, started to arrive in a voluntary immigration wave
to seek employment as whalers in Massachusetts
. This migration continued until restrictive
laws were enacted in 1921 that in effect closed the door on
non-Europeans, but by that time, men of African ancestry were
already a majority in New
England
’s whaling industry, with African Americans working
as sailors, blacksmiths, shipbuilders, officers, and owners,
eventually bringing their trade to California.
1.7 million people in the United States are descended from
voluntary immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. 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 states with the highest percentages of
Africans in their total populations are the District of
Columbia
, followed by Mississippi
, and Louisiana
. Refugees represent a minority.
U.S. Bureau of the Census categorizes the population by race based
on self-identification. 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 Chile), few if
any are considered Black today. In places that
imported many enslaved people (like Brazil or Dominican
Republic), the number is larger, but most are of mixed
ancestry.
Europe
The Situation in EuropeIn Council of Europe countries, African
Diasporans and their descendants are neither specifically
identified nor described in national statistics by the colour of
their skin. At best, both first and subsequent generations are
described in national statistics as “foreign born citizens”. Of 42
countries surveyed by a European Commission against Racism and
Intolerance study in 2007, it was found that 29 collected official
statistics on country of birth, 37 on citizenship, 24 on religion,
26 on language, 6 on country of birth of parents, and 22 on
nationality or ethnicity. The major result of this routine is that
even though people of African descent may outnumber other ethnic
minorities in some European countries, there is no statistical
evidence to support the notion that they may qualify for special
measures as minorities where they live. They are, in a word:
invisible. (In "Basic Facts About the African Diaspora", by M.
Arthur Robinson Diakité, www.thelundian.com .
United Kingdom
2 million (not including
British
Mixed) split evenly between
Afro-Caribbeans and
Africans.
France
Estimates of 2 to 3 million of African descent, although 1/4 of the
Afro-French or French African population live in overseas
territories.
see:
Afro-French
Netherlands
About
500,000 of Surinamese and Dutch Antilles descent. They mainly live in the islands of Aruba
, Bonaire
, Curacao
and Saint
Martin
(which is half French), but many Afro-Dutch people
also live in the Netherlands.
Russia
The first
blacks in Russia were 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).
Gypsies,
Georgians, and
Tatars
fall into this category .
See also: Racism in modern
Russia.
Turkey
Beginning
several centuries ago, a number of sub-Saharan Africans, usually
via Zanzibar
and from places like Kenya, Sudan
, Ghana, Nigeria were brought
by Turkish slave traders during the
Ottoman Empire to plantations around Dalaman
, Menderes and Gediz valleys, Manavgat
, and Çukurova
.
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. There are also sizeable African populations
in Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
- The
population in the Caribbean is approximately 23 million. Significant numbers
of African-descended people include Haiti - 8 million,
Dominican
Republic - 7.9 million, and Jamaica - 2.7 million,
Canada
Much of
the earliest black presence in Canada came from
the United
States, comprising African Americans who came as Loyalists
or 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 and
Caribbean black communities in Canada.
Indian and Pacific Oceans
Some
Pan-Africanists also consider
other
Africoid peoples as diasporic African
peoples.
These groups include, among others, Negritos, such as in the case of the peoples of the
Malay Peninsula (Orang Asli); New Guinea
(Papuans); Andamanese;
certain peoples of the Indian
subcontinent, notably Vedda people
and Dravidians such as Tamils; and the aboriginal peoples of Melanesia and Micronesia. Most of these claims
are rejected by mainstream ethnologists
as pseudoscience and
pseudoanthropology as part of ideologically motivated Afrocentrist irredentism, touted primarily among some
extremist elements in the United States who do not reflect on the mainstream African-American community.
Mainstream anthropologists determine that the
Andamanese and others are part of a network of
Proto-Australoid and
Paleo Mediterranean ethnic groups
present in
South Asia that trace their
genetic ancestry to a migratory sequence that culminated in the
Australian aboriginals rather
than from African peoples directly (though indirectly, they did
originate from prehistoric groups out of Africa as did all human
beings on this planet).
See also
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