| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Primarily urban centers in South Holland, North Holland, Flevoland and Utrecht | |
| Languages | |
| Primarily Dutch, Papiamentu, Sranan Tongo, English, Creole Languages | |
| Religion | |
| Majority Christianity, minorities Islam, Irreligion and Traditional African religions |
Afro-Dutch or Black Dutch people are Dutch people who are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry. The majority of Afro-Dutch in the Netherlands are Afro-Caribbean and hail from the former and present Dutch overseas territories Suriname and the former Netherlands Antilles (mostly from Curaçao, Aruba and St Maarten). Of the approximately 500,000 Afro-Dutch people, about 300,000 people, or 60%, are from these territories. Whilst only a minority of Black Dutch citizens are of Sub-Saharan African migrant background, there is a sizable population of Cape Verdean, Ghanaian, Nigerian, Somali, Angolan and other African communities of more recent immigrants. The majority of Afro-Dutch people migrated to the Netherlands from the 1970s onwards, most of the recent migrants arriving either as political refugees seeking freedom or, more often, to escape regional conflicts, such as from Eritrea.
There is also the Afro-Dutch Sephardic Diaspora of Barbados, who were historically part of the Dutch West India Company's infrastructure whose members travelled to and from The Netherlands and its Colonial Territories.
June 1943
.jpg)
,_Somali_supermarket.jpg)
The earliest documented arrival of a Black person in the Netherlands occurred in November 1596. A group of approximately 100 Black men, women and children from Angola arrived at the port city of Middelburg in the province of Zeeland, brought by Dutch expeditions returning from overseas. Upon their arrival, local authorities declared them free, citing that there was no slavery in Zeeland and that the individuals were baptized Christians. For the context of individual arrivals, records suggest isolated visits by Black African servants and noblemen, such as those depicted in European portraiture, occurred in the broader Low Countries as early as the 1520s.
.svg){kind=small}
