African Diaspora Cultures in the Americas

Out of the trauma of slavery, African-descended people built new cultures that now shape the whole world. Religions such as Candomblé in Brazil, Santería in Cuba and Vodou in Haiti combined West and Central African traditions, especially Yoruba and Fon beliefs, with Catholic and Indigenous elements. New languages emerged too: Haitian Creole and the Gullah language of the Carolina and Georgia coast blend African grammar with European vocabulary.

Music carried African rhythms into samba, rumba, calypso, blues and jazz, while capoeira combined dance and martial art. Sociologist Paul Gilroy called this transatlantic world the Black Atlantic, stressing constant exchange rather than a single fixed origin. These cultures show creolization, the making of something new from many sources under pressure. They also challenge the idea that globalization only spreads outward from powerful centres.