African diaspora in the Americas

Total population
unknown
Regions with significant populations
United States	46,936,733[1]
Brazil	14,517,961[2]
Haiti	8,583,759[3]
Colombia	4,671,160[4][5][6][7][8]
Jamaica	2,700,000[9]
Venezuela	2,641,481[10][11]
Mexico	1,386,556[12]
Canada	1,300,540[13]
Ecuador	1,200,000[14]
Cuba	1,034,044[15]
Dominican Republic	1,029,535[16]
Puerto Rico	1,000,000[17]
Peru	850,000[18]
Panamá	623,053[19][20]
Trinidad and Tobago	452,536[21]
Barbados	256,706[22]
Guyana	225,860[23]
Suriname	200,406[24][25][26]
Argentina	149,493[27]
Grenada	101,309[28]
Languages
English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Papiamento, Dutch
Religion
Christianity, Rastafari, Afro-American religions, Traditional African religions, Islam, others
Related ethnic groups
African diaspora, Maroons

The African diaspora in the Americas refers to the people born in the Americas with partial, predominant, or complete sub-Saharan African ancestry. Many are descendants of persons enslaved in Africa and transferred to the Americas by Europeans, then forced to work mostly in European-owned mines and plantations, between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

History

After the United States achieved independence, next came the independence of Haiti, a country populated almost entirely by people of African descent and the second American colony to win its independence from European colonial powers. After the process of independence, many countries have encouraged European immigration to America, thus reducing the proportion of black and mulatto population throughout the country: Brazil, the United States, and the Dominican Republic. Miscegenation and more flexible concepts of race have also reduced the overall population identifying as black in Latin America, whereas the one-drop rule in the United States has had the opposite effect.^[29]

From 21 to 25 November 1995, the Continental Congress of Black Peoples of the Americas was held. Black people still face discrimination in most parts of the continent. According to David D.E. Ferrari, vice president of the World Bank for the Region of Latin America and the Caribbean, black people have lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, more frequent and more widespread diseases, higher rates of illiteracy and lower income than Americans of different ethnic origin. Women, also the subjects of gender discrimination, suffer worse living conditions.

Today

In Brazil, with 6.9% of phenotypically Black population and 43.8% of pardo (mestizo), poverty is common. It is nevertheless important to note that the´Pardo category includes all mulattoes, zambos and the result of their intermixing with other groups, but it is majority of European descent, with most White Brazilians having at least one recent African and/or Native American ancestor and Pardos also being caboclos, descendants of Whites and Amerindians, or mestizos. There are more definitions of the differences and social disparity between blacks and "non-white or pardo" than whites in Brazil in the Black people article section.

According to various studies, the main genetic contribution to Brazilians is European (always above 65%, and an American study found it as high as 77%), and Pardos possess a higher degree of African descent when compared to the general White Brazilian and African-Brazilian populations (the previous mostly with some detectable non-white ancestor and the latter highly miscegenated) and exhibit a greater Amerindian contribution in areas such as the Amazon Basin and a stronger African contribution in the areas of historical slavery such as Southeastern Brazil and coastal Northeastern cities, nevertheless both are present in all regions, and that physical features did much correlate with detectable ancestry in many instances.^{[30][31][32][33][34][35]}

On 4 November 2008, the first mulatto U.S. president, Barack Obama, won 52% of the vote. His father was an African man from Kenya and his mother a white woman from Kansas.^[36]

Table

African diaspora in the Americas by percentage of population

Country	Percentage of population
Haiti	95%
Saint Kitts and Nevis	93%
Jamaica	92%
The Bahamas	90.6%
Barbados	90%
Turks and Caicos	90%
Antigua and Barbuda	90%
Dominica	87%
Saint Lucia	85%
Grenada	82%
Martinique	80%
Guadeloupe	77%
Vincent and the Grenadines	66%
French Guiana	66%
Bermuda	55%
Brazil	7%
Suriname	37%
Guyana	36%
Cuba	35%
Trinidad and Tobago	34.2%[37]
Belize	31%
Puerto Rico	16%
Panama	14%
United States	13.6%[1]
Colombia	9.34%[38]
Dominican Republic	10%[39]
Ecuador	10%
Nicaragua	9%
Costa Rica	8%[40]
Uruguay	4%[41]
Canada	3.5%[13]
Peru	9%[42]
Venezuela	2.9%[43]
Chile	2%
Mexico	1.2%

Notable people of African descent in the Americas

Related bibliography

• Ethnic domination and racist discourse in Spain and Latin America. Dijk, Teun A. van. van. Gedisa Editorial SA ISBN 84-7432-997-3
• Gender, class and race in Latin America: some contributions. Luna, Lola G. Ed PPU, SA ISBN 84-7665-959-8
• Gender, race and class "color" desensientes Latinas. Impoexports, Colombia, Yumbo
• Afro Atlantic Histories resource, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.