Black Communities

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Voluntary immigrants or the descendants of the black racial groups in Africa, the Caribbean and South America constitute one of the largest racial minorities in different parts of Europe, the United States and Asia. The term “Blacks” is generally used for people with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry. The first Africans arrived in the continents of Europe and America as indentured servants in the early 17th century. Slavery, war, trade and the shipping industries brought in its wake an increasing number of Africans to London and America.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the domestic service and the pauper professions were the main areas of employment for black immigrants. Their position in the dominant “White” community was particularly ambiguous as the law neither recognized slavery as a profession nor granted them freedom from it. The end of the 18th century brought significant changes as the legal attitude began to be transformed along with social mind-sets. Following the abolition of the slave trade and a little later of slavery itself in the British Empire, the population of the West Indian and African immigrants suffered a steady decline.

With the decline of the black community in the 19th century, a greater proportion found employment in the port as seamen, while some remained associated with other trades. The latter part of the century saw the emergence of many popular and socially eminent figures in the Black community. Among them were Mary Seacole, an author and nurse, Celestine Edwards, lecturer and editor.

Today, the descendants of these Africans are a dominant element in many nations worldwide. Over the generations, they have discarded some aspects of their culture while at the same time adding their original contributions to the cultural mix of heir respective societies. A strong African influence permeates through the music, dance, arts, literature, speech forms and religious practices in the nations they have adopted as their homelands.

The present day scenario shows a marked change from the depraved conditions of the early African immigrants. Africans settled in the United States or Europe have improved their socio-economic standing significantly since the Civil Rights Movement. Africans now enjoy unprecedented access to higher education and employment opportunities. Recent decades have witnessed the expansion of the African middle class across the world. However, a history of slavery, racism and discrimination has left the Blacks at a definite economic, educational and social disadvantage. Social, economic and political issues persistently haunt them. They are subjected to institutional racism, inadequate health care facilities, poverty, crime, substance abuse and even discrimination in criminal justice and policing. The situation reflects that even though significant progress has been made, it will take a long time before either the rest of the world thinks of the Blacks as their own brethren, and before the Blacks can think of any part of the world as their homeland.