TheAfrican diaspora refers to the worldwide collection of communities that descended frompeople from Africa.[56] The term most commonly refers toemigrants of people of African heritage.[57][58] Scholars typically identify "four circulatory phases" of this migration out of Africa.[59]The first phase includes the ancient migrations of early humans out of Africa, which laid the foundations for the global human population. The second phase centers on the transatlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries, during which millions of Africans were forcibly relocated to the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean. This period significantly shaped the cultural, social, and economic landscapes of many countries. The third phase involves voluntary migrations during the 19th and 20th centuries, often driven by economic opportunities, colonialism, and political upheaval. Lastly, the contemporary phase includes ongoing migrations in the 20th and 21st centuries, characterized by globalization and the pursuit of education, employment, and asylum. The African diaspora has contributed profoundly to global culture, politics, and identity, influencing music, cuisine, language, and social movements worldwide.
The phraseAfrican diaspora gradually entered common usage at the turn of the 21st century.[60] The termdiaspora originates from the Greek wordδιασπορά (diaspora, "scattering") which gained popularity in English in reference to theJewish diaspora before being more broadly applied to other populations.[61] Less commonly, the term has been used in scholarship to refer to more recentemigration from Africa.[62]
TheAfrican Union (AU) defines the African diaspora as consisting: "of people of native or partial 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".[63] 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".[64]
In the late 20th century, Africans began to emigrate to Europe and the Americas in increasing numbers, constituting new African diaspora communities.[65][66][67]
In the Americas, the confluence of multipleethnic groups from around the world contributed to multi-ethnic societies. InCentral andSouth America, most people are descended from European,Native American, and African ancestry. In 1888, in Brazil nearly half the population were people of African descent, the variation of physical characteristics extends across a broad range.[68][69][70]
TheAfrican 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."[63]
Between 1500 and 1900, approximately four million enslaved Africans were transported to island plantations in theIndian Ocean as part of theIndian Ocean slave trade, roughly eight million were shipped northwards as part of theTrans-Saharan slave trade, and roughly eleven million were transported to the Americas as part of theAtlantic slave trade.[71] The diaspora that resulted from the Atlantic slave trade, specifically, may also be referred to as theblack diaspora.[72]
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Many scholars have challenged conventional views of the African diaspora as a mere dispersion of African people. For them, it is a movement of liberation that opposes the implications ofracialization. Their position assumes that Africans and their descendants abroad struggle to reclaim power over their lives through voluntary migration, cultural production and political conceptions and practices. It also implies the presence of cultures of resistance with similar objectives throughout the global diaspora. Thinkers likeW. E. B. Dubois and more recentlyRobin Kelley, for example, have argued that black politics of survival reveal more about the meaning of the African diaspora than labels of ethnicity and race, and degrees of skin hue. From this view, the daily struggle against what they call the "world-historical processes" of racial colonization,capitalism, and Western domination defines blacks' links to Africa.[73]
