Keller II, Raymond Andrew

Dr. Raymond Andrew Keller II holds a Ph.D. from West Virginia University in History, where he currently teaches.

Emergence of the Afro- Zulians in the Trans- Atlantic World (1722-1811)

2012 0-7734-3072-5
This book addresses the history of a small community of the African Diaspora mostly overlooked: the Afro-Zulians as the descendants of the first blacks brought over to the Sur del Lago Maracaibo region in Venezuela by the Basque-French slave trader Jean de Chourio in 1722. Despite attempts by Creole elites to strip away their African identity, it shows that they remained true to their African roots precisely because of the geographical remoteness of their settlements. The author links them to the Imbangala peoples of pre-colonial Angola, but shows how they adapted to a greater multicultural Venezuelan historical and social context through acculturation.