The African diaspora in the Americas refers
to the people born in the Americas with predominantly
African ancestry.
Most are descendants of people enslaved and
transferred from Africa to the Americas by
Europeans, to work in their colonies, mostly
in mines and plantations, between the sixteenth
and nineteenth centuries.
At present, they constitute about 14% of the
population of the Americas, with the largest
concentrations by percentage of population
in Haiti (92%), Jamaica (91%), The Bahamas
(90.6%), Barbados (90%), Turks and Caicos
(90%), Dominica (87%), Saint Lucia (83%),
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (66%), Bermuda
(55%), Brazil (8%), Cuba (35%), Puerto Rico
(16%), Belize (31%), Trinidad and Tobago (34.2%),
Nicaragua (9%), Panama (14%), United States
(13.6%), Colombia (10.52%), Guyana (36%),
Suriname (37%), French Guiana (66%), Dominican
Republic (10%), Costa Rica (8%), Paraguay
(4%), Uruguay (4%), Canada (3.5%) and Venezuela
(2.9%).
== African diaspora in the Americas history
==
After the United States achieved independence
came the independence of Haiti, a country
populated almost entirely by people of African
descent and the second American colony to
win its independence.
After the process of independence, many countries
have encouraged European immigration into
America, thus reducing the proportion of black
and mulatto population throughout the country:
Brazil, United States, Dominican Republic,
etc.
Miscegenation and more flexible concepts of
race have also reduced the overall population
identifying as black in Latin America, whereas
the one-drop rule associated with Anglo-Saxon
culture has had the opposite effect in the
United States.
== African diaspora in the America's population
today ==
From 21st to November 25 of 1995, the Continental
Congress of Black Peoples of the Americas
was held.
Black people still face discrimination in
most parts of the continent.
According to David D.E.
Ferrari, vice president of the World Bank
for the Region of Latin America and the Caribbean,
Black people 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 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 pardo (mestizo), poverty is common.
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 also being caboclos,
descendants of Whites and Amerindians, or
mestizos.
There are 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 African-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.On November 4, 2008, the first African
American U.S. president, Barack Obama, won
52% of the vote, following positive results
in states that had traditionally been won
by Republican presidents, such as Indiana
and Virginia.
== Notable People of African Descent in the
Americas ==
Archie Alleyne - Canadian musician
Edem Awumey - Canadian writer
Susana Baca - Peruvian musician
Abelardo Barroso - Cuban singer
Mario Bazán - Peruvian athlete
DaMarcus Beasley - American soccer player
Jean Beausejour - Chilean soccer player
Melvin Brown - Mexican soccer player
Rudel Calero - Nicaraguan soccer player
Ramiro Castillo - Bolivian soccer player
Teófilo Cubillas - Peruvian soccer player
Steph Curry - American basketball player
Jefferson Farfán - Peruvian soccer player
Juan José Nieto Gil - Colombian president
Edray H. Goins - African American president
of the National Association of Mathematicians
(NAM)
LeBron James - American basketball player
Michael Jordan - American basketball player
Beyoncé Knowles - American singer
Sloane Stephens - American tennis player
Tupac Shakur - American Rapper
Martin Luther King Jr. - American civil rights
activist
Malcolm X - American Human rights activist
Serena Williams - American tennis player
Domingo Sosa - Argentine soldier
Carlos Posadas - Argentine musician
Arturo Rodríguez - Argentine boxer
Robinho - Brazilian soccer player
Margareth Menezes - Brazilian singer
Zezé Motta - Brazilian actress
Kevin Hanchard - Canadian actor
Jackson Martínez - Colombian soccer player
Elcina Valencia - Colombian teacher
María Isabel Urrutia - Colombian athlete
Bebo Valdés - Cuban pianist
Celia Cruz - Cuban singer
Laz Alonso - Cuban actor
David Ortiz - Dominican baseball player
Giovanny Espinoza - Ecuadorian soccer player
Frantz Fanon - Martinican Philosopher and
Pan-Africanist
Eddy Grant - Guyanese pop and reggae music
star
E.R. Braithwaite - Guyanese writer, educator
and diplomat
Walter Rodney - Guyanese Historian and Political
Activist
Wilson Harris - Guyanese writer
Wyclef Jean - Haitian musician
Edwidge Danticat- Haitian-American author
Usain Bolt - Jamaican Sprinter
Bob Marley - Jamaican Reggae musician
Marcus Garvey- Jamaican Pan-Africanist
Aimé Césaire - Martinican author, philosopher
and politician
Lupita Nyong'o - Mexican actress
Giovani dos Santos - Mexican soccer player
Devern Hansack - Nicaraguan baseball pitcher
Derek Walcott - St. Lucian poet, playwright
and the 1992 Nobel Prize Literature Winner
C.L.R.
James - Trinidadian Historian and Academic
Alex Quiñónez - Ecuadorian Olympic sprinter
Eric Eustace Williams - Trinidad and Tobago's
First Prime Minister
Cayetano Alberto Silva - Uruguayan musician
Rubén Rada - Uruguayan singer
Carlos Andrés Sánchez - Uruguayan soccer
player
Oscar D'León - Venezuelan musician
Pablo Sandoval -Venezuelan athlete
Morella Muñoz - Venezuelan singer
== 
Related bibliography ==
Ethnic domination and racist discourse in
Spain and Latin America.Dijk, Teun A. van.
van.
Gedisa Editorial SA ISBN 84-7432-997-3
Gender, class and race in Latin America: some
contributions.Luna, Lola G. Ed PPU, SA ISBN
84-7665-959-8
Gender, race and class "color" desensientes
Latinas.
Impoexports, Colombia, Yumbo
== 
See also ==
African-Latin American
African-Caribbean
