Ocacia is an international smooth jazz studio and performance group. Ocacia is known for their socially conscious lyrics. The music is characterized by some as "escapist" in the usage of space, chords and ethnic overtones. The chord structure has an absences of "thirds" and is similar to other African Diaspora and African classical music by its “drum and bass” dominance. Not all the music fits into the smooth jazz canon, as some of it is more in the film score world. Their first album was released in 1999. The original members of the group were Owen 'Alik Shahadah (Piano/keyboards), Natasha Odlum-Shahadah (voice), David Hadley (Bass), Brian McCooke (drums). In 2002, Natasha Odlum left the group and Nadia Kanouche became the new lead feature vocalist. Ocacia works as a studio group composing soundtracks and is also known to work with other artists such as Sona Jobarteh and M.K. Asante, Jr.

The name Ocacia is an African name derived from acacia.

Selected track list[link]

• If I...
• Tear for the World
• Crossing the Teneire
• Netsante
• Give me the day
• Come into the sunshine
• Absent Sun

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Links[link]

• Ocacia Website
• St Lucia Jazz Festival History
• IMDB Profile

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Owen 'Alik Shahadah
Born	1973 Hanover, Germany
Occupation	Film director, producer, cultural historian and academic.
Website
http://www.owenshahadah.com

Owen 'Alik Shahadah (b. 1973) (Arabic: اليك شحادة) is a director, African writer, and scholar. He is an expert in African culture, African slavery, and the Arab slave trade. He is best known for authoring works, which deal with African history, social justice, environmental issues, education and world peace. Born in Hanover, Germany and educated in England, New York, and the Caribbean, Shahadah is of a new generation of African Diaspora filmmakers inspired by the likes of Malcolm X and Kwame Ture. He produces work that articulates a multidimensional African world perspective. Testimony to this is 500 Years Later and Motherland (film).^[1][2] As a cultural writer he is a leading critic of the terms black people and Sub-Saharan Africa, he states they are products of racism to undermine African history and cultural contributions.^[3] He argues for African agency and economic ownership of African culture by Africans.

Education & Personal[link]

Shahadah studied Aeronautical Engineering (BEng) in London and zoology (Bsc) at the University of the West Indies.^[4] Despite a science background his writings focus on revisiting academic racism and African history within an African framework. Notable he is author of arabslavetrade.com, a leading website on the Arab slave trade in Africa.^[5][6] He spent his teenage years growing up in Brooklyn New York. He also professes to a keen interest in anthropology, natural history, linguistics and is a qualified PADI divemaster (scuba diver).^[4]

His former father-in-law was socialist St Lucian politician George Odlum. Odlum's daughter, now Shahadah's ex-wife, was also lead singer for Ocacia.^[7]

Published work[link]

Shahadah publishes articles in a variety of African journals such as African Executive, AllAfrica, African Holocaust and Pambazuka, Zimbabwe Herald and AllAfrica.com.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} Shahadah maintains that progressive African history keeps Africans as the primary agents of African history within an African cultural paradigm while at the same time meeting the highest threshold of good scholarship. He asserts that the tradition of "tarzan" or the hunter writing the history of Africa is an ongoing colonial threat to self-determination and justice.^[13] Alik Shahadah however states that "History and culture are far too dynamic to exclusively be articulated through the narrow window of race and color." He has written audio productions such as Torn land: Palestine, African Holocaust: Dark Voyages and co-written Afrikan Kingdoms. He has written a paper titled Linguistics for a new African reality which was adapted by the African Code. The paper identifies how sociolinguistic apply to self-determination.^[14] He is a critic of the terms black people and Sub-Saharan Africa, he states they are products of racism to undermine African history and cultural contributions.^[3] He also writes on slavery in Africa, Arabia and the Americas.^[15] He lobbies for free movement in Africa and an economic empowerment of African people globally and especially in places where they are the majority in the population.^[16]

Film/Video List[link]

• Motherland (2010)
• Still My Home (2008)
• Our Story Our Voice (2007)
• The Idea (2006)
• 500 Years Later (2005)
• No Difference (Music Video) (2005)
• Tear for the World (Music Video) (2005)
• Like water running off my back (Music Video) (2004)

Films[link]

Shahadah is best known for directing the documentary 500 Years Later, an influential film that explores the psycho-cultural effects of slavery and colonialism in the African Diaspora. The film won 5 international awards including: Breaking Chains Award 2007, UNESCO ^[17] (presented at ZIFF film festival in Zanzibar, Best Documentary at the Pan African (Los Angeles) and Bridgetown (Barbados) Film Festivals; Best Film at the International Black Cinema (Berlin) Film Festival; and Best International Documentary at the Harlem (New York) International Film Festival. It was nominated for 'Best of the Best' at FESPACO. In October 2005, 500 Years Later was screened at the Millions More Movement. Philadelphia Weekly wrote, "When participants gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the Millions More Movement rally last month, they also became one of the largest film audiences in history." He has also directed The Idea with (Tunde Jegede), a black comedy, as well as the political documentary Our Story Our Voice (2007) which was selected for Best Documentary at the Pan-African Film Festival. In 2004 he began working on the multi-award winning documentary Motherland 2010. Motherland is one of the first Pan-African documentaries on the continent of Africa.

Technique & African Aesthetic[link]

Shahadah is seen as one of the next generation of African Diaspora filmmakers, who draws from the masters of African cinema. Shahadah believes that Africans must develop an authentic African aesthetic and bring this into film culture. He also stresses that all art in the traditional African senses is socially functional. As a filmmaker he is noted for emphasizing music to film synchronization. He stresses that African film, like African music (both of the continent and the Diaspora), has a rhythm which is the fundamental inner harmony that sets up a unique African sensibility. His documentaries never use narration and are driven my music, strong flashing images set to music and spoken word and rich color. Unique in documentary Shahadah uses heavy dramatic film scores, typical of epic movies. He says his films are a four part harmony of information produced by images, music, text and dialog. For Motherland Shahadah claims he created a new way of mixing music in Dolby 5.1 called split positioning.^[18]

He approaches cinema from a jazz paradigm and states: "If you want to understand the concept of a paradigm shift go and study jazz; it is the most perfect example of an African aesthetic. Because it has agency it can absorbs worldly influences but still expresses an African sensibility. Like a language, jazz is grammatically Africa while its lexicon is varied."^[19]

