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The African Diaspora in the Americas (The Caribbean, Latin America and the U.S.)

Purpose of this Guide

Free natives of Dominica. Image from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints DivisionThe purpose of this guide is to help you identify resources about the African Diaspora (also refers to as the Black Diaspora) experience in the Americas (North, Central, South and the Caribbean) using the library and other reliable online resources for your research.

 

Tip: Black is the preferred term used to describe African immigrants and African descendants regardless of country of origin in databases and online catalogs. Keep that in mind when searching for articles and books!

 

 

 

 

Photo caption: Free natives of Dominica. Image from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

The African Diaspora in the Americas

What does the African Diaspora in the Americas refer to? Jen Bouchard explains that this term refers to the descendants of the Africans "enslaved" from various regions of the continent and shipped across the Atlantic to work in plantations (Bouchard 12-13). According to Behrendt:

The trans-Atlantic slave trade brings to mind images of haphazard, disorganized plunder that randomly scattered about eleven million African people throughout the Americas. When one examines information contained in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, however, one detects patterns in this forced diaspora. Many vessels sailing under Portuguese flag, for example, transported enslaved Africans from West-Central Africa to Brazil; many Dutch ships sailed from the Gold Coast to Surinam. Colonial power and mercantilism provide one reason to explain these trans-Atlantic routes made by slaving vessels (Behrendt, 2008).

This inhumane Atlantic Slave Trade laid the foundations of the diverse African Diasporas whose African languages and cultures the slave system suppressed and largely but not entirely destroyed. Africans in the Americas are as diverse as the countries they originally came from. Depending on the region, the colonial experience, and the country of origin, Africans in the Americas may speak the following languages: “Haitian Creole, English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Papiamento, Dutch, English creole, and some African languages such as Yoruba” (Bouchard 12-13). The languages spoken may also include Garinagu and Lengua Palenkera. Likewise, their religious practices reflect the syncretism between African spiritual beliefs and Christian faiths. For example, Haitian Vodou, Jamaican Rastafarianism, Cuban and Puerto Rican Santería, Brazilian Candomblé, among others, are religions that African descendants have developed in the Americas over the last 200 years.

 

While the transatlantic slave trade brought hundreds of thousands of "enslaved" Africans to the U.S., significant voluntary migration from Africa is a relatively new trend. According to Anderson, "One factor behind this recent wave can be traced to the Refugee Act of 1980, which made it easier for those fleeing conflict-ridden areas, like Somalia and Ethiopia, to resettle in the U.S." (Anderson, 2017).

 

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