The first African slaves were transported to Nicaragua were taken by Gil González Dávila, who purchased them for 300 pesos in Panama from Pedrarias Dávila´s colonial administrator. From there they took eleven enslaved individuals to the newly founded Nicaragua. They were already baptized before being taken to Nicaragua. In 1531, the council of Leon asked the King of Spain for authorization to extract a thousand slaves, tax-free, to give to the neighbors. The council of Granada, Spain – in November 24, 1544 – asked the same authorization to import 50 people to enslave them in the opening of the "rapids of the drain". Also, Spanish colonists, who could no longer enslave the Native Americans following the New Laws of 1542, required workers in their newly formed haciendas. So, from 1558, Bishop Lazaro Carrasco, meeting with the Native Americans "almost all consumed" and less than a hundred Spanish neighbors without enough real entries, asked for the King's license to import 600 people of African descent to enslave them, they would remedy the situation, i.e., could produce the earth.≈[citation needed]
The number of the first African people enslaved were imported must have been considerable, perhaps thousands. Because most Spanish who emigrated to America were men, soldiers and colonists took indigenous and African women as partners and concubines. As early as the 18th century, most people who were enslaved born in the territory were mulattoes. According to colonial documents, people of African descent who had been enslaved came from such ethnic groups such as Arara, mainly the Ewe and Fon from Ghana, Togo, Benin, the Yoruba people from Yorubaland, now located in Nigeria, Togo and Benin,[8] the Ashanti (of Ghana), those from what is now known as "Angola", the Congo region, the "mina" and "Mandinga" of the Gambia. The proportion of men and women slaves was very similar.
Miscegenation caused a large release of enslaved people. Thus emerged middle classes formed by Zambo, mulatto and quadroon (those with a quarter African blood) and other mixtures. By 1820, persons of some African descent made up 84 percent of the population.[citation needed]
But many of them were kept as slaves, probably hundreds. Thus, during the first half of the 17th century, many of the slaves were used in the indigo mills. Since the 17th century, several groups of slaves rebelled against their owners and migrated to other places and settled in small clandestine colonies, free from Spanish rule. Therefore, these slaves the "Cimarrons" (cimarrones) were affected by several royal orders issued against them. One of them agreed to raise an army against those colonies and return enslaved people to their owners. This law was fulfilled in Nicaragua.[8]
However, the Spanish were not the only people to import people to make them slaves to Nicaragua. The English, who were colonists on the coast of Nicaragua since 1633, also imported groups of people to enslave since the late 17th century. The English began cultivating sugar cane and indigo around Bluefields and on the banks of the Rio Coco, which were labor-intensive crops.[9] The slaves were also used for cotton plantations and especially for cutting mahogany.[10] As in the case of slaves imported by the Spanish, the African slaves of the English mixed with the Miskito, Sumu, and Rama indigenous peoples of the area.[9]
Most “caseros” (derived from Spanish "Casa" -house- i.e., men assigned to domestic service in the homes of Creoles and Spaniards) enslaved African and mulatto people who also performed agricultural and cattle, but were not the main operating system. Finally, following independence, slavery was abolished by the decree of the Constituent Assembly of April 17, 1824.[8]
However, in the early 19th century arrived slaves from Jamaica to the Nicaraguan Caribbean coasts, when the region was a British protectorate. They became "creoles". Later, in 1832, some groups of Garifuna people came to the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua from Honduras for fighting for their land, to be recognized as ethnic, and to preserve their cultural identity. However, the Garifuna were met with fierce opposition from the Miskito people, as indigenous of these territories, and of the Creole, who forced them to accept English as the language for business transactions and a half for insertion and recognition in society.[11]
Communities
Most enslaved people imported by the Spanish to Nicaragua were mixed during the colonial era and their mulatto and Quadroon descendants also re-mixed with the majority indigenous, mestizo and white. For this reason, today, the descendants of black enslaved people who were imported by the Spanish in Nicaragua are mostly white people or Amerindians with some black ancestors. Black Nicaraguans are descended from the enslaved people who were imported by the British and the West Indian immigrants who arrived on the shores of the country in the 17th century. Most Afro-Nicaraguans reside on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, which is also the vast and sparsely populated region, that had British occupation from 1635 to 1860. The Afro-Nicaraguans are fundamentally divided into three groups, also present in Honduras: Creoles (majority group), Garifuna, and Indigenous zambos. The Afro-Nicaraguan population is descended from enslaved people who were exported from places such as Panama, Nigeria, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Jamaica.