Awards and nominations[link]

• 2011 Motherland (film) | Nominated Best Diaspora Documentary African Movie Academy Award (2011)^[20]
• 2010 Motherland (film) | Best Documentary Zanzibar International Film Festival (2010)^[21]
• 2010 Motherland (film) | Best Board of directors award for Documentary Pan-African Film Festival (2010)^[22]
• 2007 500 Years Later | Winner, UNESCO/Zanzibar International Film Festival, "Breaking the Chains" award
• 2007 500 Years Later | Nominated, FESPACO, Paul Robeson award "Best of the Diaspora"
• 2007 Our Story Our Voice | Nominated, PAFF, Best Documentary
• 2005 500 Years Later | Winner, Pan-African Film Festival, Best Documentary PAFF
• 2005 500 Years Later | Winner, Bridgetown Film Festival, Best Documentary
• 2005 500 Years Later | Winner, Berlin Black Film Festival, Best Film
• 2005 500 Years Later | Winner, Harlem International Film Festival, Best International Documentary

Views on African Cinema[link]

Shahadah sees film as an instrument of mass persuasion, which has been traditionally used to foster a negative image of African people globally, he therefore believes film is one of the most potent weapons to re-image African and solidify a Pan-African identity. Owen Shahadah is a critic of Nollywood and popular “African American cinema” which he believes cheapens the perception of African culture; “it re-emphasizes, by imitation, a culturally shallow notion of African people, it serves more for the entertainment of Europeans than anything else.” But he praised Nollywood for its economic impact and for offering an alternative African selection. "Economically Nollywood is a blessing but it must learn to be loyal to the art of the film industry and not capitalism."

Music career[link]

Producers and pianist in the Jazz-Fusion band Ocacia, who have performed at numerous international jazz festivals, including the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival in 2000. The band has also played at many of the key London Jazz venues including Ronnie Scotts and WKD. As a composer, Shahadah has written over 400 songs including the hit Tear for the World and If I… (co-written by Sona Jobarteh).^[23] Shahadah also wrote the opening theme for 500 Years Later with African percussionist Mamedi Kamara.

Shahadah is involved in Pan-African and development and in the early to late 90’s trained and invested in renowned Tanzanian music producer Joachim Kimaryo of MJ Records. Shahadah and Kimaryo continued to exchange and develop what has today has blossomed into the largest urban music industry in Tanzania.

Interviews[link]

• BBC radio Debate "Racism against Africa"
• Rice N Peas Interview
• SABC Morning Show
• Deconstructing the hurt

Notes[link]

Links[link]

• Owen 'Alik Shahadah
• Owen 'Alik Shahadah at the Internet Movie Database
• What is the Idea
• 500 Years Later Film site
• British Films Catalog entry for 500 Years Later
• Owen Alik Shahadah's Photo site

Maulana Karenga
Karenga, center, with wife Tiamoyo (wearing glasses) celebrating Kwanzaa at the Rochester Institute of Technology on December 12, 2003
Born	Ronald McKinley Everett (1941-07-14) July 14, 1941 (age 70) Parsonsburg, Maryland
Occupation	Professor Philosopher Author Scholar[1]
Spouse	Brenda Lorraine "Haiba" Karenga (Divorced) Tiamoyo Karenga (1970-present)
Website
http://www.maulanakarenga.org/

Maulana Karenga (born Ronald McKinley Everett^[2][3][4] on July 14, 1941) is an African American professor of Africana Studies, activist and author, best known as the creator of the pan-African and African American holiday of Kwanzaa. Karenga was a major figure in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s and co-founded with Hakim Jamal the black nationalist and social change organization US which means "Us Black people".^[5] US continues to be active in local, national and international issues of social justice and social change, working within the framework of the philosophy Kawaida developed by Karenga.

Background and education[link]

Ron Everett was born on a farm in Parsonsburg, Maryland, the fourteenth child and seventh son. He moved to California in the late 1950s to attend UCLA, but attended Los Angeles City College (LACC) to establish residence. There, he became the first African-American president of the student body. After graduation from LACC, he went to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where he received his B.A. and M.A. in political science with a specialization in African studies. (Maulana Karenga, Los Angeles: UCLA Center for African American Studies, Oral History Program, 2002)

He was awarded his first Ph.D. in 1976 from United States International University (now known as Alliant International University) for a 170-page dissertation entitled Afro-American Nationalism: Social Strategy and Struggle for Community. Later in his career, in 1994, he was awarded a second Ph.D., in social ethics, from the University of Southern California (USC), for an 803-page dissertation entitled "Maat, the moral ideal in ancient Egypt: A study in classical African ethics."

Career[link]

Dr. Karenga is the Chair of the Africana Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach. He is the director of the Kawaida Institute for Pan African Studies and the author of several books, including his "Introduction to Black Studies", a comprehensive Black/African Studies textbook now in its fourth edition.

Karenga founded the Organization Us, a cultural black nationalist group, in 1965. He is also known for having co-hosted, in 1984, a conference that gave rise to the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, and in 1995, he sat on the organizing committee and authored the mission statement of the Million Man March.

Influences of Malcolm X[link]

Karenga was influenced in the creation of his ethos for US by Malcolm X.

"Malcolm was the major African American thinker that influenced me in terms of nationalism and Pan-Africanism. As you know, towards the end, when Malcolm is expanding his concept of Islam, and of nationalism, he stresses Pan-Africanism in a particular way. And he argues that, and this is where we have the whole idea that cultural revolution and the need for revolution, he argues that we need a cultural revolution, he argues that we must return to Africa culturally and spiritually, even if we can’t go physically. And so that’s a tremendous impact on US. And US saw it, when I founded it, as the sons and daughters of Malcolm, and as an heir to his legacy." —Maulana Karenga^[6]

Us and COINTELPRO[link]

During the 1960s, Us became a target of the FBI COINTELPRO and was put on a series of lists describing it as dangerous, revolutionary and committed to armed struggle in the Black Power Movement.^[7] Us developed a youth component with para-military aspects called the Simba Wachanga which advocated and practiced community self-defense and service to the masses.

