Afro-Dominican (Dominica)
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (86.8% of the Dominican population.) | |
| Languages | |
| English · Dominican Creole French | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Roman Catholicism, minority Protestantism |
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
| African people · others Afro-Caribbeans · English people · French people |
An Afro-Dominican is a Dominican of Black African descent. They are the most of the Dominica's population. According to the 2001 census, blacks make up 86.8% of the population, while mixed, 8.9%.
The places from which the slaves came seem to have been various. It is possible to ascertain this through colonial records preserved in Dominica, where data regarding the arrival of boats to the island seems quite complete, indicating not only the different ports where slaves embarked (and in some cases the ethnic groups to which they belonged) and the date of their arrival at the island, but also the number of enslaved people on board these boats and the number of those who survived the journey to reach Dominica. Based on these records we can affirm that the majority of slaves came from the Bight of Biafra, both from present-day south-eastern Nigeria (Igbo, Ibibio) and coastal Cameroon. They made up 62% of the slaves imported to Dominica. Slaves from the Bight of Biafra numbered more than 57.000 in Dominica.
The rest of the slaves came from the established ports in what is now Senegal (from which comes, in part, the word "Kwéyòl" that designates the Creole dialect of Dominica), Gambia, Sierra Leone (from where 4.8% of the slaves came), Windward Coast (they made up 11% of the slaves who arrived in Dominica. Since Liberia were imported specifically people of the Bassa´s tribesmen, who belonged to the Kru ethnic group), Ghana (from where only the 3% of the slaves came. Arrived Akan slaves), Benin (only 1% of the slaves. Arrived popos, from South of country), Congo Republic (Loangos, although just were imported 82 people from this kingdom to Dominica, being the smallest ethnic group arrived to the island), Angola (Ambundu) and Southeast of Africa (since where only were exported to Dominica 670 people). The slaves from Congo and Angola were 6.7% of the total (more of 6.200 people). All these places (except the Congo and Southeast of Africa), imported thousands of slaves to Dominica (especially from the Windward Coast, which imported more than 11,000 slaves to Dominica, and Senegambia, with more than 6,400 slaves in the archipelago).
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