Angolan Americans: Difference between revisions

Angolan Americans

Hugo Ferreira · Chris Tucker
Total population
1.642 (basically naturalized Angolans and Americans that descend of Angolan immigrant)
Regions with significant populations
Mainly Philadelphia, St. Louis, Phoenix, and Chicago
Languages
Main American English  · Portuguese  · African language
Related ethnic groups
African American · Cape Verdean American  · Congolese American · Portuguese American

Angolan Americans are Americans of Angolan descent or a Angolan immigrant having the American citizenship. According to estimates by 2000 there were 1.642 people descended from Angolans immigrants in the U.S. However, number the Angolan Americans is difficult of know as many African-American could be descendants of Angolan slaves, by what the number Angolan Americans could exceed by far that figure.

Angolan immigration in the United States began in the XVII century, XVIII century and early XIX century, when many of the Angolans who were bought as slaves to Americas were exported to the United States. So, according the researcher in cultural anthropology and American filmmaker Sheila Walker, Angolan slaves (15 men and 17 women) were the first Africans to arrive to the Thirteen Colonies, specifically in Jamestown, Virginia in 1617, when they were diverted a Spanish ship by an English ship bound for Mexico.^[1] These first Angolan slaves of Virginia were Mbundu^[2] and Bakongo, which spoke Kimbundu and Kikongo languages respectively. Following the Portuguese conquest and according to the Washington Post, many of this first slaves had have contact with Europeans "for many years", specifically since 1484, when the Portuguese ships of Cão reached the Zaire or Congo rivers, the second most large Africa (after the Nilo) and the portugueses established relationships with the king Kongo, Manicongo. Also, many of this early slaves were literate.^[3]

Later, the slaves were stolen by English and Dutch pirates to previous owners, the Portuguese, when went out with the slaves of the Angolan port of Luanda.^[2] So, the Angolans also were the first slaves in New York, when this place was called New Amsterdam and was Dutch.^[3] In addition, in 1644 year, were bought 6,900 slaves on the African coast to clear the forests, lay roads, build houses and public buildings, and grow food. Most of these were from of the company's colonies in the West Indies, but from its established stations in Angola.^[4] Angolan slavery in the United States had its stronghold between 1619 and 1650.^[2]

So, the people from of the region Congo-Angola were a 25% of the slave imported in North America. Many Angolan slaves came of ethnics such as Bakongo, the Tio^[5] and Mbundu of Kingdom of Ndongo.^[2] However, the Bakongo were Catholics, already that the kingdom of Kongo had voluntarily converted to Catholicism in 1491, after of the Portuguese conquer of this territory.^[6] Others places from United States such as Delaware, Indiana or South Carolina also had Angolans slaves.^[3] So, the majority of slaves of some places as Virginia and Maryland came from within the boundaries of the modern nation-states of Nigeria and Angola.

Many of the Bakongo slaves that arrived to United States in the XVIII century were captured and sold as slaves by African Kings to others tribes or enemies ethnics, because to the several civil wars that suffered this Kingdom. Some of the people sold from Kongo to United states were trained soldiers.^[6] So, in 1739, there was an uprising in South Carolina, where it seemed, 40% of the slaves were Angolans. Led by a Angolan, Jemmy, a group of Angolan slaves, likely Bakongos and described as Catholic, mutinied and killed at least 20 white settlers and several children, and then marched to Charlestown, where the uprising was harshly repressed, 40 slaves were decapitated and the heads strung on sticks to serve as a warning to others. This episode, known as the Stono Rebellion, led the U.S. government to ban the importation of more slaves, because the country faced two serious problems: the first was racial discrimination and the second is that he had more blacks than whites.^[3] Later, some 300 Angolans former slaves founded their own community in Braden River delta, near what is now downtown Bradenton, Florida and they gave the name of Angola, in honor to the land where many came and tried to live as free men. However, Angola was destroyed in 1821, rich hunters slaveholders hired 200 chiefs that captured 300 black persons and burned their houses. It is believed, however, that some Angolans fled into rafts and succeeded reach Andros Island in The Bahamas, where they were established.^[3]

After the abolition of slavery in 1865 and until the 1970s, were few Angolans that emigrated to the United States. Large-scale Angolan immigration to the United States began not until the 1970s due to start of regional wars in his country. Although initially, most Angolans refugees emigrated to France, Belgium, and Portugal - country to which the Angola belonged in colonial times and to that gave him their language -, the restrictions conducted by European Economic Community on immigration forced many of them to emigrated to others countries such as the United States in the 1980s. ^[7]So. before this year, only 1.200 Angolans entered the United States. Since this moment the number of Angolans who emigrated to the United States would start increase: Between 1980 and 1989 entered the United States 1170 Angolans people, and between 1990 and 2000, were established in the country a total of 1,995 Angolans.^[8]

They settled primarily in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Phoenix, and Chicago.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). This was due to Cape Verdeans speaking Portuguese as do many of the immigrants from Angola. In 1992 leaders of the Angolan communities of these cities formed the Angolan Community in the USA (ACUSA). The Chicago branch has aided new immigrants.^[7]

Currently, most Americans that are descent of Angolans that emigrated to United States since the XX century speak Portuguese and English. Despite of that in Angola are mostly large families, most Angolan immigrants in United States are single men or small family groups. Angolan communities tend to have, in cities as Chicago, holiday festivals, Angolan music or newspapers on news events that occur in Angola.^[7]The main communities are concentrated in the Philadelphia, St. Louis, Phoenix and Chicago cities. Meanwhile, the states with the largest Angolan American communities are Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Nueva Jersey. According to estimates by 2000 there were only 1.642 people descended from Angolan Americans of immigrants origin in the U.S. Moreover, according to the same census, lived in United States this year 4,365 people born in Angola, of which 1885 were white, 1,635 of blacks, 15 of Asian race, 620 racially mixed and other 210 unspecified race. ^[8]

• Angola became the name given to the communities created by Angolan slaves fugitives and the term itself also came to represent the struggle for freedom.
• Several anthropologists and American historians are involved in Project called Angola, the historical study of the various Angolans existing U.S.
• In Louisiana, about 50 miles from Baton Rouge there a place called Angola. This is an old plantation of 7,200 hectares, where most of the slaves were from Angola and in 1835, was built to prison State of Louisiana, known today by The Farm or Angola.
• There are also cities from U.S. named "Angola" as the of New York, Delaware and Indiana, where there were also Angolan slaves.
• In Virginia also had a farm called "Angola", owned by Anthony Johnson, an Angolan named Antonio who took the name of his boss when he was released.^[3]

• Angolan Community of Southern California