Diaspora

African-African American gifts, paintings, statues, and clothing. The term diaspora (in Ancient Greek, "a scattering or sowing of seeds" ) refers to forcing any people or ethnic population to leave their traditional homelands, the dispersal of such people, and the ensuing developments in their culture. One of the largest and most historic diasporas of pre-modern times was the African Diasporas which began at the beginning of the 16th century. During the Atlantic Slave Trade, about ten (or more) million people from West, West-Central and Southeast Africa were transported to the Western Hemisphere as slaves. This population would leave a major influence on the culture of English, French, Portuguese and Spanish New World colonies. The Arab slave trade similiarly took large numbers out of the continent, although the effect of the diaspora to the east is more subtle.