Afro-Dominicans

Afro-Dominicans
Total population
Approximately 800,000 - 7.9 million
Dominicans of full or predominant African ancestry[1]
Regions with significant populations
Chiefly in Elías Piña, San Pedro de Macorís, Santo Domingo, and San Cristóbal; also in Dajabón, Pedernales, Independencia, La Romana and Hato Mayor
Languages
majority Dominican Spanish, Bozal Spanish  · minority Caribbean English (Samaná English), Lucumí, Habla Congo, Portuguese, French, Haitian Creole
Religion
Dominican Vudú, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism
Related ethnic groups
Dominican people, other Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin Americans, Afro-Cubans, Afro–Puerto Ricans, Afro-Haitians, Yoruba people, Arará, Fang people, Bubi people

Afro-Dominicans (also referred to as African-Dominicans or Black Dominicans) are Dominicans of predominant or full Black African ancestry. Approximately 7.9 million (about 70% of the population) people in the Dominican Republic are of African descent,[2] However due to the Dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, those who do identify as black are a minority in the country representing 7.8% of the population, according to a census bureau survey in 2022. [1] About 4.0% of the people surveyed claim an Afro-Caribbean immigrant background, while only 0.2% acknowledged Haitian descent.[1] Currently there are many black illegal immigrants from Haiti,[3][4][5] who are not included within the Afro-Dominican demographics as they are not legal citizens of the nation.

The first black people in the island were brought by European colonists as indentured workers from Spain and Portugal known as Ladinos.[6][7] When the Spanish Crown outlawed the enslavement of Natives in the island with the Laws of Burgos, slaves from West Africa and Central Africa were imported from the 16th to 18th centuries due to labor demands. However, with the decline of the sugar industry in the colony the importation of slaves decreased. Many of these Africans eventually intermixed with the Europeans, Mestizos, and Natives creating a triracial Creole culture.[8]

In the 19th and 20th centuries black immigrants from the French and British West Indies, as well as the United States came to the island and settled in coastal regions increasing the black population. The Afro-Dominican population can now be found in most parts of the country, from coastal areas such as San Cristobal and San Pedro de Macoris to deep inland areas such as Cotui and Monteplata. However, the southeast portion of the country and the border region have the highest concentrations of Black people in the country, while the central Cibao region has the lowest.

There is a lack of recent official data[9] because the National Office of Statistics (ONE) has not released racial data since 1960, though the Central Electoral Board collected racial data until 2014.[10] The 1996 electoral roll put the figures of "black" at 4.13% and "mulatto" at 2.3% of the adult population.[9] The 1960 population census (the last one in which race was queried[9]) placed it at 10.9%.[11] According to a 2011 survey by Latinobarómetro, 26% of the people surveyed identified themselves as black. In "The Adventure Guide to the Dominican Republic" the black population is estimated to be 35% of the Dominican population.[12][13]

  1. ^ a b c Breve Encuesta Nacional de Autopercepción Racial y Étnica en la República Dominicana. Santo Domingo: Oficina Nacional de Estadística de la República Dominicana. 2022.
  2. ^ Group, 2006-2020, Merit Designs Consulting. "Dominican Republic's black population is nearly 8 million". DominicanToday. Retrieved 4 May 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Aníbal de Castro (15 November 2013). "Dominican Republic has a clear, respectful immigration policy". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  4. ^ Ferguson, James (July 2003). Migration in the Caribbean: Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Beyond (PDF). London: Minority Rights Group International. ISBN 1-904584-07-1. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  5. ^ Schaaf, Bryan (21 May 2009). "Haiti and the Dominican Republic: Same Island, Different Worlds". Haiti Innovation.org. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  6. ^ Wheat, David (2016). Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 [eBook - Biblioboard]. [Place of publication not identified]: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-2380-1. OCLC 1119633191.
  7. ^ "Cronología | First Blacks in the Americas". firstblacks.org. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  8. ^ "What Became of the Taíno?".
  9. ^ a b c Moya Pons, Frank (2010). "Evolución de la población dominicana". In Frank Moya Pons (ed.). Historia de la República Dominicana [History of the Dominican Republic] (in Spanish). Vol. 2. Santo Domingo: CSIC Press. pp. 50–52. ISBN 978-84-00-09240-5. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Perez was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cuarto Censo Nacional de Población, 1960. Santo Domingo: Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas. 1966. p. 32.
  12. ^ "Informe Latinobarómetro 2011: Tabla Nº16: Raza a la que pertenece por país" [Latinobarómetro Report 2011: Table Nº16: Race to which responder belongs by country] (in Spanish). Corporación Latinobarómetro. 28 October 2012. p. 58. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  13. ^ [1]

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