Indigenous Zambos
These are indigenous groups formed by the mixture of African descent and the Mayangna, Rama, and Miskitos indigenous ethnic groups. Their African ancestors were enslaved Africans kidnapped and brought in bondage to Nicaragua by English settler colonizers on the coast of Nicaragua, in 1633. Since the late 17th century, when the British forced enslaved Africans to cultivate sugar cane and indigo around Bluefields and on the banks of the Rio Coco, there were imported the first enslaved Africans to do the arduous and dangerous work of the canefields.[9] The slaves were also forced to labor in cotton plantations and especially in lumber extraction mahogany.[10] The arrival of African slaves to the area facilitated the race mixtures between this group and the natives of the place, the aforementioned Miskito, Sumu and Rama.[9] Thus, Sumo and Rama are zambos. While the Miskito are a mixture of Bawinka Amerindians, Africans, zambos (sumos "tawahkas"), and European.[12]
Creoles
They are mostly descendants of former slaves from Jamaica, who arrived in the region in the early 19th century when the region was a British protectorate and retained a rich indigenous culture. That is, are Creoles. The Nicaraguan Creole received from the English, their language, their religion, and customs. Of old, the coastal rebutted the inability of the rest of Nicaraguans (Pacific) to understand their cultural identity, and although desde 1987 the Caribbean has a different territorial system (RAAN and RAAS), many sectors still consider themselves neglected by the central state and not yet given a move back legal, political, economic, religious and cultural life of the Caribbean Coast to the rest of Nicaragua.[11]
Garifuna
They live on the country's coasts. They are a mixture of Carib Amerindians and Afro-Caribbeans of the Saint Vicente island (unlike the Creoles), from where they were exported to the island of Roatan, Honduras because rebelled them against the English domain of the island. From there, they migrated to the Honduran coast, from where they spread to the rest of the Central American coast to Costa Rica.
The Garifuna came to the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua in 1832 with the same objectives that motivated since its installation in continental America (after the wreck of the slave ship in 1636 near the island of St. Vincent in the Lesser Antilles): fighting for his land, be recognized as ethnic and preserve their cultural identity. However, the Garifuna were met with fierce opposition from the Miskito, as indigenous of this territory, and of Black Creole, who forced them to accept English as the language for business transactions and a half for insertion and recognition in society, according to research on ethnicity in the Caribbean Nicaraguan, of Silvio Araica Aguilar and Cleopatra Morales (May 2000). The authors report that "the major contradictions between Creole and Garifuna, despite having the same ancestors of African origin lies in the genealogy of its ethnic composition and thus the result of cultural syncretism" (May, 2000). According to the Human Development Report of the United Nations to Central America in 2003, in Nicaragua would 2000 garífunas.[11]
Nicaraguan coasts: a distinct region
The African slaves arrives on Nicaraguan Coast during the British commercial and political domain of the Nicaraguan coast (1524–1821), many of which were exported by the British themselves (except the Creoles). In 1860 Great Britain and the United States sign a treaty, because international negotiations between the two countries developed. So, from 1894, England, abandons gradually the Caribbean coast, delivering in 1905, the territory to American companies, occupying the latter will last until 1930. After British withdrawal, on the Caribbean coast, it remains for 44 years as an autonomous region of Nicaragua, having its own laws and regulations until 1894, when President José Santos Zelaya said the reintegration of Moskitia to Nicaragua, developing monopolies for mestizos in the area and to U.S. interests, as well as replacing the name of the Mosquito Coast by the Department of Zelaya. Beyond this, the government encouraged massive immigration of Nicaraguan mestizos, especially those engaged in military affairs, commercial, speculative, and entrepreneurs. Immigrants and Nicaraguan government officials