The African Diaspora ≫ 4 centuries after the beginning of Slavery

In 2019, it was 400 years since many Africans forcibly left their land and were shipped off to an uncertain destination.

Many never arrived, they died during the infamous journey through the waters of the sea before they could glimpse the new place to which they were transferred.

Those who survived did not see again the green lands of the African jungles that had been their home and comfort. They were slaves, people without rights and considered objects of work.

More than 4 centuries ago, the first African immigrants arrived on the American continent at the beginning of one of the greatest crimes in the history of mankind, the slave trade.

It was Ghana, the African country considered the starting point of this forced immigration, known as the African diaspora.

The first Africans, kidnapped and enslaved, arrived in North America, specifically a territory colonized by the British and that now forms the United States, and then they continued to arrive in the thousands to the different colonies of America.

But it was they who, despite being taken from their land, strove to leave in all places that vast and beautiful culture that today is considered a special part of the roots of the American continent.

A term with multiple meanings

The term African diaspora is used to indicate in ancient history, the exodus of people who were transferred by conquerors to other parts of the world such as Europe and the American colonies, as part of the slave trade.

But the term diaspora is also used in modern times, this time applied to many people from Africa who have decided to leave those territories and seek better living conditions in other parts of the world.

Today this process is considered as a tool that promotes educational improvements and cultural exchanges.

Distribution of the African diaspora

Today, Afro-descendants are found in many countries around the world, mainly on the American continent, and the history of Africa has come to enrich the cultural roots of these territories.

There is a large percentage of Afro-descendants who represent an important part of the general population in American countries such as:

Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Bahamas, Costa Rica,
Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil,
United States, Canada, Mexico, etc.

Among them Cuba, where they have bequeathed us a vast culture that is part of our identity and cultural heritage.