In the last decades, studies on the African diaspora have shown an interest in the roles thatAfricans played in bringing about modernity. This trend also opposes the traditionaleurocentric perspective that has dominated history books showingAfricans and its diasporans as primitive victims of slavery, and without historical agency. According tohistorianPatrick Manning, blacks toiled at the center of forces that created the modern world.Paul Gilroy describes the suppression of blackness due to imagined and created ideals of nations as "cultural insiderism". Cultural insiderism is used by nations to separate deserving and undeserving groups[74] and requires a "sense of ethnic difference" as mentioned in his bookThe Black Atlantic. Recognizing their contributions offers a comprehensive appreciation of global history.[75]
Cultural and political theoristRichard Iton suggested that diaspora be understood as a "culture of dislocation". For Iton, the traditional approach to the African diaspora focuses on the ruptures associated with the Atlantic slave trade andMiddle Passage, notions of dispersal, and "the cycle of retaining, redeeming, refusing, and retrieving 'Africa.'"[76]: 199 This conventional framework for analyzing the diaspora is dangerous, according to Iton, because it presumes that diaspora exists outside of Africa, thus simultaneously disowning and desiring Africa. Further, Iton suggests a new starting principle for the use of diaspora: "the impossibility of settlement that correlates throughout the modern period with the cluster of disturbances that trouble not only the physically dispersed but those moved without traveling."[76]: 199–200 Iton adds that this impossibility of settlement—this "modern matrix of strange spaces—outside the state but within the empire"—renders notions of black citizenship fanciful, and in fact, "undesirable". Iton argues that we citizenship, a state of statelessness thereby deconstructing colonial sites and narratives in an effort to "de-link geography and power", putting "all space into play" (emphasis added)[76]: 199–200 For Iton, diaspora's potential is represented by a "rediscursive albeit agonistic field of play that might denaturalize the hegemonic representations of modernity as unencumbered and self-generating and bring into clear view its repressed, colonial subscript".[76]: 201
African diaspora populations include:
| Continent or region | Country population | Afro-descendants | [78] African and African-mixed population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caribbean | 41,309,327 | 67% | 27,654,061 |
 Saint Kitts and Nevis | 39,619 | 98% | 38,827 |
 Dominica | 71,293 | 96% (87% African + 9% Mixed) | 61,882 + 9,411 |
 Haiti | 10,646,714 | 95% | 10,114,378 |
 Antigua and Barbuda | 78,000 | 95% | 63,000 |
 Jamaica[79] | 2,812,090 | 92.1% | 2,663,614 |
 Grenada | 110,000 | 91% | 101,309 |
 The Bahamas | 332,634 | 90.6% (African + British mixed) | 301,366 |
 Barbados | 281,968 | 90% | 253,771 |
 Netherlands Antilles | 225,369 | 85% | 191,564 |
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 118,432 | 85% | 100,667 |
 British Virgin Islands | 24,004 | 83% | 19,923 |
 Saint Lucia | 172,884 | 83% | 142,629 |
 Dominican Republic[80][81] | 10,090,000 | 83% (11% Afro, 72% Mixed) | 1,109,900 + 8,000,000 |
 US Virgin Islands | 108,210 | 80% | 86,243 |
 Bermuda | 66,536 | 61% | 40,720 |
 Cayman Islands | 47,862 | 60% | 28,717 |
 Cuba[82] | 11,116,396 | 35% | 3,890,738 |
 Trinidad and Tobago[83] | 1,215,527 | 34.2% | 415,710 |
 Puerto Rico[84] | 3,285,874 | 17.5% (African + Taino mixed) | 558,598 |
| South America | 388,570,461 | N/A | N/A |
 French Guiana | 199,509 | 66% | 131,676 |
 Suriname | 632,638 | 37% | 223,718 |
 Guyana | 770,794 | 36% | 277,486 |
 Colombia[85] | 53,093,632 | 10.6–25% (10% African, 15% Mulattoes, Mixed and other groups) | 7,800,000–13,000,000;Some studies (from the United Nations) suggests that the percentage of Afro-Colombians (including mixed race groups) are around 25% or lower than the entire population in Colombia. The city ofQuibdo, (Chocó)[citation needed] has the highest percentage of Afro-Colombians than any other city in the country with 95.3% of its residents. The Colombian government estimates that 10.6% of Colombia's population are entirely of African descent. |
 Brazil | 213,650,000 | 55.5% | 117,983,981[86] |
 Ecuador[87] | 13,927,650 | 5% | 680,000 |
 Uruguay | 3,494,382 | 4% | 255,074 |
 Venezuela[88] | 27,227,930 | 3% (African) | 1,087,427 |