Similar to the Black Panthers in their claim to be a revolutionary vanguard, Us at first cooperated with the Panthers and other community groups in Black United Front efforts. However, there evolved ideological differences that the FBI through its COINTELPRO began to increase and aggravate, leading to physical conflicts. Tactics used to foment and aggravate conflict between Us and the Panthers included poison-pen letters, defamatory cartoons, agents provocateurs, and creating suspicion of members of each organization as agents.^[8]

This heightened level of conflict eventually led to a shoot-out at UCLA in 1969 in which two Panthers were killed and a Simba was shot in the back. Community efforts to resolve the conflict, both before and after the shooting, were conducted by the Black Congress of Los Angeles, but were unsuccessful. The FBI and local police used this state of things to further suppress both groups driving Us members and Panthers underground and in exile and putting them in prison under questionable circumstances.^[9] As noted above, Karenga argues that he was a victim of these tactics and that his imprisonment was political.^[10] Other scholars have raised similar questions.^[11][12]

Conviction for assault[link]

In 1971, Karenga "was sentenced to one to ten years in prison on counts of felonious assault and false imprisonment".^[13] One of the victims gave testimony of how Karenga and other men tortured her and another woman. The woman claimed to have been stripped and beaten with an electrical cord. Karenga's former wife, Brenda Lorraine Karenga, testified that he sat on the other woman’s stomach while another man forced water into her mouth through a hose.

A May 14, 1971, article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of the women:

"Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis' mouth and placed against Miss Davis' face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said. They also were hit on the heads with toasters."

Karenga explained his actions by saying that one of the women he had tortured had attempted to assassinate him, but he had no evidence.^[13][14][15] He was imprisoned at the California Men's Colony, where he studied and wrote on feminism, Pan-Africanism and other subjects. The Us organization fell into disarray during his absence and was disbanded in 1974. After he petitioned several black state officials to support his parole on fair sentencing grounds, it was granted in 1975.^[16]

[edit] Kawaida, the Nguzo Saba, and Kwanzaa

After his parole Karenga re-established the Us organization under a new structure. One year later, he was awarded his first doctorate. In 1977, he formulated a set of principles called Kawaida, a Swahili term for normal. Karenga called on African Americans to adopt his secular humanism and reject other practices as mythical (Karenga 1977, pp. 14, 23, 24, 27, 44–5).

Central to Karenga's doctrine are the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles of Blackness, which are reinforced during the seven days of Kwanzaa:

• Umoja (unity)—To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
• Kujichagulia (self-determination)—To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
• Ujima (collective work and responsibility)—To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.
• Ujamaa (cooperative economics)—To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
• Nia (purpose)—To make our collective vocation the building and development of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
• Kuumba (creativity)—To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
• Imani (faith)—To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Maulana Karenga on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[17]

Films[link]

• Karenga starred in Motherland, a sequel to 500 Years Later.
• He is featured in the 2008 Kwanzaa documentary, The Black Candle, directed by M.K. Asante, Jr. and narrated by Maya Angelou.
• In 2005 Karenga appeared with other African academics featured in the multi-award winning film 500 Years Later, directed by Owen 'Alik Shahadah.
• USA the Movie - Voice only.

Published works[link]

• Introduction to Black Studies, 2002, 3rd edition, University of Sankore Press, ISBN 0-943412-23-4
• Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture, 1998, ISBN 0-943412-21-8
• Maat, The Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt ISBN 0-415-94753-7
• Odu Ifa: The Ethical Teachings ISBN 0-943412-22-6
• Kawaida and Questions of Life and Struggle ISBN 0-943412-29-0
• Selections from the Husia ISBN 0-943412-06-4
• Book of Coming Forth By Day ISBN 0-943412-14-5
• Handbook of Black Studies co-edited with Molefi Kete Asante, ISBN 0-7619-2840-5
• The Million Man March/Day of Absence: A Commemorative Anthology, co-edited with Haki Madhubuti ISBN 0-88378-188-3
• Maulana Karenga: An Intellectual Portrait , Polity, ISBN ISBN 0-7456-4828-6

Further information[link]

• Biography of Dr. Maulana Karenga.
• Interview with Dr. Karenga, PBS Public Broadcasting Service and WGBH/Frontline
• 500 Years Later The Film Site
• IMDB Profile
• The Official Kwanzaa Web site - Dr. Maulana Karenga
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Monograph about US, April, 1968

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Maulana Karenga Site
• The Organization Us
• A Post-Obama Kwanzaa by Michael Eric Dyson December 29, 2008
• 7 Facts About Dr. Maulana Karenga

Tukufu Zuberi (born April 26, 1959) is an American sociologist, filmmaker, social critic, educator, and writer. He is the Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, and Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Zuberi has appeared in several documentaries on Africa and the African diaspora, including Liberia: America's Stepchild (2002), and 500 Years Later (2005). He is also one of the hosts of the PBS program History Detectives.

Tukufu Zuberi
Born	(1959-04-26) April 26, 1959 (age 53) Oakland, California, United States
Occupation	sociologist, professor, TV personality, social critic, documentary filmmaker, writer,
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	San Jose State (B.A.) University of Chicago (Ph.D.)
Genres	sociology, history, literature, Africa
Subjects	Sociology

Biography[link]

Born Antonio McDaniel to Willie and Annie McDaniel, and raised in the housing projects of Oakland, California in the 1970s, he changed his name to Tukufu Zuberi, which is Swahili for “beyond praise” and “strength.” Zuberi says that he "took the name because of a desire to make and have a connection with an important period where people were challenging what it means to be a human being.”^[1][2]

Zuberi received a bachelor's degree from San Jose State in 1981, a master's degree from Cal State Sacramento in 1985, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1989. In 1988, he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he is now the Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, the Chair of the Sociology Department, and the Director of the Center for Africana Studies.^[3] He has also been a visiting professor at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He currently directs the African Census Analysis Project (ACAP), an international collaboration with African nations.

The Human Equality and Respect Council at the World Economic Forum, 2008. From left: Dennis Frank Thompson, Conor Gearty, Tukufu Zuberi, Amy Gutmann, Achille Mbembe, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Elie Wiesel, Thomas Sugrue, Dru C. Gladney, Homi K. Bhabha

Zuberi’s research focuses on race and African and African diaspora populations. He has conducted research in the fields of social statistics and population studies (demography). He has been a guest lecturer at colleges and universities and on television programs.

