Afro-Caribbean people

Caribbean people with Sub-Saharan African ancestry From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Africans (primarily from West and Central Africa) taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the trans-Atlantic slave trade between the 15th and 19th centuries to work primarily on various sugar plantations and in domestic households. Other names for the ethnic group include Black Caribbean, Afro- or Black West Indian, or Afro- or Black Antillean. The term West Indian Creole has also been used to refer to Afro-Caribbean people,[30] as well as other ethnic and racial groups in the region,[31][32][33] though there remains debate about its use to refer to Afro-Caribbean people specifically.[34][35] The term Afro-Caribbean was not coined by Caribbean people themselves but was first used by European Americans in the late 1960s.[36]

Haiti8.9 million[2]
United States2.88 million[3]
Jamaica2 million[4]
Dominican Republic2 million[5]
Quick facts Total population, Regions with significant populations ...
Afro-Caribbean people
Afro-Caribbean volunteer soldiers of the West Indies Regiment Q 1916.
Total population
c. 23.6 million (2025 est.)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Haiti8.9 million[2]
 United States2.88 million[3]
 Jamaica2 million[4]
 Dominican Republic2 million[5]
 France1.2 million[6]
 Cuba1.03 million[7]
 United Kingdom1.0 million[8]
 Trinidad and Tobago517,000[9]
Canada383,533[10]
Bahamas372,000[11]
 Puerto Rico342,000[12]
 Martinique273,985[13]
 Barbados253,771[14]
 Guyana225,860[15]
 Suriname202,500[16]
 Saint Lucia173,765[17]
 Curaçao148,000[18]
 Grenada101,309[19]
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines98,693[20]
 Belize93,394[21]
 Antigua and Barbuda106,365[22]
 U.S. Virgin Islands80,868[23]
 Dominica72,660[24]
 Honduras51,000 (approx) in Bay Islands Department[25]
 Saint Kitts and Nevis38,827[26]
 Cayman Islands18,837[27]
 Aruba15,000 (approx)[28]
 Montserrat4,389[29]
Languages
English
Bahamian • Barbadian • Bay Islands • Bermudian • Belizean • Cayman Islands • Jamaican Standard • Puerto Rican • Samaná • Trinidadian and Tobagonian
English Creole
Antiguan and Barbudan • Bahamian • Bajan • Belizean • Bocas del Toro • Garifuna • Guyanese • Grenadian • Jamaican • Limonese • Miskito Coast • Montserrat • Rama Cay • Saint Kitts • San Andrés–Providencia • Sranan Tongo • Tobagonian • Trinidadian • Turks and Caicos • Vincentian • Virgin Islands
French
French Creole
Haitian • Antillean • Dominican • Grenadian • Guadeloupean • Martinican • Saint Lucian • San Miguel • Trinidadian
Spanish
Dominican Spanish • Puerto Rican Spanish • Cuban Spanish
Papiamento
Dutch
Surinamese Dutch
Religion
Majority:
Minority:
Related ethnic groups
Afro-Haitians • Afro-Jamaicans • Afro–Trinidadians and Tobagonians • Afro-Barbadians • Afro–Saint Lucians • Afro-Grenadians • Afro-Dominicans (Dominica) • Afro–Antiguans and Barbudans • Afro-Curaçaoans • Afro-Saint Kitts and Nevisian • Afro-Bahamians • Afro-Cubans • Afro-Puerto Ricans • Afro-Dominicans (Dominican Republic) • African Americans • Afro-Colombians • Afro-Venezuelans
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People of Afro-Caribbean descent today are largely of West African and Central African ancestry, and may additionally be of other origins, including European, Chinese, South Asian and Amerindian descent, as there has been extensive intermarriage and unions among the peoples of the Caribbean over the centuries.

Although most Afro-Caribbean people today continue to reside in English, French, Dutch, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations and territories, there are also significant diaspora populations throughout the Western world, especially in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands. Caribbean peoples are predominantly of Christian faith, though some practice African-derived or syncretic religions, such as Santeria, Vodou and Winti. Many speak creole languages, such as Haitian Creole, Jamaican Patois, Sranantongo, Saint Lucian Creole, Martinican Creole or Papiamento.

Both the home and diaspora populations have produced a number of individuals who have had a notable influence on modern African, Caribbean and Western societies; they include political activists such as Marcus Garvey and C. L. R. James; writers and theorists such as Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon; US military leader and statesman Colin Powell; athletes such as Usain Bolt, Tim Duncan and David Ortiz; and musicians Bob Marley, Nicki Minaj, Wyclef Jean, Rihanna, and the actor and musician Jacob Anderson.

History

Main article: Afro-Caribbean history

16th–18th centuries

During the post-Columbian era, the archipelagos and islands of the Caribbean were the first sites of African diaspora dispersal in the western Atlantic.

