Afro-Barbadian
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 96% of the Barbadian population (80% Black and 16% Mulatto. | |
| Languages | |
| English, Bajan Creole | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, Rastafari movement | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| African Diaspora |
Afro-Barbadians, or African Barbadians, are Barbadian people of entirely or predominantly African descent.
According to the 2012 Census, 80% of Barbados' population is Black and 16% is Mulatto.
Most of the enslaved Africans brought to Barbados were from the Bight of Biafra (62,000 Africans), the Gold Coast (59,000 Africans), and the Bight of Benin (45,000 Africans). Other African slaves came from Central Africa (29,000 slaves), Senegambia (14,000 Africans), the Windward Coast (13,000 slaves) and from Sierra Leone (9,000 slaves).
Africans from the Bight of Biafra were primarily Igbo, Ibibio, and Efik; Africans from the Gold Coast were primarily Akan; Africans from the Bight of Benin were primarily Ewe and Fon; and Africans from Central Africa were primarily Kongo.
The Royal African Company in Barbados had its own preference on the origins of the slaves for work. Thus, the company considered, as reported once, that certain slaves were worth more than other slaves from a specific region.
Sugar cane cultivation began in the 1640s, after its introduction in 1637 by Pieter Blower. Initially, rum was produced, but by 1642, sugar was the focus of the industry. As it developed into the main commercial enterprise, Barbados was divided into large plantation estates which replaced the small holdings of the early English settlers as the wealthy planters pushed out the poor. Some of the displaced farmers relocated to the English colonies in North America, most notably South Carolina. To work the plantations, Black Africans were imported as slaves in such numbers that in the last two decades of the 17th century, Blacks outnumbered Whites by a margin of two to one, and in the 18th century there were three Blacks for every one planter.Sugar cane dominated Barbados' economic growth, and the island's cash crop was at the top of the sugar industry until 1720.
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