Zuberi is the author of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot: The Mortality Cost of Colonizing Liberia in the Nineteenth-Century and Thicker than Blood: How Racial Statistics Lie. He has written a history of the Sudan and is the series editor of the General Demography of Africa. He has written more than 50 scholarly articles and co-edited eight volumes. He has received a number of awards for his academic work.^{[citation needed]}

Zuberi is a host on the PBS series, History Detectives. The program explores historical mysteries and myths, seeking evidence that connects local folklore, family legends, and interesting objects.

African Census Analysis Project (ACAP)[link]

Zuberi has headed the African Census Analysis Project (ACAP), a project initiated by the United Nations to advance the process of census enumeration in Africa. Although census-taking eventually became routine, the preservation and analysis of the resultant data were not fully developed within African statistical offices. In recognition of the need to preserve African census data, to avoid perpetual loss due to poor storage, and to encourage and enhance further analysis, dissemination, and utilization of the massive census data, ACAP was undertaken as a joint initiative of the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania and African governmental and research institutions. The goal was to promote collaboration among African governments and research institutions at archiving and analyzing African census data, both at national and sub-national levels, and to inform appropriate policy interventions on the continent.

The Kerner Plus 40 Symposium, 2008. From left: Tukufu Zuberi, Former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton, and DeWayne Wickham

International activities[link]

This biographical section is written like a résumé. Please help improve it by revising it to be neutral and encyclopedic. (August 2011)

[edit] History Detectives

Zuberi is an expert host on the PBS television program, History Detectives. The show devotes itself to "to exploring the complexities of historical mysteries, searching out the facts, myths and conundrums that connect local folklore, family legends and interesting objects."^[7] Zuberi has taken the audience on an investigation by racing around Death Valley in a 1932 Ford roadster and tracked down a Japanese internment camp survivor. ^[8] Producer of the show, Tony Tackaberry says “Along with his expertise, Tukufu has a strong, engaging, excited personality that comes through.” ^[9]

Publications[link]

Books[link]

• Tukufu Zuberi. Thicker Than Blood: An Essay on how Racial Statistics Lie (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001). Honorable Mention for the 2002 Gustavus Myers Book Award.
• Antonio McDaniel. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot: The Mortality Cost of Colonizing Liberia in the Nineteenth-Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995)

Edited Volumes[link]

• Tukufu Zuberi and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (editors). White Logic, White Methods: Race and Methodology (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2008) Winner of the 2009 Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award, American Sociological Association.
• Tukufu Zuberi, Amson Sibanda and Eric Udjo (editors). The Demography of South Africa Volume 1 of the General Demography of Africa series, General Editor Tukufu Zuberi (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2005).

Edited journal issues[link]

• Tukufu Zuberi and Tanji Gilliam(Special Editors) Perspectives on Africa and the World. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science November 2010 vol. 632 (132 pages)
• Tukufu Zuberi and Gale Garrison(Guest editors) Back to the Future of Civilization: Celebrating 30 Years of African American Studies. Special Issue of Journal of Black Studies 2004, Vol. 35, Number 2
• Tukufu Zuberi (Guest editor), Racial Statistics and Public Policy. Special issue of Race and Society 2003 (mistakenly listed as 2001 on volume cover), Volume 4, Issue 2 (132 pages)
• Laura Chrisman, Farah Griffin and Tukufu Zuberi (Guest editors) Transcending Traditions: African, African Diaspora, and African American Studies in the 21st Century Special issue of Black Scholar 2000, Vol. 30, No. 3-4 (80 pages).
• Elijah Anderson and Tukufu Zuberi (Guest editors) The Study of African American Problems: Papers In Honor Of W.E.B. Du Bois. Special issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2000, vol. 568 (316 pages)

Selected video clips[link]

• History Detectives- Fan Q&A
• How Many in the Slave Trade
• Global Agenda Summit-Dubai-2008
• Divided and Dangerous: Human History from a Different Angle

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Sociology site
• African Census Analysis site
• IMDB Profile
• Center for Africana Studies site
• History Detective site

The term black people is used in some socially-based systems of racial classification for humans of a dark-skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups represented in a particular social context. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class and socio-economic status also play a role, so that relatively dark-skinned people can be classified as white if they fulfill other social criteria of "whiteness" and relatively light-skinned people can be classified as black if they fulfill the social criteria for "blackness" in a particular setting.^[1]

As a biological phenotype being "black" is often associated with the very dark skin colors of some people who are classified as "black". But, particularly in the United States, the racial or ethnic classification also refers to people with all possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, including albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry, or to exhibit cultural traits associated with being "African-American". As a result, in the United States the term "black people" is not an indicator of skin color but of socially based racial classification.^[2]

Some definitions of the term include only people of relatively recent Sub-Saharan African descent (see African diaspora). Among the members of this group, dark skin is most often accompanied by the expression of natural afro-hair texture. Other definitions of the term "black people" extend to other populations characterized by dark skin, sometimes including people indigenous to Oceania.^[3][4]

Physiological traits[link]

Dark skin[link]

Map of indigenous skin color distribution in the world based on Von Luschan's chromatic scale.

The evolution of dark skin is linked intrinsically to the loss of body hair in humans. By 1.2 million years ago, all people having descendants today had the same receptor protein of today's Africans; their skin was dark, and the intense sun lowered the chance of survival of those with lighter skin that resulted from mutational variation in the receptor protein.^[5] This is significantly earlier than the speciation of Homo sapiens from Homo erectus some 250,000 years ago.

Skin cancer as a result of ultraviolet light radiation causing mutations in the skin is less common among people with dark skin than it is among those with light skin.^[6][7] Dark skin prevents an essential B vitamin, folate, from being destroyed. In the absence of modern medicine and diet, a person with dark skin in the tropics would live longer, be healthier and more likely to reproduce than a person with light skin. As evidence of this expectation of adverse effects of light skin in the tropics, White South Africans ^[8] and white Australians have some of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world.^[9]

Conversely, as dark skin prevents sunlight from penetrating the skin, it hinders the production of vitamin D₃. When humans migrated to less sun-intensive regions in the north, low vitamin D₃ levels became a problem, and humans with lighter skin were more successful in reproducing. White people of Europe, who have low levels of melanin, naturally have an almost colorless skin pigmentation, especially when untanned. This low level of pigmentation allows the blood vessels to become visible, which gives the characteristic pale pink color of white people. The loss of melanin in white people is thought to have been caused by a mutation in one letter out of 3.1 billion letters of DNA.^[10]

The genetic mutations leading to light skin, though different among East Asians and Europeans,^[11] suggest the two groups experienced a similar selective pressure due to settlement in northern latitudes.^[12]

Black skin pigmentation has been linked to a number of other properties, including tactile characteristics, and slower and less pronounced development of wrinkles.^[13]

Hair[link]

The texture of hair in people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry is noticeably different from that of European and Asian populations. Herodotus described the peoples of Libya (the "western Ethiopians") as woolly-haired.

