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| Afro-Antillean | |
|---|---|
| Group | Afro-Antillean |
| Population | Various |
| Regions | Caribbean, Americas, Europe, Africa |
| Languages | Creole languages, Spanish, English, French, Dutch |
| Religions | Christianity, Vodou, Santería, Rastafari, Islam |
Afro-Antillean
Afro-Antillean refers to people of African descent associated with the Antilles whose identities intersect with histories of the Atlantic slave trade, colonial regimes such as the Spanish Empire, French colonial empire, British Empire, and Dutch Empire, and postcolonial states including Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados. The term covers complex cultural, linguistic, religious, and political formations shaped by interactions with figures and institutions like Toussaint Louverture, Simón Bolívar, Abolitionism, Marcus Garvey, Frantz Fanon, W. E. B. Du Bois, and movements such as Pan-Africanism and Black Power.
Scholars and institutions including the United Nations and academic centers at Harvard University, University of the West Indies, University of Havana, and Oxford University use Afro-Antillean to categorize populations tracing ancestry to enslaved Africans brought via routes tied to voyages by companies like the Royal African Company and treaties such as the Treaty of Tordesillas. Terms intersect with classifications in censuses by governments of Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago alongside ethnonyms used in works by historians like C.L.R. James, Eric Williams, Ira Berlin, and Sidney Mintz.
Origins involve forced migrations during the Transatlantic slave trade orchestrated by the Portuguese Empire, Spanish Empire, British Empire, French colonial empire, and Dutch Empire from regions including the Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, Bight of Biafra, and Kongo Kingdom. Resistance figures and events such as the Maroon Wars, the Haitian Revolution, the Zong massacre aftermath, and rebellions documented in archives of Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle shaped diasporic formation. Subsequent migrations involved voluntary movements tied to Indentured servitude reforms, the Great Migration, and 20th-century flows to metropoles like New York City, London, Paris, Toronto, and Madrid influenced by policies of the British Nationality Act 1948 and immigration laws of the United States.
Contemporary populations are concentrated in island states including Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Bahamas, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Antigua and Barbuda, with diasporic communities in continental settings such as Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and Spain. Census data from ministries in Haiti, Cuba, and agencies like the United Nations Population Division show varied self-identification patterns influenced by national laws like the Constitution of Haiti and racial politics evident in debates involving scholars at institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank.
Linguistic repertoires include Haitian Creole, Papiamento, Jamaican Patois, Trinidadian Creole, Cuban Spanish, Dominican Spanish, Antillean Creole French, and Dutch-Caribbean varieties, with scholarship by linguists at SOAS University of London, University of the West Indies, and Université Paris Diderot. Musical traditions linked to Afro-Antillean cultures include reggae, salsa, son cubano, merengue, calypso, soca, rumba, kompa, and dancehall, performed by artists such as Bob Marley, Celina González, Compay Segundo, Celso Piña, Santo Domingo Symphony Orchestra contexts, and celebrated at festivals like Notting Hill Carnival, Carnival of Trinidad and Tobago, and Calle Ocho Festival. Literary and artistic expressions involve authors and creators like Aimé Césaire, Derek Walcott, Jean Price-Mars, Julia de Burgos, Edwidge Danticat, Alejo Carpentier, V.S. Naipaul, Jorge Luis Borges intersections, and institutions such as the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Cuba).
Religious life blends Christianity denominations like Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Communion with syncretic systems including Vodou, Santería, Obeah, Shango, Babalaô priesthood traditions, and revivalist movements such as Rastafari. Important ritual centers and figures appear in ethnographies tied to sites such as Port-au-Prince, Havana, Kingston, Santo Domingo, and communities studied by scholars at Columbia University and Université de Montréal. Interactions with Islamic traditions from West African origins and Protestantism introduced via missionaries from organizations like the London Missionary Society further diversify spiritual practices.
Afro-Antillean social and political trajectories feature abolitionist struggles culminating in legal changes like the Abolition of Slavery measures in various empires, revolutionary events such as the Haitian Revolution, independence movements led by figures like Simón Bolívar and José Martí, and labor mobilizations linked to unions such as the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union and parties like the People's National Movement. Intellectual debates by activists including Marcus Garvey, Stokely Carmichael, C.L.R. James, and Frantz Fanon intersect with policy outcomes in postcolonial governance in Cuba, Jamaica, Barbados, and the Dominican Republic. Contemporary issues involve civil rights litigation in courts like the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and political representation in parliaments of Trinidad and Tobago and Bahamas.
Prominent historical and contemporary figures and communities include revolutionary leaders Toussaint Louverture, writers Derek Walcott, Aimé Césaire, activists Marcus Garvey, musicians Bob Marley, political leaders Derek Walcott (Nobel laureate contexts), cultural hubs such as Kingston, Jamaica, Havana, Cuba, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and diaspora neighborhoods like Harlem, Notting Hill, Little Havana, and Brixton. Academic, literary, musical, and political contributions are documented by institutions including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Institute of Caribbean Studies, Caribbean Philosophical Association, and archives at University of the West Indies.