Where Have All The Blacks Gone?

The Atlantic Slave Trade was the biggest forced migration in human history. Around 10 million Africans were taken (mostly from West Africa) and brought to the Americas. Their lives after the journey, if they managed to survive was one of constant hardship, cultural destruction and exploitation. Yet, to this day their descendants (some 100-200 million in both Americas) survive. Yet, race as a concept has failed to define those who've assimilated into Latino culture. More and more blacks as years go by have become brown. Especially in places like Brazil and Venezuela. Even Mexico and Argentina once had large African populations. Where are they? Where have all the Blacks gone?

Colombia - Blacks were brought to work in gold mines, sugar plantations, cattle ranches etc. They were emancipated in 1851 but government policy was brought into make the country "lighter". However, this was unsuccessful and many of their descendats still live in the Pacific coastline. Around 9 million live in Colombia today.

Ecuador - After the Spanish conquest of the Inka, the Blacks were brought to replace the lost in native labour due to European epidemics. Since they were brought, they've suffered discrimination by the government and of course slavery. They've made cultural contributions like Marimba but still over 1 million of them are poor and ostracized by the rest of society.

Venezuela - More than 50,000 Africans were brought to work the cacoa plantations of the country and soon the nation became mixed race. Their situation is a bit better compared to the rest of South America. Hugo Chavez is an Afro-Venezuelan. Some 4 million live in Venezuela.

Argentina - Argentina's blacks are nearly gone. Only 52,000 remain. Africans from mostly Angola were brought here and in the 1700s, nearly half the population was black. What happened? According to historians (though I think this is false), slave owners would use their blacks to fight for them in wars against native populations and Brazil. The worse blood-lettings was against Paraguay in the War of the Triple Alliance. Then Argentina, like Colombia became obsessed with making their country lighter by allowing the large scale immigration of Spaniards, Italians and others into their nation and with a lack of black men due to warfare, black women married European males. Despite the cultural contribution of Tango among others, there's little place in Argentinian history for Blacks. A private census taken by an Afro-Centric organization estimated 2 million black descendants but no one knows for sure.

Mexico - Again, the decline of millions of potential native labourers forced Spain to import hundreds of thousands of black from West Africa. Slavery was harsh and there were many rebellions but by the 16th century, there was a significant amount of blacks in Mexico. However, intermarriage between blacks were discouraged to encourage intermarriage with Europeans and natives. Many of their descendants still live around Veracruz in southern Mexico and their contributions are still important such as the 2nd President of Mexico Vicente Guerrero was Afro-Mexican. Around 1 million still remain.

Cuba - Cuba was among the first places African slaves were shipped to, soon after Columbus's explorations which killed the native Arawaks. Blacks have always made up a large part of Cuba's populations and around half of them are black or have African ancestry.

Blacks of managed to thrive in Brazil luckily but their decline has been noted in most of Latin America. In Latin America three colours have been noted. Black, White and Brown. Brown is becoming more and more prevelant as time goes on and will probably be the norm but the only reason why brown is becoming the norm is because the darker you are, the poorer you are. The lighter you are, the richer you are. Simple as that.