Such "afro-hair" texture is denser than its straight counterparts. Due to this, it is often referred to as "coily", "thick", "nappy", "bushy", or "woolly". For several reasons, possibly including its relatively flat cross section (among other factors^[14]), this hair type conveys a dry or matte appearance.^[15][16] Its unique shape renders it prone to breakage when combed or brushed.^[16]

The specific characteristics of the natural afro-hair form are unique among all mammals.^{[clarification needed][dubious – discuss][17]} The texture likely predates the evolution of dark skin. It evolved when, as pre-human australopithecines lost most of their fur to enable perspiration, the need to protect the newly exposed pale skin underneath this body hair was crucial (see^[18] in light of Rogers and others., 2004 and Harding and others., 2000). The trait ceased to be essential to survival at the equator upon the evolution of hairless dark skin. Yet it has continued to be expressed vestigially among most Melanesians, Andaman Islanders, and sub-Saharan Africans.

Sub-Saharan Africa[link]

A black woman and her albino son from Tanzania

Sub-Saharan Africa is a common, if imprecise term that encompasses African countries located south of the Sahara Desert. It is commonly used to differentiate the region culturally, ecologically, politically and, more controversially, racially, from North Africa, which has historically been considered part of the Mediterranean sphere and whose residents are primarily of Arab ethnicity.

Because the indigenous people of this region are primarily dark-skinned, it is alternatively called "Black Africa".^[19] However the terminology Black Africa and Sub-Sahara Africa is considered by some as a pejorative term and a vestige of colonialism, which divided Africa into European terms of homogeneity.^[20] Some criticize the use of the term, because, as it has become in many quarters synonymous with Black Africa, people may not realize that there are also indigenous black populations in North Africa. In addition, the Sahara cuts across countries such as Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Chad, leaving some parts of them in North Africa and some in sub-Saharan Africa.

Some black Africans prefer to be culturally distinguished from those who live in the north of the continent.^[21]

Cultural ideas of a black race[link]

South Africa[link]

A Khoisan man, an ethnic group in South Africa.

In South Africa during the apartheid era, the population was classified into four main racial groups: Black, White, Asian (mostly Indian), and Coloured. The Coloured group included people of mixed Bantu, Khoisan, and European descent (with some Malay ancestry, especially in the Western Cape). The Coloured definition occupied an intermediary position between the Black and White definitions in South Africa.

The apartheid bureaucracy devised complex (and often arbitrary) criteria in the Population Registration Act to determine who belonged in which group. Minor officials administered tests to enforce the classifications. When it was unclear from a person's physical appearance whether a person was to be considered Colored or Black, the "pencil test" was employed. This involved inserting a pencil in a person's hair to determine if the hair was kinky enough for the pencil to get stuck.^[22]

During the apartheid era, those classed as "Coloured" were oppressed and discriminated against. But, they had limited rights and overall had slightly better socioeconomic conditions than those classed as "Black".

In the post-apartheid era, the ANC government's laws in support of their affirmative action policies define "Black" people to include "Africans", "Coloureds" and "Asians". Their affirmative action policies have also favored "Africans" over "Coloureds". Some South Africans categorized as "African Black" openly state that "Coloureds" did not suffer as much as they did during apartheid. The popular saying by "Coloured" South Africans to illustrate their dilemma is:

We were not white enough under apartheid, and we are not black enough under the ANC (African National Congress)

In 2008, the High Court in South Africa ruled that Chinese South Africans who were residents during the apartheid era (and their descendents) are to be reclassified as "Black people" solely for the purposes of accessing affirmative action benefits, because they were also "disadvantaged" by racial discrimination. Chinese people who arrived in the country after the end of apartheid do not qualify.^[23]

Other than by appearance, "Coloureds" can usually be distinguished from "Blacks" by language. Most speak Afrikaans or English as a first language, as opposed to Bantu languages such as Zulu or Xhosa. They also tend to have more European-sounding names than Bantu names.^[24]

In the Middle East[link]

Near East and North Africa[link]

Black African and Near Eastern peoples have interacted since prehistoric times.^[25][26] Some historians estimate that as many as 14 million black slaves were transported across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert in the Arab slave trade from 650 to 1900 CE.^[27][28] The Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail "the Bloodthirsty" (1672–1727) raised a corps of 150,000 black slaves, called his Black Guard, who coerced the country into submission.^[29][30]

13th century slave market in Yemen. Yemen officially abolished slavery in 1962.^[31]

In more recent times, about 1000 CE, interactions between black people and Arabs resulted in the incorporation of extensive Arabic vocabulary into Swahili, which became a useful lingua franca for merchants. Some of this linguistic exchange occurred as part of the slave trade; the history of Islam and slavery shows that the major juristic schools traditionally accepted the institution of slavery.^[32] As a result, Arab influence spread along the east coast of Africa and to some extent into the interior (see Swahili people). Timbuktu was a trading outpost that linked West Africa with Berber, Arab, and Jewish traders throughout the Arab World. As a result of these interactions, some female-mediated gene flow into the Middle East from Sub-Saharan Africa can be observed in certain populations.^[33]

According to Dr. Carlos Moore, resident scholar at Brazil's University of the state of Bahia, Afro-multiracials in the Arab world self-identify in ways that resemble Latin America. He claims that black-looking Arabs, much like black-looking Latin Americans, consider themselves white because they have some distant white ancestry.^[34]

Soldiers of the Free Arabian Legion in Greece, September 1943.