 Peru | 29,496,000 | 3% | 828,841 |
 Chile | 17,094,270 | 1% | 170,943* |
 Argentina | 46,044,703 | <1% | 302,936 |
 Bolivia | 10,027,254 | <1% | 23,330 |
 Paraguay | 6,109,903 | <1% | 8,013 |
| North America | 450,545,368 | 10% | 42,907,538 |
 United States[89] | 328,745,538 | 12% | 42,020,743According to the genomics company 23andMe, less than 4% of White Americans have 1% or more of African ancestry.[90]Including this figure changes the total to49,241,508 |
 Canada[91] | 39,566,248 | 4% | 1,547,870 |
 Mexico | 108,700,891 | 1% | 1,386,556[92] |
| Central America | 41,283,652 | 4% | 1,453,761 |
 Belize | 301,270 | 31% | 93,394 |
 Panama | 3,292,693 | 11% | 362,196 |
 Nicaragua | 5,785,846 | 9% | 520,726 |
 Costa Rica | 4,195,914 | 3% | 125,877 |
 Honduras | 7,639,327 | 2% | 152,787 |
| Europe | 738,856,462 | 1% | < 8,000,000 |
| France[93] | 68,000,000 | 8% | Approximately 3–5 millions.[94] It is illegal for the French State to collect data on ethnicity and race. |
 Portugal | 10,467,366 | 7% | up to ~ 700,000 (People with recent immigrant background are only 325,000 (2023))It is illegal for the Portuguese State to collect data on ethnicity and race. the percentage is likely much higher.[95][96][97][98] |
 United Kingdom | 67,886,004 | 5% (inc. partial) | 3,000,000 |
 Netherlands[citation needed] | 16,491,461 | 3% | - |
 Belgium | 10,666,866 | 3% | ~300,000 |
 Spain | 47,615,033 | 2,5% (including Maghrebis) | 1,206,701 (Of those ~300,000 are Black Sub-Saharan African) |
 Sweden | 10,379,295 (2020) | 2.3% | 236,975 (2020) |
 Italy[99][100] | 60,795,612 | 2% (including Maghrebis) | 1,036,653 (Of those ~450,000 are Black Sub-Saharan African) |
 Ireland[101] | 4,339,000 | 1.38% | 64,639 |
 Germany | 82,000,000 | 1.2% (including Maghrebis) | 1,000,000 (Of those ~500,000 are Black Sub-Saharan African)[102] |
 Finland | 5,603,851 (2023)[103] | 1.26% | 70,592 (2023)[49] |
 Norway[104] | 4,858,199 | 1% | 67,000 |
 Switzerland[105] | 7,790,000 | 1% | 57,000 |
 Russia[106] | 146,119,928 | <1% | 50,000 |
| Asia | 3,879,000,000 | <1% | ≈327,904 |
 Israel[107] | 7,411,000 | 3% | 200,000 |
 India[108] | 1,132,446,000 | <1% | 40,000 |
 Malaysia[109] | 28,334,135 | <1% | 31,904 |
 Hong Kong | 7,200,000 | <1% | < 20,000[110] |
 China[111] | 1,321,851,888 | <1% | 16,000[112] |
 Japan[113] | 127,756,815 | <1% | 10,000 |
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The first Africans in the Americas arrived in the region during the initial period ofEuropean colonization. In 1492,Afro-Spanish sailorPedro Alonso Niño served as apilot on thevoyages of Christopher Columbus; though he returned to the Americas in 1499, Niño did not settle in the region.[118] By the early 16th century, more Africans began to arrive inSpanish colonies in the Americas, sometimes asfree people of color, but the majority wereenslaved. Demand of African labor increased as theindigenous population of the Americas experienced amassive population decline due to the introduction of Eurasianinfectious diseases (such assmallpox) to which they had nonatural immunity. TheSpanish Crown grantedasientos (monopoly contracts) to merchants granting them the right to supply enslaved Africans in to Spanish colonies in the Americas, regulating the trade. As other European nations began establishing colonies in the Americas, these new colonies began importing enslaved Africans as well.[119]
During the 17th and 18th centuries, most European colonies in the Caribbean operated onplantation economies fueled by slave labor, and the resulting importation of enslaved Africans meant thatAfro-Caribbeans soon far outnumbered their European enslavers in terms of population.[120] Roughly eleven to twelve million enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas as part of thetransatlantic slave trade.[71]
Beginning in 1791, theHaitian Revolution, a slave rebellion by self-emancipated slaves in the French colony ofSaint-Domingue eventually led to the creation of theRepublic of Haiti. The new state, led byJean Jacques Dessalines was the first nation in the Americas to be established from a successful slave revolt and represented a challenge to the existing slave systems in the region.[121] Continuous waves ofslave rebellions, such as theBaptist War led bySamuel Sharpe inBritish Jamaica, created the conditions for the incremental abolition of slavery in the region, with Great Britain abolishing itin the 1830s. The Spanish colony ofCuba was the last Caribbean island to emancipate its slaves.[122]
