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26-913: Most Afro-Ecuadorians are the descendants of enslaved Africans who were transported by predominantly British slavers to Ecuador from the early 16th century. In 1553, the first enslaved Africans reached Ecuador in Quito when a slave ship heading to Peru was stranded off the Ecuadorian coast. The enslaved Africans escaped and established maroon settlements in Esmeraldas, which became a safe haven as many Africans fleeing slave conditions either escaped to there or were forced to live there. Eventually, they started moving from their traditional homeland and were settling everywhere in Ecuador. Racism, on an individual basis and societally are strongly discriminated against by

52-573: A bombo , guiro and plant leaves to give melody. The religious practice among Afro-Ecuadorians is usually Catholic . Catholic worship is distinctive in Esmeraldas, and sometimes is done with marimba Numerous organizations have been established in Ecuador to for Afro-Ecuadorian issues. The Afro-Ecuadorian Development Council (CONDAE). Afro-Ecuadorian Development Corporation (Corporación de Desarrollo Afroecuatoriano, CODAE), institutionalized in 2002, Asociación de Negros Ecuatorianos (ASONE), founded in 1988, Afro-Ecuadorian Institute , founded 1989,

78-401: A high mortality rate , on average 15% and up to a third of captives. Often, the ships carried hundreds of slaves, who were chained tightly to plank beds. For example, the slave ship Henrietta Marie carried about 200 slaves on the long Middle Passage . They were confined to cargo holds, with each slave chained with little room to move. The most significant routes of the slave ships led from

104-557: A notable career in Royal Navy service and was responsible for capturing a number of slave ships and freeing many hundreds of slaves. Attempts have been made by descendants of African slaves to sue Lloyd's of London for playing a key role in underwriting insurance policies taken out on slave ships bringing slaves from Africa to the Americas. Asociacion de Negros Ecuatorianos Asociación de Negros Ecuatorianos ( ASONE )

130-555: Is popular from Esmeraldas to the Pacific Region of Colombia . It was considered an Intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2010. It gets its name from the prominent use of marimbas , but is accompanied along with dances, chants, drums and other instruments specific to this region such as the bombo , the cununo and the guasá . Sometimes this music is played in religious ceremonies, as well as in celebrations and parties. It features call-and-response chanting along with

156-439: The mestizo and criollo populations. As a result, along with lack of government funding and low social mobility poverty affects their community more so than the white and mestizo population of Ecuador. After slavery was abolished in 1851, Africans became marginalized in Ecuador, dominated by the plantation owners. Afro-Ecuadorian people and culture are found primarily in the country's northwest coastal region. The majority of

182-611: The Agustín Delgado Foundation , the Black Community Movement (El Proceso de Comunidades Negras) and The National Confederation of Afro-Ecuadorians (Confederación Nacional Afroecuatoriana, CNA) are amongst some of the institutional frameworks in place in Ecuador. The World Bank has given loans for Afro-Ecuadorian development proposals in Ecuador since 1998, loaning $ 34 million for related projects between 2003 and 2007, and USAID also monitored

208-512: The 2006 elections in Ecuador to ensure that Afro-Ecuadorians were not being unfairly underrepresented. Slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves . Such ships were also known as " Guineamen " because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast in West Africa. In

234-851: The Afro-Ecuadorian population (70%) are found in the province of Esmeraldas and the Valle del Chota in the Imbabura Province , where they are the majority. They can be also found in significant numbers in Guayaquil , and in Ibarra , where in some neighborhoods, they make up a majority. Many Afro-Ecuadorians have participated in sports, for instance playing with the Ecuador national football team , many of whom hail from Valle del Chota. Afro-Ecuadorian culture may be analysed by considering

260-572: The Netherlands also agreed to abolish their slave trade. The trade did not end on legal abolition; between 1807 and 1860 British vessels captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 160,000 slaves. After abolition, slave ships adopted quicker, more maneuverable forms to evade capture by naval warships, one favorite form being the Baltimore Clipper . Some had hulls fitted with copper sheathing , which significantly increased speed by preventing

286-418: The abolition of slavery. For the first time, limits were placed on the number of slaves that could be carried. Under the terms of the act, ships could transport 1.67 slaves per ton up to a maximum of 207 tons burthen, after which only one slave per ton could be carried. The well-known slave ship Brookes was limited to carrying 454 people; it had previously transported as many as 609 enslaved. Olaudah Equiano

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312-471: The crew were far better than those of the slaves, they remained harsh and contributed to a high death rate. Sailors often had to live and sleep without shelter on the open deck for the entirety of the Atlantic voyage, as the space below deck was occupied by slaves. Disease, specifically malaria and yellow fever, was the most common cause of death among sailors. A high crew mortality rate on the return voyage

338-507: The deaths of slaves on board slave ships. Firsthand accounts from former slaves, such as Olaudah Equiano , describe the horrific conditions that slaves were forced to endure. The Slave Trade Act 1788 , also known as Dolben's Act, regulated conditions on board British slave ships for the first time since the slave trade started. It was introduced to the United Kingdom Parliament by Sir William Dolben , an advocate for