In the early 16th century, more Africans began to enter the population of the Spanish Caribbean colonies, sometimes arriving as free men of mixed ancestry or as indentured servants, but increasingly as enslaved workers and servants. This increasing demand for African labour in the Caribbean was in part the result of massive depopulation of the native Taíno and other Indigenous peoples caused by the new infectious diseases, harsh conditions, and warfare brought by European colonists. By the mid-16th century, the slave trade from West Africa to the Caribbean was so profitable that Francis Drake and John Hawkins were prepared to engage in piracy as well as break Spanish colonial laws, in order to forcibly transport approximately 1500 enslaved people from Sierra Leone to Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic).[37]

During the 17th and 18th centuries, European colonial development in the Caribbean became increasingly reliant on plantation slavery to cultivate and process the lucrative commodity crop of sugarcane. On many islands shortly before the end of the 18th century, the enslaved Afro-Caribbean people greatly outnumbered their European masters. In addition, there developed a class of free people of color, especially in the French islands, where certain individuals of mixed race were given rights.[38] On Saint-Domingue, free people of color and slaves rebelled against harsh conditions, and constant inter-imperial warfare. Inspired by French revolutionary sentiments which pronounced all men free and equal, Toussaint L'Ouverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines led the Haitian Revolution. When it became independent in 1804, Haiti became the first Afro-Caribbean republic in the Western Hemisphere and the first state which was both free from slavery (though not from forced labour)[39] and ruled by non-whites and former captives.[40]

19th–20th centuries

In 1804, Haiti, with its overwhelmingly African population and leadership, became the second nation in the Americas to win independence from a European state. During the 19th century, continuous waves of rebellion, such as the Baptist War, led by Sam Sharpe in Jamaica, created the conditions for the incremental abolition of slavery in the region by various colonial powers. Great Britain abolished slavery in its holdings in 1834. Cuba was the last island to be emancipated, when Spain abolished slavery in its colonies.

During the 20th century, Afro-Caribbean people, who were a majority in many Caribbean societies, began to assert their cultural, economic, and political rights with more vigor on the world stage. Marcus Garvey was among many influential immigrants to the United States from Jamaica, expanding his UNIA movement in New York City and the U.S.[41] Afro-Caribbean people, such as Claude McKay and Eric D. Walrond, were influential in the Harlem Renaissance as artists and writers.[42][43][44] Aimé Césaire developed a négritude movement.[45]

In the 1960s, the West Indian territories were given their political independence from British colonial rule. They were pre-eminent in creating new cultural forms such as reggae music, calypso and Rastafari within the Caribbean. Beyond the region, a developing Afro-Caribbean diaspora in the United States, including such figures as Stokely Carmichael and DJ Kool Herc, was influential in the development of the Black Power movement of the 1960s and the hip-hop movement of the 1980s. African-Caribbean individuals also contributed to cultural developments in Europe, as evidenced by influential theorists such as Frantz Fanon[46] and Stuart Hall.[47]

Notable people

Politics

Science and philosophy

Arts and culture

Sports

Main groups

Genetic ancestry

Average proportions of African, West Eurasian (European and MENA), Native American and Asian admixtures in Caribbean countries and dependencies:

More information Country, Population ...
Population estimates, as of 1 July 2023[49]
Country Population[49] African % West Eurasian % Native American % Asian % Source (study) Sample size
Bahamas 413,000 74.4% 17.3% 8.3% 0.0% Simms et al. 2012[50] 756
Barbados 282,000 88.0% 11.0% 1.0% 0.0% Montinaro et al. 2015[51] 75
Cuba 11,020,000 21.0% 71.0% 8.0% 0.0% Fortes-Lima et al. 2018[52] 860
Dominica 72,000 56.0% 28.0% 16.0% 0.0% Torres et al. 2013[53] 37
Dominican Republic 11,331,000 38.0% 52.0% 10.0% 0.0% Mathias et al. 2016[54] 47
Grenada 117,000 81.0% 12.0% 7.0% 0.0% Torres et al. 2013[53] 48
Haiti 11,637,000 95.4% 4.3% 0.3% 0.0% Simms et al. 2010[55] 111
Jamaica 2,840,000 82.0% 10.0% 8.0% 0.0% Torres et al. 2013[53] 44
Puerto Rico 3,242,000 21.0% 61.0% 18.0% 0.0% Pérez-Mayoral et al. 2019[56] 831
Saint Kitts and Nevis 51,000 85.9% 8.2% 5.9% 0.0% Torres et al. 2013[53] 47
Saint Lucia 179,000 75.0% 18.0% 7.0% 0.0% Torres et al. 2013[53] 50
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 111,000 81.0% 13.0% 6.0% 0.0% Torres et al. 2013[53] 51
Trinidad and Tobago 1,503,000 75.0% 15.8% 9.2% 0.0% Torres et al. 2013[53] 43
U.S. Virgin Islands 86,000 77.4% 16.9% 5.7% 0.0% Torres et al. 2013[53] 99
Anguilla 16,000 - - - - - -
Antigua and Barbuda 101,000 - - - - - -
Aruba 108,000 - - - - - -
Belize 411,000 - - - - - -
Bonaire 25,000 - - - - - -
British Virgin Islands 39,000 - - - - - -
Cayman Islands 88,000 - - - - - -
Curaçao 185,000 - - - - - -
Guadeloupe 377,000 - - - - - -
Guyana 826,000 - - - - - -
Martinique 346,000 - - - - - -
Montserrat 4,000 - - - - - -
Saba 2,000 - - - - - -
Saint Barthelemy 11,000 - - - - - -
Saint Martin 31,000 - - - - - -
Sint Eustatius 3,000 - - - - - -
Sint Maarten 58,000 - - - - - -
Suriname 629,000 - - - - - -
Turks and Caicos 49,000 - - - - - -
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Culture

Main page: Category:Afro-Caribbean culture

See also

References

External links

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