During the 20th century, Afro-Caribbean people began to assert their cultural, economic and political rights on the world stage. The JamaicanMarcus Garvey formed theUNIA movement in the United States, continuing withAimé Césaire'snégritude movement, which was intended to create a pan-African movement across national lines. From the 1960s, thedecolonization of the Americas led to various Caribbean countries gaining their independence from European colonial rule. They were pre-eminent in creating new cultural forms such ascalypso,reggae music, andRastafari within the Caribbean. Beyond the region, a new Afro-Caribbean diaspora, including such figures asStokely Carmichael andDJ Kool Herc in the United States, was influential in the creation of theblack power andhip hop movements. Influential political theorists such asWalter Rodney,Frantz Fanon andStuart Hall contributed to anti-colonial theory and movements in Africa, as well as cultural developments in Europe.
Several migration waves to the Americas, as well as relocations within the Americas, have brought people of African descent to North America. According to theSchomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the first African populations came to North America in the 16th century viaMexico and theCaribbean to the Spanish colonies ofFlorida,Texas and other parts of the South.[123] Out of the 12 million people from Africa who were shipped to theAmericas during thetransatlantic slave trade,[124] 645,000 were shipped to theBritish colonies on the North American mainland and theUnited States.[120] 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 thesouthern states and urban areas.[125]
In the establishment 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.[123]
In the 1860s, people fromsub-Saharan Africa, mainly fromWest Africa and theCape Verde Islands, started to arrive in a voluntary immigration wave to seek employment aswhalers inMassachusetts. This migration continued until restrictive laws were enacted in 1921 that in effect closed the door on non-Europeans. By that time, men of African ancestry were already a majority inNew England's whaling industry, with African Americans working as sailors, blacksmiths, shipbuilders, officers, and owners. The internationalism of whaling crews, including the characterDaggoo, an African harpooneer, is recorded in the 1851 novelMoby-Dick. They eventually took their trade toCalifornia.[126]
Today 1.7 million people in the United States are descended from voluntary immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, most of whom arrived in the late twentieth century. 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.[127] 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.[128][129] The largest African immigrant communities in the United States are inNew York, followed byCalifornia,Texas, andMaryland.[127]
Due to the legacy ofslavery in the colonial history of the United States, the average African American has a significant European component to his DNA.[130] According to a study conducted in 2011, the African American DNA consists on average of 73.2% West African, 24% European and 0.8% Native American DNA.[130] The European ancestry of African Americans is largely patrilineal with an estimated 19% of African American ancestors being European males, and 5% being European females.[130] The interracial mixing occurred before theCivil War and largely in theAmerican South, beginning during thecolonial era.[130]
The states with the highest percentages of people of African descent areMississippi (36%), andLouisiana (33%). While not a state, the population of theDistrict of Columbia is more than 50% black.[131] Recent African immigrants represent a minority of black people nationwide. The U.S. Bureau of the Census categorizes the population by race based on self-identification.[132] 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.
