Afro–Costa Ricans

{{Short description|Costa Ricans of African ancestry}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Afro-Costa Ricans | image = Calypso.JPG | caption = [[Calypso music|Calypso]] dancers from [[Puerto Limón]] during an event in [[Bribrí]], [[Talamanca (canton)|Talamanca]]. | pop = {{circa}} '''400,000'''<br /> 8% of the Costa Rican population<ref name="La Nación, 2018">[https://www.nacion.com/el-pais/servicios/afrodescendientes-en-costa-rica-acceso-a/FWP25HJQ2NHA7B4WCWMWRNFWR4/story/ Afrodescendientes en Costa Rica] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720163855/https://www.nacion.com/el-pais/servicios/afrodescendientes-en-costa-rica-acceso-a/FWP25HJQ2NHA7B4WCWMWRNFWR4/story/ |date=2020-07-20 }}, La Nación, 29 August 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2020.</ref> | popplace = {{hlist|[[Puerto Limon]]|[[San José, Costa Rica|San Jose]]|[[Alajuela, Costa Rica|Alajuela]]|[[Heredia, Costa Rica|Heredia]]}} | langs = {{hlist|[[Spanish language|Spanish]] | [[English creole]]}} | rels = {{hlist|[[Roman Catholicism]] | [[Baptists]] | [[Agnosticism]] | [[Christianism]]}} | related = [[Afro-Caribbean]], other [[Black Latin Americans]] }}

'''Afro–Costa Ricans''' are [[Costa Rica]]ns of [[Africa]]n ancestry.

Costa Rica has four small minority groups: [[Mulatto]]es, [[Black people|Blacks]], [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Amerindians]] and [[Asians]] (primarily Chinese/East Asian). About eight percent of the population is of African descent or Mulatto (mix of European and African) who are called Afro–Costa Ricans. A large portion of this group descends from the late 19th, and early 20th century waves of [[Afro-Caribbean]] migrant workers (mostly from Jamaica). They represent the largest community of Jamaican origin outside of Jamaica's Anglophone-dominated diaspora. However, not all Black Costa Ricans are descended from these groups, as some are directly descended from colonial-era enslaved Africans imported to Costa Rica by the Spanish. This latter group, however, is more likely to be [[mulatto]], or tri-racial.

==History== The first recorded arrival of people of African descent in [[Costa Rica]] came with the Spanish conquistadors. Slave trade was common in all the countries conquered by [[Spain]], and in Costa Rica the first Black people seem to have come from specific sources in Africa- Equatorial and Western regions. People from these regions were considered ideal slaves due to a perceived reputation for being more robust, affable and hard-working than other Africans. They came from what is now the [[Gambia]] ([[Mandinka people|Mandingas]]), [[Guinea]] (specifically Wolofe), [[Ghanaian]] ([[Ashanti people|Ashanti]]), [[Benin]] (specifically [[Ohori people|Ije]] / Ararás) and [[Sudan]] (Puras).<ref name="costaricaway"/> Many were also Minas (enslaved people from parts of the region extending from [[Ivory Coast]] to the [[Slave Coast of West Africa|Slave Coast]]), Popo (be imported tribes as [[Ana people|Ana]] and [[Bariba people|Baribas]]), [[Yoruba people|Yorubas]] and Congas (perhaps from [[Kongasso]], Ivory Coast).<ref>[http://www.historia.fcs.ucr.ac.cr/articulos/esp-genero/1parte/CAP1Marielos/Cuadro2.htm Mujeres Esclavas en la Costa Rica del Siglo XVIII: Estrategias Frente a la Esclavitud] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130105040124/http://www.historia.fcs.ucr.ac.cr/articulos/esp-genero/1parte/CAP1Marielos/Cuadro2.htm |date=January 5, 2013 }} {{in lang|es}} (Slave women in Costa Rica of the 18th century: Strategies against slavery)</ref> Slaves also came from other places, such as neighboring [[Panama]]. However, the following century witnessed a gradual lessening of the differences between Black people and their white owners. As whites took Black women as their concubines, they freed the children that were born from this union. The same thing started to happen with the "[[zambo]]s", born of Amerindians and Black people. During the time of slavery, the slaves worked on cattle ranches of Guanacaste and the Central Valley plantations and cacao plantations in Matina, whose situation was more difficult. Over time, many whites freed their slaves and slavery was abolished in 1823, along with the other Central American countries.<ref name="costaricaway">[http://www.costaricaway.net/artcaribe/pdf/raizafro.pdf Costa Rica way] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021022206/http://www.costaricaway.net/artcaribe/pdf/raizafro.pdf |date=October 21, 2012 }}</ref>

