Black Caribbean

Afro-Caribbeans

Total population
(c. 30 million)
Regions with significant populations
Haiti	8.9 million
Dominican Republic	8.1 million
Cuba	4.9 million
United States	2.88 million
Jamaica	2.5 million
Puerto Rico	461,498
Trinidad and Tobago	452,536
Bahamas	372,000
Guadeloupe	403,750
Martinique	330,000
Guyana	290,000
Barbados	253,771
Suriname	202,500
Saint Lucia	173,765
Curaçao	148,000
French Guiana	131,676
Grenada	101,309
Belize	93,394
U.S. Virgin Islands	79,000
Dominica	72,660
Saint Kitts and Nevis	38,827
Languages
Languages: English English Creole Caribbean Jamaican, Trinidadian, Tobagonian, Bahamian, Guyanese, Bajan, Grenadian, Belizean, Saint Kitts, Vincentian, Surinamese French French Creole Haitian, Antillean Spanish Spanish Creole Caribbean Spanish Portuguese Portuguese Creole Papiamento Dutch Yoruba other West African languages
Religion
Predominantly: Christianity Minority: Islam Bahá'í Judaism Traditional African religion Afro-American religion Obeah Rastafarianism Santería Orisha Trinidad Orisha Yoruba Vodou others
Related ethnic groups
Afro-Central American, Liberian, Americo-Liberian

Afro-Caribbean, a term not used by West Indians themselves but first coined by Americans in the late 1960s, describes Caribbean people who trace at least some of their ancestry to West Africa in the period since Christopher Columbus' arrival in the region in 1492. Other names for this ethnicity include African-Caribbean (especially preferred among the United Kingdom branch of the diaspora), Afro-Antillean, or Afro-West Indian. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, European-led triangular trade brought enslaved West African people to work on Caribbean islands, primarily on various sugar plantations and in domestic households. Many Afro-Caribbeans also have non-African ancestry, such as European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Native American, as there has been extensive intermarriage and unions among the peoples over the centuries.

Although most Afro-Caribbean people today live in French, English, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations, there are also significant diaspora populations throughout the Western world – especially in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands. Both the home and diaspora populations have produced a number of individuals who have had a notable influence on modern Western, Caribbean, and African societies; they include political activists such as Marcus Garvey and C.L.R. James; writers and theorists such as Aime Cesaire and Frantz Fanon; US military leader and statesman Colin Powell, whose parents were immigrants; and Jamaican musician Bob Marley.