Much of the earliest black presence inCanada came from the newly independentUnited States after the American Revolution. The British resettled African Americans (known asBlack Loyalists) primarily inNova Scotia. These were primarily former slaves who had escaped to British lines for promised freedom during the Revolution.
Later during the antebellum years, other individual African Americans escaped to Canada, mostly to locations inSouthwestern Ontario, via theUnderground Railroad, a system supported by both blacks and whites to assist fugitive slaves. After achieving independence, northern states in the U.S. had begun to abolish slavery as early as 1793, but slavery was not abolished in the South until 1865, following theAmerican Civil War.
Black immigration to Canada in the twentieth century consisted mostly of Caribbean descent.[133] 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, isnot 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 the African, Afro-Caribbean, and African-American black communities in Canada.
At an intermediate level, inSouth 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 (likeChile), few if any are considered "black" today.[134] In places that imported many enslaved people (likeBrazil orDominican Republic), the number is larger, though most identify themselves as being of mixed, rather than strictly African, ancestry.[135] In places like Brazil and the Dominican Republic, blackness is performed in more taboo ways than it is in, say, the United States. The idea behindTrey Ellis Cultural Mulatto comes into play as there are blurred lines between what is considered as black.
InColombia, the African slaves were first brought to work in the gold mines of the Department of Antioquia. After this was no longer a profitable business, these slaves slowly moved to the Pacific coast, where they have remained unmixed with the white or Indian population until today. The whole Department of Chocó remains a black area. Mixture with white population happened mainly in the Caribbean coast, which is amestizo area until today. There was also a greater mixture in the south-western departments of Cauca andValle del Cauca. In these mestizo areas the African culture has had a great influence.[136]
In Central America, theGarifuna (also known as Garinagu or Black Caribs) are a mixedAfro-Indigenous people of primarilyIsland Carib (Indigenous) and Free West and Central African Ancestry.[137]
They didnot voluntarily migrate to Central America “to save themselves from forced enslavement”. After years of resistance onSaint Vincent (Yurumein), they were defeated by the British in 1796–1797. The British then forcibly exiled more than 5,000 Garifuna (separating them from the less-African “Yellow Caribs”); roughly half died during the voyage or shortly after. The survivors (around 2,300) were dumped onRoatán in 1797 and later established communities along the coasts ofHonduras,Belize,Guatemala, andNicaragua.[138]
The global Garifuna population today is estimated at over 600,000, with the majority in Honduras and large migrant communities in the United States. They make up roughly 1–12 % of the population in the four Central American countries where they reside.[139]
The Garifuna have retained theirArawakan-based language, ancestral spiritual practices (notably thedügü ritual),punta music and dance—recognised byUNESCO in 2008 asIntangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.[140]
Their classification is disputed: many Garifuna leaders and scholars reject the label “African diaspora” or “Afro-descendant” as inaccurate and politically motivated (often used to deny them Indigenous status and communal land rights), preferring to be recognised primarily as an Indigenous people with African admixture; others accept the term Afro-Indigenous.[141]
Some European countries make it illegal to collect demographic census information based on ethnicity or ancestry (e.g. France), but some others do query along racial lines (e.g. the UK). 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.
Estimates of 8 to 10 million of African descent,[142][143][144][145] although one quarter of the Afro-French population live in overseas territories. This number is difficult to estimate because the French census does not use race as a category for ideological reasons.[146]
As of 2020, there were approximately 1,000,000Afro-Germans.[147] This number is difficult to estimate because the German census does not use race as a category.[148]
Some black people of unknown origin (Though perceived asEthiopians) once inhabited southernAbkhazia; today, they have been assimilated into the Abkhaz population.