were evicted from their lands by the indigenous Amerindians and Afro-descendants living in them and imposed heavy fines on the natives of the coast. In addition, the government abolished the laws of the region and built the Nicaraguan government institutions and structures, forming schools, police, government, etc. This imposition of that such institutions were built, was made through the use of force. The most important result was the prohibition of education in English and their own languages, only languages spoken by the population – indigenous population, Garifuna and Afro-descendants- of this Nicaraguan area. It caused an abandonment of schools and colleges on the coast for generations. The Nicaraguan coast always remained economically dominated by American companies until the 1930s when U.S. companies were gradually replaced by the capital of the Somoza family and its allies until 1979 with the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution. In 1987, the Caribbean coast achieved autonomy from Nicaragua. The government, fearing the loss of the territory, divided it into two autonomous regions now known as the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region and North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, but internal conflicts remain.[10]
According to the 2022 revision of the World Population Prospects, Nicaragua has a population of 6,850,540. Whites and Mestizos and tribally unaffiliated Native Americans combined make up about 56% of the population. The remainder of the Nicaraguan population is 9% English-speaking Afro-Nicaraguans, and 33% Tribal Native American.
The Mosquito Coast is the area along the eastern coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras. It was named after the local Miskito Nation and was long dominated by British interests and known as the Mosquito Kingdom. From 1860 suzerainty of the area was transferred to Nicaragua with the name Mosquito Reserve, and in November 1894 the Mosquito Coast was militarily incorporated into Nicaragua. However, in 1960, the northern part was granted to Honduras by the International Court of Justice.
The Garifuna people are a people of mixed free African and Amerindian ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language, and Vincentian Creole.
Zambo or Sambu is a racial term historically used in the Spanish Empire to refer to people of mixed Amerindian and African ancestry. Occasionally in the 21st century, the term is used in the Americas to refer to persons who are of mixed African and Indigenous American ancestry.
Afro–Latin Americans or Black Latin Americans are Latin Americans of full or mainly sub-Saharan African ancestry.
The Miskitos are a native people in Central America. Their territory extends from Cape Camarón, Honduras, to Río Grande de Matagalpa, Nicaragua, along the Mosquito Coast, in the Western Caribbean Zone. Their population is estimated at 700,000 people as of 2021, according to the official Miskito Database.
The North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region is one of two autonomous regions in Nicaragua. It was created along with the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region by the Autonomy Statute of 7 September 1987 through a division of the former Zelaya Department. It covers an area of 33,106 km2 and has a population of 541,189. It is the largest autonomous region or department in Nicaragua. The capital is Puerto Cabezas. It contains part of the region known as the Mosquito Coast.
Afro-Trinidadians and Tobagonians are people from Trinidad and Tobago who are of Sub-Saharan African descent, mostly from West Africa. Social interpretations of race in Trinidad and Tobago are often used to dictate who is of West African descent. Mulatto-Creole, Dougla, Blasian, Zambo, Maroon, Pardo, Quadroon, Octoroon or Hexadecaroon (Quintroon) were all racial terms used to measure the amount of West African ancestry someone possessed in Trinidad and Tobago and throughout North American, Latin American and Caribbean history.
Culture of Nicaragua has many influences. The western part was colonized by the Spanish and its culture is similar to that of other Hispanic countries. The inhabitants of western Nicaragua are mostly triracial(Indigenous, West African, European) and the main language is invariably Spanish.
Latin Americans are the citizens of Latin American countries.
