BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Mulatto
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Mulatto is a term used to refer to a person who is born from one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of any proportion of noticeable European and African ancestry. In the broadest sense, it is applied to persons of Black and White ancestry.[1] Contemporary usage of the term is generally confined to situations in which the term is considered relevant in a historical context, as now most people of mixed white and black ancestry rarely choose to self-identify as mulatto.[2]
The term is generally considered archaic by some and inadvertently derogatory, especially in the African-American community. Accepted modern terms in the United States include "mixed" and "biracial." The term is widely used in Latin America and Caribbean usually without suggesting any insult. In Latin America, many mulattos tend to be the result of generational "race-mixing" between white Europeans and black Africans since the slavery period. This is especially true in countries like the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Cape Verde, which are also among the countries with the highest proportions of mulattos. In most other countries around the world, the United States in particular, mixed European and African ancestry in mulattos tends in the majority of cases to be of more recent origin.
Historically in the American South, the term mulatto was applied also at times to persons with an admixture of Native Americans, and African Americans in general.[3] For example, the Henings Statutes of Virginia 1705, reads as follows:
"And for clearing all manner of doubts which hereafter may happen to arise upon the construction of this act, or any other act, who shall be accounted a mulatto, Be it enacted and declared, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That the child of an Indigenous and the child, grand child, or great grand child, of a negro shall be deemed, accounted, held and taken to be a mulatto."[4]
In colonial Latin America, mulato could also mean an individual of mixed African and Native American ancestry.[5] However, today those who have indigenous and black African ancestry in Latin America are more frequently called Zambos in Spanish or Cafuzu in Portuguese. In the United States, persons who are mixtures of African American and Native American have been historically called blacks, or black Indians; in other cases they have been classified solely or identify as African American.[3] Federally recognized Indian tribes have insisted that membership is related more to culture than race, and many have had mixed-race members who are fully members of the tribes as their primary identification.
In early American history, the term mulatto was also used to refer to persons of Native American and European ancestry. Certain tribes of Indians of the Inocoplo family in North Florida referred to themselves as "mulatto" as well.[6][7]
Etymology
The etymology of the term may derive from the Spanish and Portuguese word mulato, which is itself derived from mula (from old Galician-Portuguese, from Latin mūlus), meaning mule, the hybrid offspring of a horse and a donkey.[8][9][10] Some dictionaries and scholarly works trace the word's origins to the Arabic term muwallad, which means "a person of mixed ancestry".[11]
Muwallad literally means "born, begotten, produced, generated; brought up", with the implication of being born and raised among Arabs, but not of Arab blood. Muwallad is derived from the root word WaLaD (Arabic: ولد direct Arabic transliteration: waw, lam, dal), and colloquial Arabic pronunciation can vary greatly. Walad means, "descendant, offspring, scion; child; son; boy; young animal, young one".
In al-Andalus, Muwallad referred to the offspring of non-Arab/Muslim people who adopted the Islamic religion and manners. It specifically used to refer to the descendants of indigenous Christian Iberians who after several generations of living amongst a Muslim majority adopted their culture and religion. Notable examples of this category include the famous Muslim scholar Ibn Hazm. According to Lisan al-Arab, one of the earliest Arab dictionaries (c. 13th century AD), the term was originally applied to the children of Non-Muslim (often Christian) slaves or Non-Muslim children who were captured in a war and were raised by Muslims to follow their religion and culture. Thus, in this context, the term "Muwalad" has a meaning close to "the adopted". According to the same source, the term does not denote being of mixed race but rather being of foreign-blood and local culture.
According to Julio Izquierdo Labrado,[12] the 19th-century linguist Leopoldo Eguilaz y Yanguas, as well as some Arabian sources[13]muwallad is the etymological origin of mulato. These sources specify that mulato would have been derived directly from muwallad independently of the related word muladí, a term that was applied to Iberian Christians who had converted to Islam during the Moorish governance of Iberia in the Middle Ages.
However, the Real Academia Española (Spanish Royal Academy) casts doubt on the muwallad theory. It states, "The term mulata is documented in our diachronic data bank in 1472 and is used in reference to livestock mules in Documentacion medieval de la Corte de Justicia de Ganaderos de Zaragoza, whereas muladí (from mullawadí) does not appear until the 18th century, according to [Joan] Corominas".[nb 1]
Other scholars such as Werner Sollors cast doubt on the mule etymology for mulatto. In the 18th and 19th centuries, racialists such as Edward Long and Josiah Nott began to assert that mulattoes were sterile like mules. And they projected this belief back onto the etymology of the word mulatto. Sollers points out that this etymology is anachronistic: "The Mulatto sterility hypothesis that has much to do with the rejection of the term by some writers is only half as old as the word 'Mulatto.'"[15]
Africa
In Portuguese-speaking Africa, the term mestiço is used officially to describe people of mixed European and African ancestry.
Of São Tomé and Príncipe's 193,413 inhabitants, the largest segment is defined as mestiço[16] and 71% of the population of Cape Verde is also classified as such.[17] The great majority of their current populations descend from the mixing of the Portuguese that initially settled the islands from the 15th century onwards and the black Africans brought from the African mainland to work as slaves.
In Angola and Mozambique, the mestiço constitute smaller but still important minorities; 2% in Angola[18] and 0.2% in Mozambique.[19]
In Namibia, a current-day population of between 20,000 and 30,000 people, known as Rehoboth Basters, descend from liaisons between the Cape Colony Dutch and indigenous African women. The name Baster is derived from the Dutch word for "bastard" (or "crossbreed"). While some people consider this term demeaning, the Basters proudly use the term as an indication of their history.
In South Africa, the term Coloured (also known as Bruinmense, Kleurlinge or Bruin Afrikaners in Afrikaans) used to refer to individuals who possess some degree of sub-Saharan ancestry, but not enough to be considered black under the law of South Africa. In addition to European ancestry, they may also possess ancestry from India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Chinaand/or Saint Helena. There was extensive combining of these diverse heritages in the Western Cape, but in other parts of southern Africa, the coloured usually were descendants of two distinct ethnic groups - primarily Africans of various tribes and European colonists.
Thus, in KwaZulu-Natal, most Coloureds were descended from British and Zulu heritage, while Zimbabwean coloureds were descended from Shona or Ndebele mixing with British and Afrikaner settlers. Griqua, on the other hand, are descendants of Khoisan and Afrikaner trekboers. Despite these major differences, in the South African context, they were historically considered "coloured," as descended from more than one "naturalised" racial group. Such persons may not use the term, and individually identify as "black" or "Khoisan" or just "South African". The Coloureds comprise 8.8% (about 4.4 million people) of South Africa's population.[citation needed]
In Mauritius, Réunion and the Seychelles, there are numerous mixed-race people. In Mauritius, they are called creoles, and in Réunion they are called 'cafres.[citation needed]
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