The African diaspora in North America - USA

We owe to Black Americans the awakening of black consciousness and re-valorisation of identities leading to active resistance against their dehumanisation and its corollary, poverty. Their history has been well documented. Popularised in the 1960s by the activist Malcolm X, the expression “Afro-American” gained acceptance at the end of the 1980s. There are still those who prefer to identify themselves as “Black”. Other categories co-existent: Afro-Latinos, Haitiano-Americans and Caribbean-Americans.
With renewed interest in their ancestry, Afro-Americans (but they are not the only blacks in the diaspora) do not hesitate to carry out genetic tests to discover their tribal roots and undertake the journey to Africa. Their genome reveal 20% European, 5% Native American and 75% Sub-Saharan African heritages.

Today 1.7 million people from sub-Saharan Africa are descended from voluntary immigrants. Arrived in the late twentieth century. They are manly found in New York.
Despite numerous breakthroughs in terms of social and economic advancements, Afro-Americans still remain misunderstood, despised and isolated.
There in North America are found the most powerful Black lobbies, great universities, powerful speakers, renown actors, massive black protestant churches, Segregation, the Civil right Movement, Affirmative action, the Underground Railroad to Canada of escaped slaves and a twice-elected Black President.

The African diaspora in North America - Canada

Contrary to popular belief, until the early nineteenth century — throughout the founding of the present Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario — there was never a time when Blacks were not held as slaves in New France (present day Canada). Slavery brought in by the French as early as 1608, brought its first slave directly from Madagascar in 1629.
After the heyday of the Underground Railroad in the 19th century , Canada’s new immigrants policies  of the late 70s opened the door to immigrants from areas that for the past two hundred years had been largely excluded: Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa. Since it has seen its black population grow by 70%  most importantly from Caribbean influx who get classified as “West Indian” or “Caribbean” Canadians as opposed to “African Canadian” to designate those blacks of African or African-American origin. The generic expression “Black Canadian” would cover African, Afro-Caribbean and Afro-American communities.

 

The African diaspora in South Asia

The Africans from South Asia are labelled Afro-Asians. Their presence in India has predominantly derived from slavery from East Africa. In India, descendants of Africans are called “Zanj” when located in the Near eastern part “Siddis” when located in the Indian subcontinent like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. There are estimated to be around forty thousands in India and ten thousands in Pakistan.

 

Because of poverty, a by—product of ostracism, assimilation and geographical isolation not only is very  little known about their existence in the Developed countries as in their actual residences. In January 2006, in Goa, India, the African Diaspora in Asia (TADIA) society, an organisation associated with the UNESCO Slave Route Project, promoted and organized the International Conference on the Siddis of India and the African Diaspora in Asia. One of TADIA’s three objectives was “to contribute to breaking the silence and thereby making universally known the Afro-Asian diaspora input that was mainly through the forced migration of the slave trade.”

 

 

 

References
Henri F, Tator C, Mattis W, Rees T -The Colour of Democracy, Racism in Canadian Society,  Canada: Harcourt Brace, 2nd ed.2000, pp70-72, 81
Segal R - The Black Diaspora, London: Faber and Faber, 1995, p425
Cho L. Diasporic Pasts and Futures: Transnational Cultural Studies in Canada, The Turn to Diaspora’ Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, TOPIA, Number 17, Spring 2007

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​Internet references

Zeleza, Paul. "African Diaspora." New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Jan. 2013
What is meant by diaspora?
African diaspora​
Diaspora Africaine​
​Sub-Saharan Africa​
Blacks in North Africa: El Hamel’s new book on race and identity in Morocco​
Afro-Latin American​
Siddis: People of African Descent in India

Definition of Zanj

International Conference on the Siddis of India and the African Diaspora in Asia - Cultural Heritage Connections

The African Diaspora in Asia (TADIA) Society

 

​​​Further reading
The Black Population: 2010, 2010 Census Briefs