The Black Atlantic

The Black Atlantic:

Coined by philosopher and sociologist Paul Gilroy, the Black Atlantic is the transnational cultural construction created through the spreading of African people across the world (the African Diaspora) as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It is a web of multi-culture in the western hemisphere and beyond, all rooted in the original cultures of those who were victims of the Slave Trade and their descendants. The Black Atlantic embraces the hybridity and creolization that has occurred with African cultures through diasporic formations, and celebrates both the similarities and differences between what has morphed into multiple cultures and ethnic groups. The entirety of the world has been impacted by the Transatlantic Slave Trade, especially those places that make up the Black Atlantic – a figurative continent created through the spreading and mixing of Black people (people of African descent) with white people (people of western European descent), Native people to the Americas, and people of Asian descent.

The institutional enslavement of African people and their descendants existed in every place that is currently a country in the Americas and beyond. From the formation of the Black Atlantic over the past 580 years, the world has created and recreated countless cultures, ethnic groups, and national constructions.