Afro-Venezuelans
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Entire country; highest percent found in the Venezuelan Caribbean and Venezuelan Llanos | |
| Languages | |
| Venezuelan Spanish | |
| Religion | |
| Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| African, Afro-Guyanese, Afro-Colombian, Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Trinidadian and Tobagonian, and Venezuelan people |
The term Afro-Venezuelan (Spanish: Afrovenezolano) refers to Venezuelans of African descent. They are mostly descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the Western Hemisphere by John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake during the Atlantic slave trade. This term can also refer to the combining of African and other cultural elements found in Venezuelan society such as the arts, music, religion, race, language, and class culture.
Between 1576 and 1810, about 500,000 African slaves were transported to Venezuela via Portuguese, Catalan, French, English,Belgium and Dutch slave ships. These slaves belonged to various ethnicities from present-day Angola, Senegal, Gambia, Benin, Nigeria and the Congo, such as: Kalabari, Yoruba, Kongo, Wolof, and more. Slaves were treated as units of commerce, referred to as pieza de india in reference to their physique and potential for travail. Throughout the sixteenth century, slaves were brought to toil in the gold mines in Coro and Buría (Yaracuy) and to Isla Margarita and Cumaná for fishing and pearl diving. Small-scale agricultural plantations were also initiated in Venezuela, especially among the regions surrounding Caracas. In the 18th century, immense shipments of slaves were transported to Barlovento to aid the burgeoning cacao industry, indigo plantations in the Venezuelan Llanos and the sugar plantations in Lara, Aragua and Zulia, around Lake Maracaibo.
...
Wikipedia