Bluefields is the capital of the South Caribbean Autonomous Region in Nicaragua. It was also the capital of the former Kingdom of Mosquitia, and later the Zelaya Department, which was divided into North and South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regions. It is located on Bluefields Bay at the mouth of the Bluefields River in the municipality of the same name.
Mískito Coast Creole or Nicaraguan Creole English is an English-based creole language spoken in coastal Nicaraguan region of Mosquito Coast on the Caribbean Sea; its approximately 40,000 speakers are spread over the RAAN and RAAS regions of Nicaragua. The region, known before 1986 as the Zelaya department, is today administratively separated into two autonomous regions: North Caribbean Coast (RAAN) and South Caribbean Coast (RAAS). Mosquito is the nickname that is given to the region and earlier residents by early Europeans who visited and settled in the area. The term "Miskito" is now more commonly used to refer to both the people and the language.
Central America is a subregion of the Americas formed by six Latin American countries and one (officially) Anglo-American country, Belize. As an isthmus it connects South America with the remainder of mainland North America, and comprises the following countries : Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.
The official language of Nicaragua is Spanish; however, Nicaraguans on the Caribbean coast speak indigenous languages and also English. The communities located on the Caribbean coast also have access to education in their native languages. Additionally, Nicaragua has four extinct indigenous languages.
Afro-Costa Ricans are Costa Ricans of African ancestry.
The western Caribbean zone is a region consisting of the Caribbean coasts of Central America and Colombia, from the Yucatán Peninsula in southern Mexico to the Caribbean region in northern Colombia, and the islands west of Jamaica are also included. The zone emerged in the late sixteenth century as the Spanish failed to completely conquer many sections of the coast, and northern European powers supported opposition to Spain, sometimes through alliances with local powers.
The Miskito Sambu, also known simply as the Miskito, are an ethnic group of mixed cultural ancestry occupying a portion of the Caribbean coast of Central America known as the Mosquito Coast region. Although older records, beginning with Spanish documents of the early 18th century, refer to the group as "Mosquitos Zambos", modern ethnographic terminology uses the term Miskito.
An Afro-Guatemalan person is a person who lives in Guatemala, but has African decency in their historical and cultural roots. This term intertwines the conquest of America by the Spanish. The Afro-Guatemalan population is not numerous today. Although it is difficult to determine specific figures, it is reported that Afro-Guatemalans represent only between 1% and 2% of the country's population. According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. They are of mainly English-speaking West Indian (Antillean) and Garifuna origin. They are found in the Caribbean coast, in Livingston, Puerto Barrios and Santo Tomas. In the 17th century, many enslaved blacks were able to secure for themselves or at least their future children through marriage to free people. Many of these marriages were with Mayans or Europeans, which created a mix between blacks, Mayans and Europeans. This resulted in a significant mestizo population that, over the years, has continued to dilute traces of African ancestry in many cases. Today this can be referred to as Afro-mestizos due to miscegenation.
Afro-Hondurans or Black Hondurans are Hondurans of Sub-Saharan African descent. Research by Henry Louis Gates and other sources regards their population to be around 1-2%. They descended from: enslaved Africans by the Spanish, as well as those who were enslaved from the West Indies and identify as Creole peoples, and the Garifuna who descend from exiled zambo Maroons from Saint Vincent. The Creole people were originally from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, while the Garifuna people were originally from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Garifunas arrived in the late seventeen hundreds and the Creole peoples arrived during the eighteen hundreds. About 600,000 Hondurans are of Garífuna descent that are a mix of African and indigenous as of Afro Latin Americans. Honduras has one of the largest African community in Latin America.
Settlement of English people along the Caribbean Coast, or Miskito Coast, of Nicaragua began in 1633. The area was controlled by Britain until 1860, and eventually integrated into Nicaragua by 1894. The Miskito Coast region divided into two autonomous regions within Nicaragua after 1987.
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