Afro Central American
Encyclopedia
The Africa
n descended population of the countries of Central America, Belize
, Guatemala
, Honduras
, El Salvador
, Nicaragua
, Costa Rica
and Panama
. One group was delivered largely in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to work in mines on the Pacific site of the area, and most lost their specific African identity over time and through custom. Their present day descendants speak Spanish
. The other group had more diverse origins, but often had connections with England
. One group arrived with a shipwrecked slave ship in the seventeenth century, the Miskito Sambu
, another group were brought by English settlers on the Mosquito Coast and in Belize, a third group arrived from the island of St Vincent, deported by the English in 1797, the Garifuna
, and another came in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries from Jamaica
, the Bay Islands, Cayman Islands
and occasionally other English Caribbean colonies through labor schemes of the large American transportation and fruit growing concerns.
called their main Central American colony. In addition, the Spanish brought many slaves to Panamá
to assist in transporting silver from the mines at Potosí
from the Pacific to the Atlantic side of the isthmus. In addition to providing a good portion of the inhabitants of the towns of Panama and Portobello, many ran away to the nearby mountains which were outside Spanish control to form cimarron
communities. Some of these Africans also transported metals from mines in Guatemala to the Atlantic coast ports of Trujillo
or Puerto de Caballos
in modern day Honduras
. Some of the slaves from these regions also ran away and formed their own communities as well.
vessel revolted, captured the ship and ran it aground at Cape Gracias a Dios. They were received by the indigenous Miskito people and intermarried with them, creating the Miskitu-Sambu
. This mixed race element, in turn, eventually came to dominate the Mosquito Kingdom
(as the Miskito region was called), controlling the office of king and several subordinate positions. In the eighteenth century, they became feared raiders who captured slaves and sold them, often to English merchants.
The English alliance, which had been pioneered by Miskito kings as early as 1640, continued under Zambo leadership, eventually allowing the English to settle on the coast in the 1740s. Many of the English settlers, concentrated around Black River and Bluefields, brought slaves with them to work in wood cutting and transport, though creating a new African-descended element in the population. Though the Spanish eventually forced the evacuation of the coast, the Miskito remained in possession and the English continued to have an important role to play. Many of the English and their slaves left the Mosquito Coast
in the 1780s following the treating giving the areas back to Spain and relocated in British Honduras.
. In the early eighteenth century they founded a settlement around the Belize River
which would become the colony of British Honduras
(Belize). After 1720 they began importing slaves in fair numbers, largely from Jamaica,or occasionally directly from Africa. Most of these slaves worked in logging, others in domestic service.
, while others accepted land grants in the Miskito Kingdom. Others still settled in British Honduras after 1802, especially in the Stanns Creek area.
and Standard Fruit
brought many workers from the English speaking Caribbean to work on their infrastructure (mostly railroad) projects and the banana plantations that they developed all along the coast of Central America. Others came as a result of the construction of the Panama Canal
.
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n descended population of the countries of Central America, Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
and Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
. One group was delivered largely in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to work in mines on the Pacific site of the area, and most lost their specific African identity over time and through custom. Their present day descendants speak Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. The other group had more diverse origins, but often had connections with England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. One group arrived with a shipwrecked slave ship in the seventeenth century, the Miskito Sambu
Miskito Sambu
The Miskito Sambu are a mixed-race population group occupying the Caribbean coast of Central America, focused on the region of the Honduras-Nicaragua border...
, another group were brought by English settlers on the Mosquito Coast and in Belize, a third group arrived from the island of St Vincent, deported by the English in 1797, the Garifuna
Garifuna
The Garinagu are descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African people. The British colonial administration used the term Black Carib and Garinagu to distinguish them from Yellow and Red Carib, the Amerindian population that did not intermarry with Africans...
, and another came in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries from Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, the Bay Islands, Cayman Islands
Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica...
and occasionally other English Caribbean colonies through labor schemes of the large American transportation and fruit growing concerns.
Origins and History
Afro-Central Americans were initially formed by the trans-Atlantic slave trade that brought African workers to the mines of the "Kingdom of Guatemala" as the SpanishSpanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
called their main Central American colony. In addition, the Spanish brought many slaves to Panamá
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
to assist in transporting silver from the mines at Potosí
Potosí
Potosí is a city and the capital of the department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world by elevation at a nominal . and it was the location of the Spanish colonial mint, now the National Mint of Bolivia...
from the Pacific to the Atlantic side of the isthmus. In addition to providing a good portion of the inhabitants of the towns of Panama and Portobello, many ran away to the nearby mountains which were outside Spanish control to form cimarron
Cimarron
Cimarron is the title of a novel published by popular historical fiction author Edna Ferber in 1929. The book was adapted into a critically acclaimed film in 1931 through RKO Pictures. In 1960, the story was again adapted for the screen to meager success by MGM...