The largest Costa Rican Black community is from the Caribbean, which today constitutes the majority of the Costa Rican Black population. Costa Rica has the largest [[Jamaica]]n diaspora after [[Cuba]] and Panama and its development as a nation is witness to this contribution.<ref name="alainet"/>

Since 1850, fishermen of Afro-Caribbean origin began to settle in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, especially from Panama and the West Indies. They stayed in temporary camps during fishing seasons, from March to September, to plant coconuts, cassava, and yams, which were then harvested the following season. Since 1828, some of these fishermen began to settle in Costa Rica permanently with their families.<ref name="costaricaway"/>

Towards the second half of the 19th century, coffee became the main export of Costa Rica. The crops were transported from the Pacific Coast, by an inaccessible jungle terrain of the Atlantic Coast. To be taken to Europe, they had to turn back to South America, which increased the cost and removed competitiveness . To remedy this situation, in 1871 a railway and a port on the Atlantic Coast were constructed. Because of the scarcity of local labor, workers were imported from Italy, China, and the Caribbean and Central America. This coincided with an employment crisis in Jamaica that caused an exodus to neighboring countries.<ref name="alainet"/> On December 20, 1872, the ''Lizzie'', the first boat from Jamaica, arrived at the port of [[Limón]] with 123 workers to work on the railroad. From this moment, the number of Jamaican workers in Limon increased rapidly and the following year saw over 1,000 Jamaican workers in the port.<ref name="costaricaway"/>

Many Jamaicans intended to return home, but most remained in the province of Limón on the Caribbean Coast. In 1890 the railways suffered a financial crisis, forcing many workers to sustain themselves by working in agriculture. This in turn saw the laborers establishing relationships and cultural exchanges with native populations of these areas.<ref name="costaricaway"/> Later, the Jamaican workers began working for the banana industry, whose production grew to its peak in 1907.

Usually these workers lived on the plantations and had little knowledge of Costa Rica beyond their immediate environment. The contact was minimal because the Costa Rican banana plantations were in foreign hands. They did not speak Spanish and retained Jamaican customs. They had their own schools with teachers brought from Jamaica. Until 1949 Costa Rica had segregation laws where Black people lived exclusively in the Caribbean Province of Puerto Limón. By 2011 Afro–Costa Ricans were spread in all 7 Costa Rican provinces: 32% of them in San José, 16% in Alajuela, 15% in Limón, 10% in Heredia and 8% in Cartago and Guanacaste. Today, Afro–Costa Rican people are part of different disciplines and fields in Costa Rica.<ref name="alainet">[http://alainet.org/active/1013&lang=es América latina en movimiento. La comunidad negra en Costa Rica] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130104173103/http://alainet.org/active/1013%26lang%3Des |date=January 4, 2013 }} {{in lang|es}} (Latin America in Movement. The black community in Costa Rica), by Francis Hutchinson.</ref>

==Notable Afro-Costa Ricans== {{Unreferenced section|date=July 2024}} ===Politics=== *[[Epsy Campbell Barr]], former vice president<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-12-06 |title=Meet Epsy Alejandra Campbell Barr: Costa Rica's First Black Vice-President |url=https://www.essence.com/politics/politics/epsy-alejandra-campbell-barr-costa-rica-first-black-vice-president/ |access-date=2026-02-14 |website=Essence |language=en-US}}</ref> *[[Eduardo Cruickshank Smith|Eduardo Cruickshank]], politician, former deputy and evangelical pastor *[[Maureen Clarke]], lawyer and former deputy *[[Thelma Curling Rodríguez]], jurist and politician