African emigrants to Italy include Italian citizens and residents originally from Africa; immigrants from Africa officially residing in Italy in 2015 numbered over 1 million residents.[149]
There are an estimated 500,000 African or mixed African people in the Netherlands and theDutch Antilles. They mainly live in the islands ofAruba,Bonaire,Curaçao andSaint Martin, the latter of which is also partly French-controlled. Many Afro-Dutch people reside in theNetherlands.[150]
As of 2023, is up to 700,000 people of recent NativeAfrican immigrant background living inPortugal. They mainly live in the regions ofLisbon metropolitan area. As Portugal doesn't collect information dealing with ethnicity, the estimate includes only people that, as of 2023, hold the citizenship of anAfrican country or people who have acquiredPortuguese citizenship from 2008 to 2021, thus excluding descendants, people of more distantAfrican ancestry or people who have settled in Portugal generations ago and are nowPortuguese citizens.[151][152]
As of 2021, there were 1,206,701 Africans. They mainly live in the regions ofAndalusia,Catalonia,Madrid and theCanaries.[153]
There are about 2,500,000 (4.2%) people identifying as Black British (not includingBritish Mixed), among which areAfro-Caribbeans. They live mostly in urban areas inEngland.
The first Black people inRussia were the result ofthe slave trade of theOttoman Empire[154] and their descendants still live on the coasts of theBlack Sea.CzarPeter the Great was advised by his friend Lefort to bring in Africans to Russia for hard labor.Alexander Pushkin's great-grandfather was the African princelingAbram Petrovich Gannibal, who became Peter's protégé, was educated as amilitary engineer in France, and eventually became general-en-chef, responsible for the building of sea forts andcanals in Russia.[155][156]
During the 1930s fifteenBlack American families moved to theSoviet Union as agricultural experts.[157] As African statesbecame independent in the 1960s, theSoviet Union offered their citizens the chance to study in Russia; over 40 years, 400,000 African students came, and some settled there.[154][158]
Afro-Turks are people ofZanj (Bantu) descent living inTurkey. Like theAfro-Abkhazians, they trace their origins to theOttoman slave trade. Beginning several centuries ago, a number of Africans came to theOttoman Empire, usually viaZanzibar asZanj and from places such as present-dayNiger,Saudi Arabia,Libya,Kenya andSudan;[159] they settled by theDalaman,Menderes andGediz valleys,Manavgat, andÇukurova. In the 19th century, contemporary records mention African quarters ofİzmir, including Sabırtaşı, Dolapkuyu, Tamaşalık, İkiçeşmelik, and Ballıkuyu.[160] Africans in Turkey are around 100.000 people.[48]
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There are a number of communities inSouth Asia that are descended from African slaves, traders or soldiers.[161] These communities are theSiddi,Sheedi, Makrani andSri Lanka Kaffirs.[162] In some cases, they became very prominent, such asJamal-ud-Din Yaqut,Hoshu Sheedi,Malik Ambar,[163] or the rulers ofJanjira State. TheMauritian creole people are the descendants of African slaves similar to those in the Americas.
TheSiddi (pronounced[sɪd̪d̪i]), also known as theSheedi,Sidi,Siddhi, orHabshi, are an ethnic group inhabitingIndia andPakistan. Members are mostly descended from theBantu peoples ofSoutheast Africa, along withHabesha immigrants. Some were merchants, sailors,indentured servants, slaves and mercenaries.[164] The Siddi population is currently estimated at 850,000 individuals, withKarnataka,Gujarat andTelangana states in India andMakran andKarachi in Pakistan[130] as the main population centres.[165] Siddis are primarily Muslims, although some areHindus and others belong to theCatholic Church.[166]
Although often economically and socially marginalised as a community today, Siddis onceruled Bengal as theHabshi dynasty of theBengal Sultanate, while the famous Siddi,Malik Ambar, effectively controlled theAhmadnagar Sultanate. He played a major role, politically and militarily, in Indian history by slowing down the penetration of the Delhi-basedMughals into theDeccan Plateau of South central India.[167]
SomePan-Africanists also consider other peoples as diasporic African peoples. These groups include, among others,Negritos, such as in the case of the peoples of theMalay Peninsula (Orang Asli);[168]New Guinea (Papuans);[169]Andamanese; certain peoples of theIndian subcontinent,[170][171] and theaboriginal peoples ofMelanesia andMicronesia.[172][173] Most of these claims are rejected by mainstreamethnologists aspseudoscience and pseudo-anthropology, as part of ideologically motivatedAfrocentristirredentism, touted primarily among some extremist elements in theUnited States who do not reflect on the mainstreamAfrican-American community.[174] Mainstream anthropologists determine that the Andamanese and others are part of a network of autochthonous ethnic groups present inSouth Asia that trace their genetic ancestry to a migratory sequence that culminated in theAustralian Aboriginals rather than from Africa directly.[175][176][177]Genetic testing has shown the Andamani to belong to theY-Chromosome Haplogroup D-M174, which is in common withAustralian Aboriginals and theAinu people ofJapan rather than the actual African diaspora.[178]
TheKingdom of Aksum was an ancient empire in what is now northernEthiopia. There were four invasions and subsequent settlements of Aksumites inHimyar, located across theRed Sea in modern-dayYemen. These invasions and settlements led to one of the first large-scale African diasporas in the ancient world.