Moore also claims that a film about Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had to be canceled when Sadat discovered that an African-American had been cast to play him. In fact, the 1983 television movie Sadat, starring Louis Gossett, Jr., was not canceled. The Egyptian government refused to let the drama air in Egypt, partially on the grounds of the casting of Gossett.^[35]

Sadat's mother was a dark-skinned Sudanese woman and his father was a lighter-skinned Egyptian. In response to an advertisement for an acting position he remarked, "I am not white but I am not exactly black either. My blackness is tending to reddish".^[36]

Fathia Nkrumah was another Egyptian with ties to Black Africa. She was the late wife of Ghanaian revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, whose marriage was seen as helping plant the seeds of cooperation between Egypt and other African countries as they struggled for independence from European colonization. This helped advance the formation of the African Union.^[37]

Bashi-bazouk of the Ottoman Empire by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1869

Because of the patriarchal nature of Arab society, Arab men enslaved more black women than men, and used more black female slaves than males. The men interpreted the Qur'an to permit sexual relations between a male master and his female slave outside of marriage,^[38][39] leading to many mixed-race children. When an enslaved woman became pregnant with her Arab master's child, she became umm walad or “mother of a child”, a status that granted her privileged rights. The child was allowed to prosper from the wealth of the father and was given rights of inheritance.^[40] Because the society was patrilineal, the children took their fathers' status at birth and were born free. Some succeeded their fathers as rulers, as was the case with Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, who ruled Morocco from 1578 to 1608. His mother was a Fulani concubine of his father.

Such tolerance, however, was not extended to wholly black persons, even when technically "free." Arabs commonly believed that blacks were slaves.^[41] The term "abd", (Arabic: عبد‎,) "slave," remains a common term for black people in the Middle East, and, depending on the context, usually though not always derogatory.^[42]

Turkey[link]

Beginning several centuries ago, a number of sub-Saharan Africans were brought by slave traders during the Ottoman Empire to plantations between Antalya and Istanbul in modern-day Turkey.^[43] Some of their descendants remain, mixed with the rest of the population in these areas, and many migrated to larger cities. Some came from the island of Crete following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.^[44]

Israel[link]

An African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem child in Dimona.

About 150,000 black people live in Israel, amounting to just over 2% of the nation's population. The vast majority of these, some 120,000, are Beta Israel,^[45] most of whom came during the 1980s and 1990s from Ethiopia.^[46] In addition, Israel is home to over 5,000 members of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem movement, who reside mainly in a distinct neighborhood in the Negev town of Dimona. Unknown numbers of black converts to Judaism reside in Israel, most of them converts from the UK, Canada, and the United States. Thousands of mixed-race individuals with non-black Jewish relatives also live in Israel.

In the Americas[link]

Approximately 12 million Africans were shipped to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade from 1492 to 1888. Today their descendants number approximately 150 million,^[47] most of whom live in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America. Most notably Brazil has the largest population in the world, aside from Nigeria, of individuals of at least partial African descent. Many have a multiracial background of African, Amerindian, European and Asian ancestry. The various regions developed complex social conventions with which their multi-ethnic populations were classified.

United States[link]

Harriet Tubman, an African-American abolitionist and conductor of the Underground Railroad.

In the first 200 years that black people were in the United States, they commonly referred to themselves as Africans. In Africa, people primarily identified themselves by ethnic group (closely allied to language) and not by skin color. Individuals would be Ashanti, Igbo, Bakongo or Wolof. But when Africans were brought to the Americas, they were forced to give up their ethnic affiliations when they were combined with other groups from Africa. In areas of the Upper South, different ethnic groups were brought together. This is significant as Africans came from a vast geographic region, the West African coastline stretching from Senegal to Angola and in some cases from the south east coast such as Mozambique. A new identity and culture was born that incorporated elements of the various ethnic groups and of European cultural heritage, resulting in fusions such as the Black church and Black English. This new identity was based on African ancestry and slave status rather than any one ethnic group.^[48]

In March 1807, Britain, which largely controlled the Atlantic, declared the trans-atlantic slave trade illegal, as did the United States. (The latter prohibition took effect January 1, 1808, the earliest date on which Congress had the power to do so under Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution.)

By that time, the majority of black people were U.S.-born, so use of the term "African" became problematic. Though initially a source of pride, many blacks feared the use of African as an identity would be a hindrance to their fight for full citizenship in the US. They also felt that it would give ammunition to those who were advocating repatriating black people back to Africa. In 1835 black leaders called upon black Americans to remove the title of "African" from their institutions and replace it with "Negro" or "Colored American". A few institutions chose to keep their historic names, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. "Negro" and "colored" remained the popular terms until the late 1960s.^[49]

The term black was used throughout but not frequently as it carried a certain stigma. In his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech,^[50] Martin Luther King, Jr. uses the terms negro fifteen times and black four times. Each time he uses black it is in parallel construction with white, for example, "black men and white men".^[51]

With the successes of the civil rights movement, a new term was needed to break from the past and help shed the reminders of legalized discrimination. In place of Negro, activists promoted the use of black as standing for racial pride, militancy and power. Some of the turning points included the use of the term "Black Power" by Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) and the release of James Brown's song "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud".

African-American Michael Jordan, considered by many the greatest basketball player in history.

In 1988 Jesse Jackson urged Americans to use the term African American because the term has a historical cultural base. Since then African-American and black have essentially a coequal status. Controversy continues over which term is more appropriate. Some such as Maulana Karenga and Owen Alik Shahadah argue African-American is more appropriate because it accurately articulates geography and historical origin.^[48] Others have argued that "black" is a better term because "African" suggests foreignness, despite the long presence of black people in the US.^[52] Still others believe the term black is inaccurate because African Americans have a variety of skin tones.^{[citation needed]} Surveys show that the majority of black Americans have no preference for "African American" or "Black,"^[53] although they have a slight preference for "black" in personal settings and "African-American" in more formal settings.^[54] Increases in the number of immigrants to the United States from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America have brought up questions about who uses the term African-American. The more recent African immigrants may sometimes view themselves, and be viewed, as culturally distinct from native-born people who are descendants of African slaves.^[55]

The U.S. census race definitions says a black is a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "Black, African Am., or Negro," or who provide written entries such as African-American, Afro-American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian. However, the Census Bureau notes that these classifications are socio-political constructs and should not be interpreted as scientific or anthropological.^[56]

A black Gl and a Chinese soldier place the flag of their ally on the front of their jeep, truck convoy on the Stilwell Road, Burma, 1945

A considerable portion of the U.S. population identified as black also has some Native American or European ancestry. For instance, genetic studies of African-American people show an ancestry that is on average 17–18% European.^[57]

One-drop rule[link]

Since the late nineteenth century, the South used a colloquial term, the one-drop rule, to classify as black a person of any known African ancestry. This practice of hypodescent was not put into law until the early twentieth century.^[58] Legally the definition varied from state to state, and was more flexible in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries before the American Civil War. For instance, Thomas Jefferson held persons who were legally white (less than 25% Black) according to Virginia law at the time, but, because they were born to slave mothers, they were born into slavery, according to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, which Virginia adopted into law in 1662.

