Afro-Dominicans

This article is about inhabitants of the Dominican Republic of African descent. For inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Dominica of African descent, see Afro-Dominicans (Dominica).

Black Dominicans
Dominicanos Negros (Spanish)
Afro-Dominicans in Liga de Softball La Puerta "Dios está con nosotros"
Total population
Sub-Saharan ancestry predominates
Increase 642,018 (2022 census)[1]
Decrease 7.45% of the Dominican population
(Only 12 years and older)
Regions with significant populations
Chiefly in Elías Piña, San Pedro de Macorís, Santo Domingo, and San Cristóbal; also in Dajabón, Pedernales, Independencia, La Romana and Hato Mayor
Languages
majority Dominican Spanish, (Samaná English)
Religion
Dominican Vudú, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism
Related ethnic groups
Dominican people, other Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin Americans, Afro-Cubans, Afro–Puerto Ricans

Afro-Dominicans (also referred to as African Dominicans or Black Dominicans; Spanish: Afro-Dominicanos/Dominicanos Africanos, Dominicanos negros) are Dominicans of predominant or total Sub-Saharan African (Black African) ancestry. They are a minority in the country representing 7.5% or 642,018 of the population, according to the 2022 census.[2]

In a previous estimate they were 7.8% of the Dominican Republic's population according to a survey published in 2021 by the United Nations Population Fund.[3][4] About 4.0% of the people surveyed claim an Afro-Caribbean immigrant background, while only 0.2% acknowledged Haitian descent.[4] Currently there are many black illegal immigrants from Haiti,[5][6][7] who are not included within the Afro-Dominican demographics as they are not legal citizens of the nation.

The first black people in the island were brought by European colonists as indentured workers from Spain and Portugal known as Ladinos.[8][9] When the Spanish Crown outlawed the enslavement of Natives in the island with the Laws of Burgos, slaves from West Africa and Central Africa were imported from the 16th to 18th centuries due to labor demands. However, with the decline of the sugar industry in the colony the importation of slaves decreased, leading to a rise in free blacks, which eventually became the majority within the Afro-Dominican demographic by the late 1700s. Many of these Africans eventually intermixed with the Europeans, Mestizos, and Natives creating a triracial Creole culture.[10]

In the 19th and 20th centuries black immigrants from the French and British West Indies, as well as the United States came to the island and settled in coastal regions increasing the black population. The Afro-Dominican population can now be found in most parts of the country, from coastal areas such as San Cristobal and San Pedro de Macoris to deep inland areas such as Cotui and Monteplata.

There is a lack of recent official data because the National Office of Statistics (ONE) has not released racial data since 1960, though the Central Electoral Board collected racial data until 2014. The 1996 electoral roll put the figures of "black" at 8.6% and "mulatto" at 52.8% of the adult population. The 1960 population census (the last one in which race was queried[11]) placed it at 8.8%.[12] According to a 2011 survey by Latinobarómetro, "The Adventure Guide to the Dominican Republic" the black population is estimated to be 35% of the Dominican population.[13][14]

  1. ^ "Censo 2022". INDEC. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  2. ^ "REPÚBLICA DOMINICANA: Población de 12 años y más, por percepción del informante acerca de las facciones, color de piel y otras características culturales de los miembros del hogar, según región, provincia y grupos de edades". one.gob.do. 30 September 2024. Retrieved 19 October 2024.
  3. ^ "Breve Encuesta Nacional de Autopercepción Racial y Étnica en la República Dominicana" (PDF). Santo Domingo: Fondo de Población de las Naciones Unidas (United Nations Population Fund). September 2021. p. 22. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  4. ^ a b Breve Encuesta Nacional de Autopercepción Racial y Étnica en la República Dominicana. Santo Domingo: Oficina Nacional de Estadística de la República Dominicana. 2021.
  5. ^ Aníbal de Castro (15 November 2013). "Dominican Republic has a clear, respectful immigration policy". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  6. ^ Ferguson, James (July 2003). Migration in the Caribbean: Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Beyond (PDF). London: Minority Rights Group International. ISBN 1-904584-07-1. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  7. ^ Schaaf, Bryan (21 May 2009). "Haiti and the Dominican Republic: Same Island, Different Worlds". Haiti Innovation.org. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  8. ^ Wheat, David (2016). Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 [eBook - Biblioboard]. [Place of publication not identified]: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-4696-2380-1. OCLC 1119633191.
  9. ^ "Cronología | First Blacks in the Americas". firstblacks.org. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  10. ^ "What Became of the Taíno?".
  11. ^ Moya Pons, Frank (2010). "Evolución de la población dominicana". In Frank Moya Pons (ed.). Historia de la República Dominicana [History of the Dominican Republic] (in Spanish). Vol. 2. Santo Domingo: CSIC Press. pp. 50–52. ISBN 978-84-00-09240-5. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
  12. ^ Cuarto Censo Nacional de Población, 1960. Santo Domingo: Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas. 1966. p. 32.
  13. ^ "Informe Latinobarómetro 2011: Tabla Nº16: Raza a la que pertenece por país" [Latinobarómetro Report 2011: Table Nº16: Race to which responder belongs by country] (in Spanish). Corporación Latinobarómetro. 28 October 2012. p. 58. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  14. ^ Pariser, Harry S. (October 1994). The Adventure Guide to the Dominican Republic. Harry S. Pariser. ISBN 978-1-55650-629-1.