In 517 AD, the Himyarite king Ma'adikarib was overthrown byDhu Nuwas, aJewish leader who began persecutingChristians[179] and confiscating trade goods between Aksum and theByzantine Empire,[180] both of which were Christian nations.[181] According to theBook of the Himyarites, a man identified as Bishop Thomas journeyed to Aksum to report on the persecution of Christians in Himyar to the Aksumite Kingdom.[182] As a result, the Aksumite king Ahayawa invaded Himyar.[183] Dhu Nuwas fled this first invasion,[184] and at least 580 Aksumite soldiers remained in Himyar.[185] Himyarites who opposed Aksumite settlement united under Dhu Nuwas,[186] and the formerly expelled king traveled back to kill the Aksumite soldiers and continue the oppression of Christians, forcing some settlers back into Aksum.[187]
In response to Dhu Nuwas's Christian persecution, the new Aksumite kingKaleb first sent a group of Himyarite refugees in his Aksumite kingdom back into Himyar to stir up underground resistance against Dhu Nuwas. These discontented Himyarites then united under noblemanSumyafa Ashwa.[188] Kaleb successfully invaded Himyar with an Aksumite army in 525 and installed Sumyafa Ashwa to rule.[189][190] More Aksumite soldiers remained in Himyar to claim land.[191] The Byzantine rulerJustinian learned of this development and sent an ambassador, Julianus, to ally Aksum and Himyar with the Byzantine Empire againstPersia. The overtures made by the Byzantine Empire to influence Himyar demonstrate that the Aksumite settlers in Himyar, due to their sustained residence and political organization, constituted a "stable community in exile", which historian Carlton Wilson deems a necessary condition to classify a settlement as a diaspora.[192] Justinian had two wishes for this proposed alliance: first, for Aksum to purchase and distributeIndiansilk to the Byzantine Empire to undermine Persia economically, and second, for Aksum-ruled Himyar to invade Persia, led by the general Caisus. Both of these plans failed, as Persia's proximity to India made the interruption of their silk trade impossible, and neither Himyar nor Aksum saw value in attacking an adversary that was both stronger and far too distant. Caisus was also responsible for killing a relative of Sumyafa Ashwa's, making Aksumites unwilling to go into battle under him.[193]
A third invasion was prompted by a rebellion of Aksumite soldiers between 532 and 535,[194] led by the former slave[191] and Aksumite commander[194]Abreha, against Sumyafa Ashwa. Kaleb sent 3,000 soldiers to quell this rebellion, led by one of his relatives, but these soldiers joined Abreha's rebellion upon arrival and killed Kaleb's relative. Kaleb sent reinforcements in another attempt to end the rebellion, but his soldiers were defeated and forced to turn around. Following Kaleb's death, Abreha paid tribute to Aksum to reinforce Himyar's independence.[191] The new Himyarite nation consisted of several thousand Aksumite emigrants, serving as one of the earliest examples of a large-scale movement of tropical Africans outside of the continent. Just a century later, Aksum's relationship to this southwestern part of theArabian Peninsula would be pivotal to the introduction ofIslam atMecca andYathrib (Medina), as evidenced by the naming ofBilal,[195] an Ethiopian,[196] as the firstmuezzin, and the flight of some of Muhammad's earliest followers from Mecca to Askum.[197]
Although fragmented and separated by land and water, the African Diaspora maintains connection through the use of music.[198][199] This link between the various sects of the African Diaspora is termed by Paul Gilroy as The Black Atlantic.[200] The Black Atlantic is possible because black people have a shared history rooted in oppression that is displayed in Black genres such as rap and reggae.[201] The linkages within the black diaspora formulated through music allows consumers of music and artists to pull from different cultures to combine and create a conglomerate of experiences that reaches across the world.[202]
An estimated 91 million Brazilians are of African ancestry, according to the 2010 census, which found that more than half (50.7 per cent) of the Brazilian population now identified as preto (black) or pardo (mixed ethnicity).
