African diaspora

The African diaspora refers to the communities throughout the world that
are descended from the historic movement of peoples from Africa
predominantly to the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, among other
areas around the globe. The term has been historically applied in particular
to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were enslaved and
shipped to the Americas by way of the Atlantic slave trade, with the largest
population in the USA (see African-American).,[1] among others.[2]
With regard to all historic migrations (forced and voluntary), the African
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."

History
Much of the African diaspora was dispersed throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas during
the Arab and the Atlantic Slave Trades. Beginning in the 9th century, Arabs took African slaves
from the central and eastern portions of the continent (where they were known as the Zanj) and
sold them into markets in the Middle East and eastern Asia. Beginning in the 15th century,
Europeans captured or bought African slaves from West Africa and brought them to Europe and
later to the Americas. Both the Arab and Atlantic slave trades ended in the 19th century.[3] The
dispersal through slave trading represents the largest forced migrations in human history. The
economic effect on the African continent was devastating. Some communities created by
descendants of African slaves in Europe and Asia have survived to the modern day, but in other
cases, blacks intermarried with non-blacks, and their descendants blended into the local
population.
In the Americas, the confluence of multiple ethnic groups from around the world created multiethnic societies. In Central and South America, most people are descended from European,
American Indian, and African ancestry. In Brazil, where in 1888 nearly half the population was
descended from African slaves, the variation of physical characteristics extends across a broad
range. In the United States, there was historically a greater European colonial population in
relation to African slaves, especially in the Northern Tier. Racist Jim Crow and anti-

miscegenation laws passed after the Reconstruction era in the South in the late nineteenth
century, plus waves of vastly increased immigration from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries,
maintained some distinction between racial groups. In the early 20th century, to institutionalize
racial segregation, most southern states adopted the "one drop rule", which defined anyone with
any discernible African ancestry as African.[4]
Dispersal through voluntary migration

See Emigration from Africa for a general treatment of recent population movements.
From the very onset of Spanish exploration and colonial activities in the Americas, black
Africans participated both as voluntary expeditionaries and as involuntary laborers.[2][5] Juan
Garrido was one such black conquistador. He crossed the Atlantic as a freedman in the 1510s and
participated in the siege of Tenochtitlan.[6] However, Africans had been present in Asia and
Europe long before Columbus' travels. And, beginning in the late 20th century, Africans began to
emigrate to Europe and the Americas in increasing numbers, constituting new African Diaspora
communities not directly connected with the slave trade.

Definitions
The African 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."
Between 1500 and 1900, approximately four million enslaved Africans were transported to
island plantations in the Indian Ocean, about eight million were shipped to Mediterranean-area
countries, and about eleven million survived the Middle Passage to the New World.[7] Their
descendants are now found around the globe. Due to intermarriage and genetic assimilation, just
who is a descendant of the African diaspora is not entirely self-evident.
African diaspora populations include:

African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Latin Americans and Black

Canadians - descendants of West African slaves brought to the United States,
the Caribbean, and Latin America during the Atlantic slave trade, plus later
voluntary immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa and their descendants.

Zanj - descendants of Zanj slaves whose ancestors were brought to the Near
East and other parts of Asia during the Arab slave trade.[8]

Siddis - descendants of Zanj slaves whose ancestors were brought to the

Indian subcontinent (Pakistan and India). Also referred to as the Makrani in
Pakistan.

African Diaspora and Modernity

Studies on the African Diaspora have recently moved in the direction of understanding its role in
the formation of modern times. This trend is in reaction to the traditional way in which Africans
and its diasporans have been placed in history books, namely, as victims or people without much
historical agency. Often Africans and their descendants are portrayed as representatives of
primitive culture or slavery. The current consensus among specialists is that viewing the
contribution of the African Diaspora to the history of modern times gives us a more complete
appreciation of global history. The effect of the African diaspora on modernity can be viewed by
the history and culture of the people from the African diaspora. African descendents around the
world have kept their ties to the African continent creating a global community. They carried
with them their culture, family values, views on government, and their spiritual beliefs.