This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2007) |
Total population | |
---|---|
5,804,800 in South America, unknown number overall [1] [ dubious – discuss ] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Latin America and the Caribbean | |
Languages | |
Spanish, Portuguese and English | |
Religion | |
Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic, minority practices Protestantism), African religions, tribal religions | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Garifuna, Africans, Afro-Caribbeans and Amerindians |
Zambo (Spanish: [ˈθambo] or [ˈsambo] ) 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 Native American ancestry.
The equivalent term in Brazil is cafuzo (Portuguese: [kɐˈfuzu] ). However, in Portugal and Portuguese-speaking Africa, cafuzo is used to refer to someone born of an African person and a person of mixed African and European ancestry. [2]
The word is believed to have originated from one of the Romance languages or Latin and its direct descendants. The feminine word is zamba (not to be confused with the Argentine Zamba folk dance.)
In some parts of colonial Spanish America, the term zambo applied to the children of one African and one Amerindian parent, or the children of two zambo parents. In New Spain (colonial Mexico), the term for those of mixed African and indigenous ancestry was lobo ("wolf"). This term of classification appears in official marriage registers and other official documentation. [3]
During this period, many other terms denoted individuals of African-Amerindian ancestry in ratios smaller or greater than the 50:50 of zambos: cambujo (zambo-Amerindian mixture) for example. Today in parts of Spanish America, zambo refers to all people with significant or visible amounts of both African and Amerindian ancestry.
The term zambo was not formally used in Spanish territories. Competing terms, such as mulato, were also used. From the beginning the early sixteenth century, when African slaves were first imported to Hispaniola, unions between them and indigenous peoples, and Spanish colonists, began to take place. The two non-European groups sometimes worked together in the mines or on the plantations of Hispaniola, and on other Spanish Caribbean islands following the introduction of sugar cane production in the 1520s. In other cases, Africans took refuge in indigenous communities after escaping slavery.
The term zambos was generally used to refer to persons who did not have European ancestry, but all sorts of unions took place through the centuries, of course. In the eighteenth century, the Spanish began making formal racial classifications, and defined zambo in what became its final, official meaning.
Some zambo groups became well known after being created by runaway or rebel Africans who mixed with or took over indigenous communities. In the unconquered regions of Esmeraldes, in what would become Ecuador, for example, a small group of shipwrecked former slaves gained control of some indigenous communities, eventually representing them before Spanish authorities in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
The Misquito Zambos developed as the descendants of a group of African slaves who revolted in 1640 on a slave ship. They wrecked it at Cape Gracias a Dios on the border between Honduras and Nicaragua, to escape into the interior. There they united with the indigenous Miskito people. By the early eighteenth century, Afro-Miskito people came to dominate the kingdom. They led warriors on many extensive slave raids to capture slaves for sale to Europeans. Their alliance and protection of English-speaking merchants and settlers in the area helped Great Britain found the colony of British Honduras (present day Belize).
Officially, zambos represent sizeable minorities in the northwestern South American countries of Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, and Ecuador, as well as in the Central American country of Panama. A small, but noticeable number of zambos, resulting from recent unions of Amerindian men to Afro-Ecuadorian women, and they are common in major coastal cities of Ecuador and in Imbabura province. Prior to rural-to-urban migration in Ecuador, Afro-Ecuadorians were mostly confined to the Esmeraldas Province and the Chota Valley in Imbabura Province. A genetic study of Afro-Ecuadorians throughout the country revealed that today, the average Afro-Ecuadorian carries significantly higher amounts of Amerindian ancestry than all other Afro-latino groups to the north of the country, with an average of 35.86% Amerindian heritage [4] . In this sense, the Afro-Ecuadorian people maintain a "Zambo" legacy both culturally and genetically.
In Central America, two indigenous-African mixed groups have developed: the Miskito and the Garifuna. The Garifuna originated from the combination of Africans who were shipwrecked or fled from neighboring islands to St. Vincent during the 17th and the 19l8th centuries. In 1797, they were deported by the British for supporting France during the French Revolutionary Wars to the island of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras. From there, they reached the mainland and developed communities along the coast of Central America from Nicaragua to Belize.
In Mexico, where zambos were sometimes known as lobos (literally meaning wolves), they form a sizeable minority. According to the 2015 Intercensus Estimate, 896,829 people identified as both Afro-Mexican and Indigenous Mexican. The vast majority of the country's Afro-descended population has been absorbed into the wider mestizo population. Greater concentrations can be found only in communities scattered around the southern coastal states, including Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Yucatán, and Veracruz, where many of the country's Afro-Mexicans reside.
Culturally, Mexican lobos followed Amerindian traditions, rather than African influences, as they often had Amerindian mothers and were brought up in her culture. Such acculturation also took place in Bolivia, where the Afro-Bolivian community absorbed and retained many aspects of Amerindian cultural influences, such as dress and the use of the Aymara language. Those communities of Afro-Bolivians reside in the Yungas region of the Bolivian department of La Paz.
