Afro-Caribbeans
Afro-Caribbeans refer to individuals of African descent residing in the Caribbean, where a rich Creole culture emerged from the historical context of African slavery. Between 1518 and 1860, millions of Africans were forcibly brought to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations, significantly shaping the demographic and cultural landscape of the region. This unique cultural identity combines African heritage with elements of European and Indigenous traditions, resulting in diverse Creole cultures that vary across the islands.
Despite their cultural richness, Afro-Caribbeans have faced internal racism and social stratification influenced by European colonial legacies, often leading individuals to downplay their African roots in favor of European ancestry. The aftermath of slavery saw the rise of a new Black political consciousness, influenced by global movements, which sought to challenge the established social order.
In the twentieth century, significant migration of Afro-Caribbeans to the United States occurred, particularly after World War II, where they contributed to the cultural and political landscape of urban areas. However, their experiences in the U.S. often included facing unfamiliar racial dynamics and forming complex inter-ethnic relationships. Afro-Caribbeans continue to play a vital role in the broader American society, bringing rich cultural contributions while navigating the challenges of diversity and assimilation.
Afro-Caribbeans
- SIGNIFICANCE:African slaves imported to the Caribbean Islands developed a unique Creole culture, rich in African heritage but infused with European notions of White supremacy that encouraged internal racism among Afro-Caribbeans.
The Caribbean Islands were the birthplace of slavery and the African slavery trade in the New World; between 1518 and 1860, millions of Africans were imported to the islands to work the extensive sugar plantations operated by European colonials. Around 43 percent of Africans transported to the Western Hemisphere were sold as slaves in the Caribbean; less than 5 percent of these Africans were imported to the United States and Canada. Africans greatly outnumbered Whites and Indigenous peoples on most Caribbean islands and therefore were able to forge their own cultural identities. These Creole cultures, which varied from island to island, combined Old World African folkways and elements of European and native language, religion, and customs to create a common framework from which to unite the diverse tribes of transplanted Africans. The harshness of Caribbean plantation life and the resultant high death rate among Caribbean slaves necessitated a constant flow of human cargo from Africa, ensuring the continued presence of strong African elements in island Creole cultures. Nevertheless, the influence of dominant European colonial societies continued to permeate the social, spiritual, and economic lives of Afro-Caribbeans long after slavery ended in the 1860s.
Modern Afro-Caribbeans
The demoralizing effect of centuries of bondage and cultural alienation left Afro-Caribbean cultures susceptible to the influence of colonial value systems and social norms once the institution of slavery collapsed. Free Afro-Caribbean communities became structured along rigid lines of socioeconomic caste, based primarily upon the skin color and reputed ancestry of individuals and families. Many Afro-Caribbeans began to deny or downplay their African roots and to claim European colonial heritage and ancestry. Under this system, light-skinned Afro-Caribbeans of modest economic means were placed above their darker counterparts, and dark-skinned individuals who attained wealth often gained entry into the whiter upper castes.
The system of “shading” that defined social hierarchy in Afro-Caribbean societies often affected these societies’ perceptions of fellow Caribbeans. For example, residents of the Dominican Republic, although clearly of mixed European and African descent, traditionally identified themselves as “Spanish” while invariably classifying neighboring Haitians as “black.” Economic and social discrimination against Haitian immigrants to the Dominican Republic is exemplary of the internal racism that accompanied massive internal and interisland migration in the Caribbean during the first half of the twentieth century. Rural (and often darker-skinned) Afro-Caribbeans migrating to urban areas and immigrants from poorer (and more Africanized) countries were often consigned to the most squalid living conditions and the least desirable employment.
In the aftermath of World War II, a new Black political consciousness, influenced by labor and Civil Rights movements in the United States, began to emerge in the Caribbean in opposition to the old colonial social order. By this time, many Afro-Caribbeans had been exposed to strains of racial and economic protest from the United States, most notably in the teachings of Black separatist Marcus Garvey, who inspired the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica. By the postwar era, Afro-Caribbean workers and intellectuals had joined forces with Garveyites to form labor unions; by the 1960s, many of these unions had been transformed into Black-dominated political parties, winning significant elections in Guiana, Trinidad, and Jamaica.
Afro-Caribbeans in the United States
Afro-Caribbean migration to North America predates the American Revolution. Slave trading between Caribbean and mainland colonies brought substantial numbers of Afro-Caribbeans to North American port cities and exerted a palpable Caribbean influence upon slave and free Black cultures; free Afro-Caribbean immigrants to North America attained notoriety in the Black communities of New Orleans and other port cities. However, the bulk of Afro-Caribbean immigration to the United States took place in the twentieth century, with more than five million people of African descent migrating from the Caribbean to the United States between 1945 and 1990. Among these immigrants were many thousands of “boat people” from Cuba and Haiti, who fled their native countries in search of political asylum or economic opportunity. Thousands more arrived by more conventional means, blending into the large Caribbean American communities in Eastern urban areas. Although many established permanent residence in the United States, it is estimated that around 80 percent of Caribbean immigrants to the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century were seasonal workers who returned to their home countries. However, that has changed in the twenty-first century. In 2019, data found that 46% of Black immigrants to the United States came from the Caribbean. Of these, the largest share at 16% came from Jamaica and 15% came from Haiti. Caribbean immigrant populations tripled between 1980 and 2010, but slowed down significantly in 2019.
Afro-Caribbean immigrants have exerted a profound influence on the cities and labor force of the United States, posing challenges to its social structure, educational system, and notions of assimilation and diversity. Homegrown racial prejudices have formed the crux of many of these challenges; many light-skinned Afro-Caribbeans, regarded as whites in their home countries, experienced racial discrimination for the first time in their lives upon migration to the United States. Immigrants from relatively homogenous Caribbean societies often encountered ethnic groups with whom they had little or no previous contact, such as Mexican, Asian, and African Americans, sparking occasional cultural clashes and social tensions. Groups of Afro-Caribbean immigrants have occasionally clashed with each other, as did Cuban Americans and Haitian Americans in Miami during the 1980s. Despite occasional difficulties, various groups of Afro-Caribbeans established thriving communities in major metropolitan areas of the eastern and southern United States after World War II—most notably the Cuban American enclaves of Miami and the “Nuyorican” community of Puerto Ricans in New York City. These communities have contributed greatly to the cultural and political framework of eastern urban areas and the United States as a whole.
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