Marabou (ethnicity)

Marabou
Marabou Haitian man
Total population
590,000+[1]
Regions with significant populations
Haiti, United States, Canada, France[2]
Languages
French, Haitian Creole, French-based creole languages
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic, but also Anglican, Protestant, Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist Church and Jehovah's Witness
Related ethnic groups
Afro-Caribbeans, Dougla, Affranchi

Marabou (French: marabout) is a term of Haitian origin denoting Haitians of multiracial ancestry. The term comes originally from the African Marabouts. Marabous are mainly descended from intermingling between Africans, Europeans and Taino but may also have Indian and Chinese ancestry.[3][4]

The Marabou label dates to the colonial period of Haiti's history, meaning the offspring of a mulatto and a griffe person.[5][6] However, Médéric-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry, in his three volume work on the colony,[7] describes Marabous as the product of the union of an African/European and a Taino.[7]

  1. ^ "Le marabout : Description, lieu de vie, alimentation, reproduction des marabouts".
  2. ^ "Home". Embassy of Haiti. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  3. ^ "Indo-Haitian Relations".
  4. ^ "Chinwa: The Untold Story of Chinese Haitians".
  5. ^ John Stephen Farmer (1889). Americanisms--old & New. p. 377. Mulatto. — A name given to the offspring of a white and a negro. The word is Spanish, mulato from mulo a mule or, as in ... meamelouc; Griffe | black, negro and mulatto; Marabou, § black, mulatto and griffe; Sacatra, g black, griffe and negro.
  6. ^ {{cite book|title=Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana|date=1925|publisher=Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana|page=533|language=Spanish|quote=De este modo, el hijo de mulato y negra es un griffe, y el de griffe y negro unmarabou ó marabout y así sucesivamente.}}
  7. ^ a b Médéric-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry. Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie francaise de lisle Saint-Domingue. 3 vols.(Philadelphia, 1797).