(Translated) The figures show that 45.3% of the population of the country declared themselves brown; 43.5% declared themselves white, 10.2% black, 0.8% indigenous and 0.4% yellow. In the sum, 56.7% of Brazilians are non-white, of these, 55.5% are afrodescendant.
An estimated 91 million Brazilians are of African ancestry, according to the 2010 census, which found that more than half (50.7 per cent) of the Brazilian population now identified as preto (black) or pardo (mixed ethnicity).
(Translated) The figures show that 45.3% of the population of the country declared themselves brown; 43.5% declared themselves white, 10.2% black, 0.8% indigenous and 0.4% yellow. In the sum, 56.7% of Brazilians are non-white, of these, 55.5% are afrodescendant.
Rund eine Million schwarzer Menschen leben laut ISD hierzulande.[About one million black people are living in this country according to ISD.]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Origin and background country ... All such persons who have at least one parent who was born in Finland are also considered to be persons with Finnish background. ... Persons whose both parents or the only known parent have been born abroad are considered to be persons with foreign background. ... If either parent's country of birth is unknown, the background country for persons born abroad is their own country of birth. ... For children adopted from abroad, the adoptive parents are regarded as the biological parents.
The African Diaspora has also been more narrowly defined to include only the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This narrower definition, which emphasizes the important roles that blackness, slavery, colonialism, racism, and geography played in sustaining the trans-Atlantic slave trade, is the reason why some refer to the 'African Diaspora' as the 'Black Diaspora'.
(Translated) The figures show that 45.3% of the population of the country declared themselves brown; 43.5% declared themselves white, 10.2% black, 0.8% indigenous and 0.4% yellow. In the sum, 56.7% of Brazilians are non-white, of these, 55.5% are afrodescendant.
It is now estimated that 11,863,000 slaves were shipped across the Atlantic. [Note in original: Paul E. Lovejoy, "The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa: A Review of the Literature," inJournal of African History 30 (1989), p. 368.] ... It is widely conceded that further revisions are more likely to be upward than downward.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)Rund eine Million schwarzer Menschen leben laut ISD hierzulande.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)At present the Siddis are living in the western coast of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka states the prominent black Indian known is Reme. Their main concentration is in Junagadh district of Rajkot division. They are ascheduled tribe. According to the 1981 census, the population of the Siddi tribe is 54,291. The Siddi speak Gujarati language within their kin circle as well as with the outsiders. Gujarati script is used...
Among the Siddi families in Karnataka there are Catholics, Hindus and Muslims... It was a normal procedure for the Portuguese to baptise African slaves ... After living for generations among Hindus they considered themselves to be Hindus.... The Siddi Hindus owe allegiance to Saudmath ...
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Cited inKobishchanov (1990), p. 91. (The Tapharis named in Acta Santorum isZafar, Yemen.){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link){{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
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