Afro-descendant is that who is of african descent. The word Afro-descendant is formed by two adjectives: afro, which makes reference to the african, more descendant who is the one who descends from, who comes by generation, therefore, Afrodescendant means "African descendant”.
An estimated 200 million people who identify themselves as being of African descent live in the Americas. Brazil has the largest number of people of African descent outside its continent.
Miscegenation
The African continent became for more than three centuries the great storehouse of slave labor for European capitalist accumulation and for landowners and mines in America. Millions of black Africans were brought to America over centuries of forced migrations, they were usually embarked in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea and landed in Recife, Salvador and Rio de January.
According to some authors, around 10 million slaves entered America between 1502 and 1870. Over these centuries a great miscegenation was formed between Europeans, mainly Portuguese, blacks and Indians. Few countries in the world have experienced such intense miscegenation as Brazil.
Policies for Afro-descendants
People of African descent are recognized in the Durban Declaration and Program of Action as a group of specific victims who continue to suffer discrimination, as a historical legacy of the transatlantic trade in slaves. Even Afro-descendants who are not direct descendants of slaves face racism and discrimination that still persist today.
In December 2013, the UN General Assembly adopted, by consensus, a resolution that creates the International Decade of Afro-descendants, called "People of African descent: recognition, justice and development”. The decade will be celebrated from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2024, with the aim of strengthening the fight against prejudice, intolerance, xenophobia and racism.
Also read about the Afro-Brazilian culture.
