ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concerns ‘Black Britain’, a term used to refer to African and Caribbean immigrants to the United Kingdom and their descendants. It provides lesson plans Négritude, Josephine Baker, Afro-Spaniards and the Moorish occupation of Spain, Afro-Surinamese people in the Netherlands and Black presence in France. The book builds upon the lesson plans of the ‘Africa’ part to further highlight the interconnectedness of diaspora cultures in influencing the musical, visual and religious practices of the Caribbean and Central America. It begins by addressing the incorrect assumption that the history of Black people in the Americas begins and ends with plantation slavery in what is now the United States. This assumption persists in spite of the reality that South America contains the world’s largest population of people of African descent outside of Africa.