Outside of the US, some other countries have adopted the one-drop rule, but the definition of who is black and the extent to which the one-drop "rule" applies varies greatly from country to country.

The one-drop rule may have originated as a means of increasing the number of black slaves^[59] and been maintained as an attempt to keep the white race pure.^[60] One of the results of the one-drop rule was uniting the African-American community.^[58] Some of the most prominent civil-rights activists were multiracial, and advocated equality for all.^{[citation needed]}

Blackness[link]

Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, was throughout his campaign criticized as being either "too black" or "not black enough".^[61][62][63]

The concept of blackness in the United States has been described^{[by whom?]} as the degree to which one associates themselves with mainstream African-American culture and values. To a certain extent, this concept is not so much about race but more about culture and behavior. Blackness can be contrasted with "acting white," where black Americans are said to behave with assumed characteristics of stereotypical white Americans, with regard to fashion, dialect, taste in music,^[64] and possibly, from the perspective of a significant number of black youth, academic achievement.^[65]

The notion of blackness can also be extended to non-black people. Toni Morrison once described Bill Clinton as the first black president,^[66] because of his warm relations with African Americans, his poor upbringing and also because he is a jazz musician. Christopher Hitchens was offended by the notion of Clinton as the first black president noting "we can still define blackness by the following symptoms: alcoholic mothers, under-the-bridge habits...the tendency to sexual predation and shameless perjury about the same". Some black activists were also offended, claiming Clinton used his knowledge of black culture to exploit black people like no other president before^[67] for political gain, while not serving black interests. They note his lack of action during the Rwanda genocide^[68] and his welfare reform which some claim led to the worst child poverty since the 1960s^[69] along with the fact that the number of black people in jail increased during his administration.^[70]

The question of blackness also arose in Democrat Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Commentators have questioned whether Obama, who was elected the first black President of the United States, is black enough, as his mother was white American, and his father was a black Kenyan immigrant.^[61][63] Obama refers to himself interchangeably as black and African-American.^[71] "Is Barack Obama the first black President of the United States?"^[72]

Brazil[link]

The topic of race in Brazil is a complex and diverse one.^{[citation needed]} A Brazilian child was never automatically identified with the racial type of one or both parents, nor were there only two categories to choose from. Between a pure black and a very light mulatto over a dozen racial categories would be recognized in conformity with the combinations of hair color, hair texture, eye color, and skin color. These types grade into each other like the colors of the spectrum, and no one category stands significantly isolated from the rest. That is, race referred to appearance, not heredity.^[73]

Jongo, a Brazilian dance of African origin, c. 1822

There is some disagreement among scholars over the effects of social status on racial classifications in Brazil. It is generally believed that upward mobility and education results in reclassification of individuals into lighter skinned categories. The popular claim is that in Brazil poor whites are considered black and wealthy blacks are considered white. Some scholars disagree arguing that whitening of one's social status may be open to people of mixed race, but a typically black person will consistently be identified as black regardless of wealth or social status.^[74][75] Multiracial persons can even reappreciate their African heritage and start to declare themselves as black persons with increasings of social status and education.

Statistics[link]

From the year 1500 to 1850 an estimated 3.5 million Africans were forcibly shipped to Brazil.^[74] It is estimated that more than half of the Brazilian population is at least in part descendants of these Africans. Brazil has the largest population of Afro-descendants outside of Africa. In contrast to the US there were no segregation or anti-miscegenation laws in Brazil and as a result intermarriage has affected a large majority of the Brazilian population. Even much of the white/Asian population has either African or Amerindian blood. According to the last census of the twentieth century 54% identified themselves as white, 6.2% identified themselves as black and 39.5% identified themselves as Pardo (brown) — a broad multiracial category.^[77]

A philosophy of whitening emerged in Brazil in the nineteenth century. Until recently the government did not keep data on race. However, statisticians estimate that in 1835 half the population was black, one fifth was Pardo (brown) and one fourth white. By 2000 the black population had fallen to only 6.2% and the Pardo had increased to 40% and white to 55%. Essentially most of the black population was absorbed into the multiracial category by intermixing.^[73] A recent study found that at least 29% of the middle class white Brazilian population had some recent African ancestry.^[78]

Race relations in Brazil[link]

Afro-Brazilian women during a Candomblé ceremony.

Because of the ideology of miscegenation, Brazil has avoided the polarization of society into black and white. The bitter and sometimes violent racial tensions that divide the US are notably absent in Brazil. According to the census, 6.7% of Brazilians said they were black, compared with 6.2% in 2000, and 43.1% said they were mixed race, up from 38.5%. According to Brazil's minister for racial equality, Elio Ferreira de Araujo, attributed the change to growing pride among his country's black and indigenous communities.^[79]

However, the philosophy of the racial democracy in Brazil has drawn criticism from some quarters. Brazil has one of the largest gaps in income distribution in the world. The richest 10% of the population earn 28 times the average income of the bottom 40%. The richest 10 percent is almost exclusively white. One-third of the population lives under the poverty line, with blacks and other non-whites accounting for 70 percent of the poor.^[80]

Fruit sellers in Rio de Janeiro c. 1820

In the US, black people earn 75% of what white people earn.^[81] In Brazil, non-whites earn less than 50% of what whites earn. Some have posited that Brazil does in fact practice the one-drop rule when social economic factors are considered. This is because the gap in income between blacks and other non-whites is relatively small compared to the large gap between whites and non-whites. Other factors such as illiteracy and education level show the same patterns.^[82] Unlike in the US where African Americans were united in the civil-rights struggle, in Brazil the philosophy of whitening has helped divide blacks from other non-whites and prevented a more active civil rights movement.

