Afro-Brazilians
Racial or ethnic group of Brazilians with African ancestry / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Afro-Brazilians (Portuguese: afro-brasileiros; pronounced [ˈafɾo bɾaziˈle(j)ɾus]) are Brazilians who have predominantly sub-Saharan African ancestry (see "preto"). Most members of another group of people, multiracial Brazilians or pardos, may also have a range of degree of African ancestry. Depending on the circumstances (situation, locality, etc.), the ones whose African features are more evident are always or frequently seen by others as "Africans" – consequently identifying themselves as such, while the ones for whom this evidence is lesser may not be seen as such as regularly.[3][4]
Total population | |
---|---|
20,656,458 (2022 census)[1] 10.17% of the Brazilian population | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Entire country; highest percent found in Northeast and Southeast Region | |
Bahia | 3,164,691[2] |
São Paulo | 3,546,562[2] |
Rio de Janeiro | 2,594,253[2] |
Minas Gerais | 2,432,877[2] |
Languages | |
Portuguese | |
Religion | |
Preto ("black") and pardo ("brown/mixed") are among five ethnic categories used by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), along with branco ("white"), amarelo ("yellow", ethnic East Asian), and indígena (Native American).[5] In 2022, 20.7 million Brazilians (10,2% of the population) identified as preto, while 92.1 million (45,3% of the population) identified as pardo, together making up 55.5% of Brazil's population.[6] The Brazilian Black Movement considers pretos and pardos together as part of a single category: negros (blacks). In 2010, this perspective gained official recognition when Brazilian Congress passed a law creating the Statute of Racial Equality. However, this definition is contested as not everyone agrees with it.[7][8] Both pretos and pardos share socioeconomic indications of discrimination, but their combination is controversial because a portion of pardos are caboclos, that is, acculturated indigenous people or people with predominantly indigenous rather than African ancestry, especially in Northern Brazil.[9][10][11]
Brazilians rarely use the American-style phrase "African Brazilian" as a term of ethnic identity[3] and never in informal discourse: the IBGE's July 1998 PME shows that, of Black Brazilians, only about 10% identify as being of "African origin"; most identify as being of "Brazilian origin".[12] In the July 1998 PME, the categories Afro-Brasileiro (Afro-Brazilian) and Africano Brasileiro (African Brazilian) were not chosen at all; the category Africano (African) was selected by 0.004% of the respondents.[13] In the 1976 National Household Sample (PNAD), none of these terms was used even once.[14]
According to Edward Telles,[15] three different systems related to "racial classification" along the White-Black continuum are used in Brazil. The first is the Census System, which distinguishes three categories: branco (White), pardo, and preto.[16] The second is the popular social system that uses many different categories, including the ambiguous term moreno (literally meaning "tanned", "brunette", or "with an olive complexion").[17] The third is the Black movement, which distinguishes only two categories, summing up pardos and pretos ("blacks", lowercase) as negros ("Blacks", with capital initial), and putting all others as "whites".[18] More recently, the term afrodescendente has been adopted for use,[19] but it is restricted to very formal discourse, such as governmental or academic discussions.