364-649: The early 1600s, more than a century after the arrival of Europeans to the Americas , demand for unpaid labor to work plantations made slave-trading a profitable business. The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the last two decades of the 18th century, during and following the Kongo Civil War . To ensure profitability , the owners of the ships divided their hulls into holds with little headroom, so they could transport as many slaves as possible. Unhygienic conditions, dehydration , dysentery , and scurvy led to

390-515: The floor beneath bunks with little to no room to move. Some captains assigned slave guardians to watch over and keep the other slaves in check. They spent a large portion of time pinned to floorboards, which would wear skin on their elbows down to the bone. Diseases such as dysentery , diarrhea , ophthalmoparesis , malaria , smallpox, yellow fever, scurvy, measles, typhoid fever, hookworm, tapeworm, sleeping sickness, trypanosomiasis , yaws, syphilis, leprosy, elephantiasis, and melancholia resulted in

416-405: The growth of marine weed on the hull, which would otherwise cause drag. This was very expensive, and at the time was only commonly fitted to Royal Navy vessels. The speed of slave ships made them attractive ships to repurpose for piracy, and also made them attractive for naval use after capture; USS  Nightingale and HMS  Black Joke were examples of such vessels. HMS Black Joke had

442-510: The music. Some of the rhythms associated with it are currulao , bambuco and andarele . On the other hand, in the Chota Valley there is bomba music. It can vary from mid-tempo to a very fast rhythm. It is usually played with guitars, as well as the main local instrument called bomba , which is a drum, along with a guiro , and sometimes bombos and bongos . A variation of it played by la banda mocha , groups who play bomba with

468-681: The north-western and western coasts of Africa to South America and the south-east coast of what is today the United States, and the Caribbean . As many as 20 million Africans were transported by ship. The transportation of slaves from Africa to America was known as the Middle Passage of the triangular trade . The owners of slave ships embarked as many slaves as possible to make the voyage more profitable. They did so by cramming, chaining, and selectively grouping slaves to maximize

494-429: The overcrowding on slave ships may have reduced the on-board death rate, but this is disputed by some historians. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the sailors on slave ships were often poorly paid and subject to brutal discipline and treatment. Furthermore, a crew mortality rate of around 20% was expected during a voyage, with sailors dying as a result of disease, flogging, or slave uprisings. While conditions for

520-592: The two main epicenters of historical presence: the province of Esmeraldas , and the Chota Valley . In Ecuador it is often said that Afro Ecuadorians live predominantly in warm places like Esmeraldas. Afro-Ecuadorian culture is a result of the Trans-atlantic slave trade . Their culture and its impact on Ecuador has led to many aspects from West and Central Africa cultures being preserved via ordinary acts of resistance and commerce. Examples of these include

546-474: The use of polyrhythmic techniques , traditional instruments and dances; along with food ways such as the use of crops brought from Africa , like the Plantain and Pigeon pea , and oral traditions and mythology like La Tunda . When women wear their hair as it grows naturally, it is often associated with poverty, which is why successful or upwardly mobile women tended to straighten their hair. Marimba music

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572-563: The use of space. Slaves began to die of lack of oxygen due to these cramped conditions. Portuguese lawmakers passed the Tonnage Act of 1684 in order to slightly improve conditions. Slaves on board were underfed and brutally treated, causing many to die before even arriving at their destination; dead or dying slaves were dumped overboard. An average of one to two months was needed to complete the journey. The slaves were naked and shackled together with several different types of chains, stored on

598-435: Was among the supporters of the act, but it was opposed by some abolitionists, such as William Wilberforce , who feared it would establish the idea that the slave trade simply needed reform and regulation, rather than complete abolition. Slave counts can also be estimated by deck area rather than registered tonnage, which results in a lower number of errors and only 6% deviation from reported figures. This limited reduction in

624-414: Was in the captain's interests, as it reduced the number of sailors who had to be paid on reaching the home port. Crew members who survived were frequently cheated out of their wages on their return. These aspects of the slave trade were widely known; the notoriety of slave ships amongst sailors meant those joining slave ship crews did so through coercion or because they could find no other employment. This

650-582: Was often the case for sailors who had spent time in prison. Black sailors are known to have been among the crews of British slave ships. These men came from Africa or the Caribbean, or were British-born. Dozens of individuals have been identified by researchers from surviving records. Knowledge of this is incomplete, though, as many captains did not record the ethnicity of crew members in their ship's muster roll . African men (and occasionally African women) also served as translators. The African slave trade

676-689: Was outlawed by the United States and the United Kingdom in 1807. The 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act outlawed the slave trade throughout the British Empire . The U.S. law took effect on 1 January 1808. After that date, all U.S. and British slave ships leaving Africa were seen by the law as pirate vessels subject to capture by the U.S. Navy or Royal Navy . In 1815, at the Council of Vienna , Spain, Portugal, France, and

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