The populations of African and Amerindian ancestry have generally been marginalized and discriminated against. [5]
In March 2008, the then US Senator Barack Obama reflected in a speech the difficult situation faced by the populations of African and Amerindian ancestors, [6] thereby demonstrating his concern for the Zamba population of his country.
Demographic features of the population of Ecuador include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.
This article is about the ethnic groups and population of Honduras.
Mestizo is a person of mixed European and Indigenous non-European ancestry and African blood in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though their ancestors are Indigenous. The term was used as an ethno-racial exonym for mixed-race castas that evolved during the Spanish Empire. It was a formal label for individuals in official documents, such as censuses, parish registers, Inquisition trials, and others. Priests and royal officials might have classified persons as mestizos, but individuals also used the term in self-identification. With the Bourbon reforms and the independence of the Americas, the caste system disappeared and terms like "mestizo" fell in popularity.
The terms multiracial people refer to people who are of multiple races, and the terms multi-ethnic people refer to people who are of more than one ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for multiracial people in a variety of contexts, including multiethnic, polyethnic, occasionally bi-ethnic, Métis, Muwallad, Melezi, Coloured, Dougla, half-caste, ʻafakasi, mestizo, mutt, Melungeon, quadroon, octoroon, sambo/zambo, Eurasian, hapa, hāfu, Garifuna, pardo, and Gurans. A number of these once-acceptable terms are now considered offensive, in addition to those that were initially coined for pejorative use.
Cholo is a loosely defined Spanish term that has had various meanings. Its origin is a somewhat derogatory term for people of mixed-blood heritage in the Spanish Empire in Latin America and its successor states as part of castas, the informal ranking of society by heritage. Cholo no longer necessarily refers only to ethnic heritage, and is not always meant negatively. Cholo can signify anything from its original sense as a person with one indigenous parent and one Mestizo parent, "gangster" in Mexico, an insult in some South American countries, or a "person who dresses in the manner of a certain subculture" in the United States as part of the cholo subculture.
The region known as Hispanic America and historically as Spanish America or Castilian America is all the Spanish-speaking countries of the American continent. In all of these countries, Spanish is the main language - sometimes sharing official status with one or more indigenous languages or English, and Latin Catholicism is the predominant religion.
Afro–Latin Americans or Black Latin Americans are Latin Americans who claim begin of full or mainly sub-Saharan African ancestry. Biologically, a significant majority of population in each country have african genes.
Guatemalans are people connected to the country of Guatemala. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Guatemalans, several of these connections exist.
Sambo is a derogatory label for a person of African descent in the Spanish language. Historically, it is a name in American English derived from a Spanish term for a person of African and Native American ancestry. After the Civil War, during and after the Jim Crow era the term was used in conversation, print advertising and household items as a pejorative descriptor for black people. The term is now considered offensive in American and British English.
Latin Americans are the citizens of Latin American countries.
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 RACCN and RACCS regions of Nicaragua. The region, known before 1986 as the Zelaya department, is today administratively separated into two autonomous regions: North Caribbean Coast (RACCN) and South Caribbean Coast (RACCS). 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.
Hondurans are the citizens of Honduras. Most Hondurans live in Honduras, although there is also a significant Honduran diaspora, particularly in the United States, Spain, and many smaller communities in other countries around the world.
There is no single system of races or ethnicities that covers all modern Latin America, and usage of labels may vary substantially.
An Afro-Guatemalan person is a person who lives in Guatemala, but has African ancestry 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-Nicaraguans are Nicaraguans of Sub-Saharan African descent. Five main distinct ethnic groups exist: The Creoles who descend from Anglo-Caribbean countries and many of whom still speak Nicaragua English Creole, the Miskito Sambus descendants of Spanish slaves and indigenous Central Americans who still speak Miskito and/or Miskito Coast Creole, the Garifunas descendants of Zambos expelled from St. Vincent who speak Garifuna, the Rama Cay zambos a subset of the Miskito who speak Rama Cay Creole, and the descendants of those enslaved by the Spanish.
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.
Race and ethnicity in Colombia descend mainly from three racial groups—Europeans, Amerindians, and Africans—that have mixed throughout the last 500 years of the country's history. Some demographers describe Colombia as one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the Western Hemisphere and in the World, with 900 different ethnic groups. Most Colombians identify themselves and others according to ancestry, physical appearance, and sociocultural status. Social relations reflect the importance attached to certain characteristics associated with a given racial group. Although these characteristics no longer accurately differentiate social categories, they still contribute to one's rank in the social hierarchy. A study from Rojas et al. involving 15 departments determined that the average Colombian has a mixture of 47% Amerindian, 42% European, and 11% African. These proportions also vary widely among ethnicities.
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.
In the former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Americas, pardos are triracial descendants of Europeans, Native Americans and Africans.