Though Brazilians of African heritage make up a large percentage ^[83] the population there are very few black politicians. The city of Salvador, Bahia, for instance, is 80% Afro-Brazilian but has never had a black mayor. Critics indicate that US cities that have a black majority, such as Detroit and New Orleans, have never had white mayors since first electing black mayors in the 1970s.^[79][84]

Black people in Brazil c. 1821

Non-white people also have limited media visibility. The Latin American media, in particular the Brazilian media, has been accused of hiding its Black, Indigenous, Multiracial and East Asian population. For example the telenovelas or soaps are said to be a hotbed of largely light-eyed white and light-skinned mulattoes and mestizos (often deemed as white persons in Brazil if achieving the middle class or higher social status) actors. Most rare empowered persons of color represented in Latin American media possess typically Caucasian features due to a mix of racist standards of beauty, colourism and lookism. Nevertheless, in the last years, the number of empowered afrodescendants (either economically or by other ways) increased in Brazilian media coverage. Despite Brazil also possessing criminal black man stereotypes, it is considered a huge prejudice and mostly not used in a disordered way by the media, in spite of sometimes common "humouristic" sexist jokes and LGBT stereotyping ^[85] and as such lack of politically correctness in native race issues is not a major problem (there are way more stereotypes of Asian people, Europeans or U.S. Americans, for example).

These patterns of discrimination against non-whites have led some to advocate for the use of the Portuguese term 'negro' to encompass non-whites so as to renew a black consciousness and identity, in effect an African descent rule.^[86] It generates criticism since Pardo, or Brown people, is intended to include caboclos (mestizos), assimilated Amerindians and tri-racials, not only afrodescendants — thus Brazilian of some or no recent African descent, as most White Brazilians, become 60–70% of the population, breaking the argument of possible Brazilian one-drop rule since real noticeable mulattoes, cafuzos (zambos) and black persons are a minority and the Brazilian poor represents larger percents in Brazil. As one would expect from an underdeveloped country, there are pockets of poverty in White-majority and Japanese Brazilian-majority areas, rarer in urban developments but common in rural areas. They are even more common among Mestizo-majority areas, and Amerindian communities.

In Asia and Australasia[link]

Siddi folk dancers performing at Devaliya Naka, Sasan Gir, Gujarat.

China[link]

As of August, 2008, The Migration Information Source article noted that "A Nigerian Embassy spokesman estimated that Nigerians possibly make up the largest group of Black Africans in China, with about 2,000 to 3,000 Nigerians in Guangdong in 2006. Most businessmen only stay temporarily."^[87][88]

An ethnic Ati woman of the Philippines. The Negritos were the earliest inhabitants of Southeast Asia.

India and Southeast Asia[link]

The Great Andamanese are one of five Negrito ethnic groups (Adivasi or tribal) native to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; they are among the first inhabitants of what is now India, arriving over 70,000 years ago. They are facing extinction.^[89] The other four ethnic groups are the Jangil, Jarawa, Onge and Sentinelese. By their external physical appearance (phenotype) such people resemble Black Africans with dark skin and sometimes tightly coiled hair. There have been suggestions of a Black African origin. However, in the case of the Andamanese people, a study conducted by the NCBI indicated that the Andamanese people possessed closer affinities with the Southeast Asian population than with the Black African population.^[90]

In South India there are also several communities of Black African descent, such as the Sheedis/Siddis, specifically the Siddis of Karnataka, who descend from Black African slaves. In Pakistan, these descendants are known as the Makrani.

Other black people of Southeast Asia, collectively known as Negritos, include the Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand the Aeta of Luzon and the Ati of Panay in the Philippines.^[91]

Melanesia[link]

There are several groups of dark-skinned people who live in various parts of Asia, Australia and Oceania who sometimes are referred to as black people. They include the Indigenous Australians, the Melanesians (now divided into Austronesian-speaking populations and Papuans, and including the great genetic diversity of New Guinea), the Semang people of the Malay peninsula, and indigenous first nation Fijians. They are as genetically, anthropologically and culturally related to Africans only as much as all other non-Africans are related to Africans, and because of this it has been deemed controversial to label them black people in the sense of some relation to the native African peoples and the African diaspora that is not similarly present in other Asian, Oceanic or European populations.

In Europe[link]

Portrait of a black woman, Katherine, in Antwerp, 1521, by Albrecht Dürer.

United Kingdom[link]

According to the Office for National Statistics, as of the 2001 census, there are over a million black people in the United Kingdom; 1% of the total population describe themselves as "Black Caribbean", 0.8% as "Black African", and 0.2% as "Black other".^[92] Britain encouraged the immigration of workers from the Caribbean after World War II; the first symbolic movement was those who came on the ship the Empire Windrush. The preferred official umbrella term is "black and minority ethnic" (BME), but sometimes the term "black" is used on its own, to express unified opposition to racism, as in the Southall Black Sisters, which started with a mainly British Asian constituency, and the National Black Police Association, which has a membership of "African, African-Caribbean and Asian origin".^[93]

France[link]

The pioneering Chadian-French rapper MC Solaar.

While census collection of ethnic background is illegal in France, it is estimated that there are about 2.5 – 5 million black people residing there.^[94][95]

Balkans[link]

Due to the Ottoman slave trade that had flourished in the Balkans, the coastal town of Ulcinj in Montenegro had its own black community.^[96] As a consequence of the slave trade and privateer activity, a considerable number of Ulcinj inhabitants until 1878 were black.^[97] The Ottoman Army also sent an estimated 30,000 Black African troops and cavalrymen to its expedition in Hungary during the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18.^[98]

Eastern Europe[link]

As African states became independent in the 1960s, the Soviet Union offered many of their citizens the chance to study in Russia. Over a period of 40 years, about 400,000 African students from various countries moved to Russia to pursue higher studies, including many Black Africans.^[99][100] This extended beyond the Soviet Union to many countries of the Eastern bloc.

A cultural classification of people as "black" exists in Russia. Certain groups of people who are ethnically different, and generally darker than ethnic Russians are pejoratively referred to as "blacks" (chernye), and face specific sorts of social exclusion (see Racism in Russia). Roma, Georgians, and Tatars fall into this category.^[101] Those referred to as "black" are from the former Soviet republics, predominantly peoples of the Caucasus, for example, Chechens.^[102] Although "Caucasian" is used in American English to mean "white people", in Russian – and most other varieties of English – it only refers to the Caucasus, not European people in general.

See also[link]

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

• two African American boys Clarence 'Grandpa' Liv and Alonzo 'Teddy' Tucker at the Wright Brothers bicycle shop, 1897(old-pictures.com database)
• Clarence Liv and Alonzo 'Teddy' Tucker at the Wright Cycle Company, photo taken by Wright Brothers 1897(old-pictures.com)