WHY DO DOMINICANS DENY THEIR AFRICAN ROOTS?

Why do so many Dominicans deny their African roots? Over 90 per cent of Dominicans have African ancestry, according to various sources, including Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and Americas Quarterly.

Yet, for generations, national identity has been shaped by a Eurocentric lens inherited through Spanish colonialism. Unlike its neighbour, Haiti, which embraced its African heritage after independence, the Dominican Republic distanced itself.

Is the conversation changing now with the younger generations? Let us know in the comments.

Sources

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america

https://minorityrights.org/country/dominican-republic

https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/my-struggles-as-a-black-american-in-the-dominican-republic/

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIHan1LxAys/?igsh=X1p0dlhoTk9N

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/227/monograph/book/17842

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/1/18/dominican-republic-justifying-the-unjustifiable#:~:text=Deeply%20needed%20to%20the%20 antagonistic,off%20an%20imagined%20Haitian%20invasion.

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/138601410

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIHan1LxAys/?igsh=X1p0dlhoTk9N