communities. Some of these Africans also transported metals from mines in Guatemala to the Atlantic coast ports of Trujillo
Trujillo, Colón
Trujillo is a city and a municipality on the northern Caribbean coast of the Honduran department of Colón, of which the city is the capital. The municipality has a population of about 30,000 . The city is located on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Trujillo. Behind the city rise two prominent...
or Puerto de Caballos
Puerto Cortés
-Geography:It is on the Caribbean Sea coast, north of San Pedro Sula and east of Omoa, at 15.85° N, 87.94° W. It has a natural bay.It is Honduras's main sea port and it is considered the most important seaport in Central America...
in modern day Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
. Some of the slaves from these regions also ran away and formed their own communities as well.
Miskito Sambu
In the 1640s slaves on a PortuguesePortuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
vessel revolted, captured the ship and ran it aground at Cape Gracias a Dios. They were received by the indigenous Miskito people and intermarried with them, creating the Miskitu-Sambu
Miskito Sambu
The Miskito Sambu are a mixed-race population group occupying the Caribbean coast of Central America, focused on the region of the Honduras-Nicaragua border...
. This mixed race element, in turn, eventually came to dominate the Mosquito Kingdom
Mosquito Coast
The Caribbean Mosquito Coast historically consisted of an area along the Atlantic coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras, and part of the Western Caribbean Zone. It was named after the local Miskito Indians and long dominated by British interests...
(as the Miskito region was called), controlling the office of king and several subordinate positions. In the eighteenth century, they became feared raiders who captured slaves and sold them, often to English merchants.
The English alliance, which had been pioneered by Miskito kings as early as 1640, continued under Zambo leadership, eventually allowing the English to settle on the coast in the 1740s. Many of the English settlers, concentrated around Black River and Bluefields, brought slaves with them to work in wood cutting and transport, though creating a new African-descended element in the population. Though the Spanish eventually forced the evacuation of the coast, the Miskito remained in possession and the English continued to have an important role to play. Many of the English and their slaves left the Mosquito Coast
Mosquito Coast
The Caribbean Mosquito Coast historically consisted of an area along the Atlantic coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras, and part of the Western Caribbean Zone. It was named after the local Miskito Indians and long dominated by British interests...
in the 1780s following the treating giving the areas back to Spain and relocated in British Honduras.
English Slaves in the Bay of Honduras
As the British were trading with and settling in the lands of the Mosquito Coast, they were also cutting wood in the Yucatan PeninsulaYucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...
. In the early eighteenth century they founded a settlement around the Belize River
Belize River
Belize River is a 180-mile river in Belize that drains more than one-quarter of the country as it winds along the northern edge of the Maya Mountains across the center of the country to the sea just north of Belize City . However, the Belize River/Mopan River Catchment contains over 45 percent of...
which would become the colony of British Honduras
British Honduras
British Honduras was a British colony that is now the independent nation of Belize.First colonised by Spaniards in the 17th century, the territory on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, became a British crown colony from 1862 until 1964, when it became self-governing. Belize became...
(Belize). After 1720 they began importing slaves in fair numbers, largely from Jamaica,or occasionally directly from Africa. Most of these slaves worked in logging, others in domestic service.
The Garifuna
In 1797 the English introduced a new element onto the coast of Central America, which was the introduction of the [Gariduna people|Garifuna], people of mixed African and Carib descent who were deported from the Island of St Vincent for supporting France during the wars of the French Revolution in the Caribbean. Garifuna soon defected to the Spanish and many settled around TrujilloTrujillo, Colón
Trujillo is a city and a municipality on the northern Caribbean coast of the Honduran department of Colón, of which the city is the capital. The municipality has a population of about 30,000 . The city is located on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Trujillo. Behind the city rise two prominent...
, while others accepted land grants in the Miskito Kingdom. Others still settled in British Honduras after 1802, especially in the Stanns Creek area.
The Anglo-Caribbean Migrants
Beginning in the late nineteenth century a number of United States based firms, notably the United FruitUnited Fruit Company
It had a deep and long-lasting impact on the economic and political development of several Latin American countries. Critics often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on the internal politics of the...
and Standard Fruit
Standard Fruit Company
Standard Fruit Company was established in the United States in 1924 by The Vaccaro Brothers. Its forerunner was started in 1899, when Sicilian immigrants Joseph, Luca and Felix Vaccaro, together with Salvador D'Antoni, began importing bananas to New Orleans from La Ceiba, Honduras...
brought many workers from the English speaking Caribbean to work on their infrastructure (mostly railroad) projects and the banana plantations that they developed all along the coast of Central America. Others came as a result of the construction of the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
.