The Afro-Romani are people who are descended from both the Romani people and the African diaspora. Notable Afro-Romani communities exist in Louisiana, United States and Cuba. There are also Romani and Dom communities throughout Africa.
Afro-Romani communities
editCuba
editAn Afro-Romani population exists in central Cuba. The Afro-Romani community in Cuba emerged due to intermarriage of enslaved and formerly enslaved Black and Romani people.[1]
Jamaica
editEnslaved British Romani people were sometimes sent to Jamaica during colonial rule. Some free Black Jamaicans owned Romani slaves and reports exist of Romani people as young as eleven being used for sexual purposes by both African and European slave owners.[2] John Atkins, a British slave owner and merchant, wrote in 1722 that the "Creoles" he visited in Jamaica spoke in "a kind of Gypsy gibberish that runs smoothest in swearing."[3]
United States
editSome of the earliest Romani people to arrive in the United States were brought to Louisiana in the 1500s.[4] An Afro-Romani community exists in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana. Afro-Romani people in Louisiana are descended from both Black and Romani enslaved people. Between 1762 and 1800, the Spanish sent Romani slaves from Spain to the Louisiana colony in New Spain.[5] The Afro-Romani community of St. Martin Parish formed through the intermarriage of formerly enslaved free Black and Romani people.[6]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Rodriguez, Junius P. (1997). The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9780874368857.
- ^ "Romani Americans (Roma)". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 2023-12-30.
- ^ "Standardisation and Ethnic Defence in Emergent Non-Literate Societies: The Gypsy and Caribbean Cases". Romani Archive and Documentation Center. Retrieved 2023-12-30.
- ^ Schaefer, Richard T.; Zellner, William W. (October 22, 2015). Extraordinary Groups: An Examination of Unconventional Lifestyles, Ninth Edition. Waveland Press. ISBN 9781478631835.
- ^ The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery, Volume 1; Volume 7 By Junius P. Rodriguez
- ^ We are the Romani People. p. 27.