The African Presence in Santo Domingo

Cover

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Title Page, Copyright

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Contents

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Series Editor's Foreword

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pp. vii-ix

As book series editor, I am pleased to have this book in the Ruth Simms Hamilton African Diaspora Research Project Book Series. Carlos Andújar is known throughout the Dominican Republic as a scholar of Afro-Dominican history, culture, and identity. I first became aware of his work, and other...

Foreword

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pp. xi-xiii

Carlos Andújar is an enthusiastic, determined scholar of African American society. Very few social scholars in Santo Domingo have seriously dared to address, without prejudice, such a controversial and yet exciting subject as the one regarding the contribution of black slaves to Dominican...

Preface

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pp. xv-xvi

The ethnohistorical approach of this work came to me in 1991 as I participated in an international seminar held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on “Ancestor Worship in the Caribbean,” organized by the University of Puerto Rico...

Introduction

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pp. 3-5

Research on the role played by African civilizations in the shaping of Latin American societies is rare. Several reasons explain this lack of information. Widespread prejudices and distortions have prevailed in intellectual reflections about the region, both stemming from the influence...

West Africa during the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

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pp. 7-14

For many people, including social scientists, the degree of development of African peoples at the moment of the encounter between Africa and the Americas is surprising. The similarities in behavior make one consider the first the ancestor of the second, but especially the ancestor of the...

The Slave Trade

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pp. 15-18

By the year 1415, the Portuguese started exploring the African coast with the aim of finding a route to the East, pursuing spices, perfume, fabric, and gold from Sudan, the Far East, and Africa in general. Europe was highly appreciative of these goods. As Françoise Latour Da...

The Origins of Slaves

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pp. 19-28

An exhaustive examination of what was Africa, as a continent and as a conjunction of cultures, will lead us way ahead of what is commonly believed or known. Africa had wealth, well-developed kingdoms and empires, reputed universities—a world as complex as that of Western countries. By so...

Slavery in Santo Domingo

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pp. 29-36

Although the first blacks came to the island around 1496, a pattern of slavery was nonexistent at the time. However, we believe that moment began what would eventually, several decades later, become the classic form of exploitation implemented in the Americas by Europeans: the...

Black Rebellions

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pp. 37-50

Resistance of blacks to the living conditions of slave labor did not emerge for the first time in the Americas. From the moment of their capture, they refused to accept their new captive slave status. Although this form of economic subjugation was already known in Africa, the participation of...

Contributions of Black Culture to Dominican Culture

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pp. 51-60

In a society with a significant presence of black cultural elements and an equally important ethnic composition of blacks and mulattos, one might think that it would be an easy and acceptable topic to approach. However, it is not. Dominicans have suffered a slow and gradual process of alienation...

Conclusions

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pp. 61-62

The theme of the black presence in the Americas requires a lot more research to elucidate the process of transculturation and historical development between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Research should not only benefit the study of black communities. It is also necessary...

Notes

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pp. 63-68

Bibliography

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pp. 69-71