| Notable Afro-American peoples of the Americas: Zumbi· Cayetano Alberto Silva· Martin Luther King Jr · Pelé · Bob Marley· Wyclef Jean |
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| Total population | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Aprox. 180,000,000 |
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| Regions with significant populations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Throughout the Americas | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Languages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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English, Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole, French, Papiamento, Dutch, English creole and many others |
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| Religion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Christianity, Afro-American religion, Islamic and Others |
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Afro-American peoples of the Americas is used to refer to people born in the Americas who have African ancestors. Most are descendants of people enslaved and transferred from the Sub-Saharan Africa (the vast majority of the Gulf of Guinea) to America by the Europeans to work in their colonies, mostly in mines and plantations as slaves, between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. At present, they constitute about 18% of the population of the American continent with the largest concentrations by percentage of population are in Haiti (95%), Jamaica (91.2%), Barbados (90%), Turks and Caicos (90%), Dominica (86.8%), The Bahamas (85%), Saint Lucia (82.5%), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (66%), Trinidad and Tobago (58%), Bermuda (54.8%), Brazil (>95—7,61%), Venezuela (40%), Cuba (33.92%), Belize (30%), Colombia (25%), United States (12.6%), Puerto Rico (12.4%), Dominican Republic (84%)[2], Uruguay (6%).[3][4]
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After the United States achieved independence, came the independence of Haiti, a country populated almost entirely by Afro Americans, the second American colony to win its independence. After the process of independence, many countries have encouraged American immigration from Europe, thus reducing the proportion of black and mulatto population throughout the country: Brazil, United States, Dominican Republic, etc.. In the Casta system, imposed by the Spanish Empire in their American colonies, the son of black and European was called a mulatto, and the son of black and Amerindian was called zambo, among many other denominations for further mixes.
From 21 to November 25 of 1995 held the Continental Congress of Black Peoples of the Americas. Afro Americans still face discrimination in most parts of the continent. According to David DE Ferrari, vice president of the World Bank for the Region of Latin America and the Caribbean, Afro Americans have lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, more frequent and more widespread diseases, higher rates of illiteracy and lower income than Americans of different ethnic origin. Women, also be the subject of gender discrimination, suffer worse living conditions.
Even in countries like Brazil, with 6.9% of phenotypically Black population and 43.8% of phenotypically 'Brown', poverty tend it. It is nevertheless important to note that the Pardo category includes all mulattoes, zambos and the result of their intermixing with other groups (which is not sufficiently Subsaharan-looking to be negro and not sufficiently European-looking or Levantine-looking to be branco), but it is independent of African descent, with most White Brazilians having at least one recent African and/or Native American ancestor and Pardos would being either caboclos (descendants of Whites and Amerindians, or mestizos, but this multiracial group generally include mostly people which fall certainly among non-whites, meaning that a person deemed as mestizo in Southern Cone or Northern America would be reclassified as "swarthy white", or branco moreno, in Brazil) or westernized Amerindians — colourism in Brazil is not completely drawed on degree of African descent. More definitions on the differences and social disparity between blacks, "non-white non-blacks" and whites in Brazil in the Black people article section.
According to various studies, the main genetic contribution to Brazilians is European (always above 65%, and an American one found it as high as 77%), and Pardos possess an intermediate degree of African descent when compared to the general White Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian populations (the previous mostly with some detectable non-white ancestor and the latter highly miscegenated) and exhibit a greater Amerindian contribution in areas such as the Amazon Basin and a stronger African contribution in the areas of historical slavery such as Southeastern Brazil and coastal Northeastern cities, nevertheless both are present in all regions, and that physical features did not correlate with detectable ancestry in many instances.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
On November 4, 2008, the first afrodescendant American president, Barack Obama, won 52% of the vote, following positive results in states that had traditionally won by Republican presidents, such as Indiana and Virginia.
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