The terms Maafa, or alternatively African Holocaust or Holocaust of Enslavement, Black holocaust are terms used to collectively describe the history, effects and legacy of various atrocities (Namely but not limited to Arab slave trade and the Atlantic slave trade) on African people as a collective.

Usage of the term Maafa was popularized by Professor Marimba Ani's 1994 book Let the Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora. It is derived from a Swahili term for "disaster, terrible occurrence or great tragedy",

The term African Holocaust is preferred by some academics, such as Maulana Karenga, because it implies intention. One problem noted by Karenga is that the word Maafa can also translate to "accident", and the holocaust of enslavement was clearly no accident. Ali Mazrui makes a note that the term holocaust is a 'dual plagiarism', and therefore no one can have a monopoly over the word 'holocaust' Marzui states: "This borrowing from borrowers without attribution is what I call "the dual plagiarism." But this plagiarism is defensible because the vocabulary of horrors like genocide and enslavement should not be subject to copyright-restrictions"