===Sports=== * [[Alvaro Saborio]], footballer *[[Jake Beckford]], footballer *[[Try Bennett]], footballer *[[Jewison Bennette]], footballer *[[Kurt Bernard]], footballer *[[Felicio Brown Forbes]], footballer *[[Keyner Brown]], footballer *[[Steven Bryce]], footballer *[[Berny Burke]], footballer *[[Joel Campbell]], footballer *[[Kenny Cunningham (footballer, born 1985)|Kenny Cunningham]], footballer *[[Errol Daniels]], footballer *[[Rudy Dawson]], footballer *[[Donald De La Haye]], American Football player *[[Jervis Drummond]], footballer *[[Neighel Drummond]], footballer *[[Jordy Evans]], footballer *[[Waylon Francis]], footballer *[[Julio Fuller]], footballer *[[Keysher Fuller]], footballer *[[Mayron George]], footballer *[[Álvaro Grant]], footballer *[[Donny Grant]], footballer *[[Floyd Guthrie]], footballer *[[Jaylon Hadden]], footballer *[[Denis Hamlett]], footballer * [[Cameron Johnson (footballer)|Cameron Johnson]], footballer *[[Carlos Johnson (footballer)|Carlos Johnson]], footballer *[[Derrick Johnson (footballer)|Derrick Johnson]], footballer *[[Rodrigo Kenton]], footballer *[[Ariel Lassiter]], footballer *[[Ian Lawrence (footballer)|Ian Lawrence]], footballer *[[Jedwin Lester]], footballer *[[Dexter Lewis]], footballer *[[Leroy Lewis (footballer)|Leroy Lewis]], footballer *[[Dennis Marshall (footballer, born 1985)|Dennis Marshall]], footballer *[[Jonathan McDonald]], footballer *[[Hernán Medford]], footballer *[[Jaikel Medina]], footballer *[[Roy Miller (footballer)|Roy Miller]], footballer *[[Rodolfo Mills]], footballer *[[Josué Mitchell]], footballer *[[Kraesher Mooke]], footballer *[[Lester Morgan]], footballer *[[Bernard Mullins]], footballer *[[Roy Myers]], footballer *[[David Myrie]], footballer *[[Roy Myrie]], footballer *[[Edder Nelson]], footballer *[[Jhamir Ordain]], footballer *[[Reynaldo Parks]], footballer *[[Winston Parks]], footballer *[[Fernando Patterson]], footballer *[[Patrick Pemberton]], footballer *[[Saúl Phillips]], footballer *[[Allard Plummer]], footballer *[[Alexander Robinson (Costa Rican footballer)|Alexander Robinson]], footballer *[[Manfred Russell]], footballer *[[Erick Scott]], footballer *[[Jean Scott (football)|Jean Scott]], footballer *[[Miguel Simpson]], footballer *[[Orlando Sinclair]], footballer *[[Jordan Smith (Costa Rican footballer)|Jordan Smith]], footballer *[[Richard Smith (Costa Rican footballer)|Richard Smith]], footballer *[[Roy Smith (footballer, born 1990)|Roy Smith]], footballer *[[William Sunsing]], footballer *[[Carlos Toppings]], footballer *[[Harold Wallace]], footballer *[[Rodney Wallace (footballer)|Rodney Wallace]], footballer *[[Javier Wanchope]], footballer *[[Paulo Wanchope]], footballer *[[Vicente Wanchope]], footballer *[[Kendall Waston]], footballer *[[Carlos Watson (footballer)|Carlos Watson]], footballer *[[Jorge White]], footballer *[[Roan Wilson]], footballer *[[Whayne Wilson]], footballer *[[Johnny Woodly]], footballer *[[Berny Wright]], footballer *[[Mauricio Wright]], footballer

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Afro-Costa Ricans}} [[Category:African diaspora in Costa Rica| ]] [[Category:People of African descent|Costa Rican]] [[Category:Ethnic groups in Costa Rica]] [[Category:Jamaican diaspora]]