The Pan-African colours are: green, gold (not yellow, despite its appearance), and red (inspired by the flag of Ethiopia).

Red, black, and green are the colours of Black Nationalism, which should not be taken for a symbol of Pan-Africanism. It is often confused as such, given the political tendency’s support of Black self-determination.

Toussaint Louverture
Posthumous painting of Toussaint Louverture
President of Haiti
In office 7 July 1801 – 6 May 1802
Appointed by	Constitution of 1801
Preceded by	Inaugural holder
Succeeded by	Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Republic of Haiti)
Governor-General of Saint-Domingue
In office 1797–1801
Appointed by	Étienne Maynaud
Preceded by	Inaugural holder
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Personal details
Born	Toussaint Bréda 20 May 1743 Saint-Domingue (now Haiti)
Died	7 April 1803(1803-04-07) (aged 59) Fort-de-Joux, France
Nickname(s)	Napoléon Noir Black Spartacus
Military career
Allegiance	France   Haiti
Service/branch	French Army French Revolutionary Army Armée Indigène
Rank	General
Battles/wars	Haitian Revolution

François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (French: [fʁɑ̃swa dɔminik tusɛ̃ luvɛʁtyʁ] 9 May 1743 – 7 April 1803), also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda, was the best-known leader of the Haitian Revolution. He was a leader of the growing resistance. His military and political acumen saved the gains of the first Black insurrection in November 1791. He first fought for the Spanish against the French; then for France against Spain and Great Britain; and finally, for Saint-Domingue against Napoleonic France. He then helped transform the insurgency into a revolutionary movement, which by 1800 had turned Saint-Domingue, the most prosperous slave colony of the time, into the first free colonial society to have explicitly rejected race as the basis of social ranking.

Though Louverture did not sever ties with France, his actions in 1800 constituted a de facto autonomous colony. The colony's constitution proclaimed him governor for life even against Napoleon Bonaparte's wishes. He died betrayed before the final and most violent stage of the armed conflict. However, his achievements set the grounds for the Black army's absolute victory and for Jean-Jacques Dessalines to declare the sovereign state of Haiti in January 1804. Louverture's prominent role in the Haitian success over colonialism and slavery had earned him the admiration of friends and detractors alike.

The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage, and existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the transatlantic slave trade were people from central and western Africa, who had been sold by other West Africans to Western European slave traders (with a small number being captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids), who brought them to the Americas. The South Atlantic and Caribbean economies especially were dependent on the supply of secure labour for the production of commodity crops, making goods and clothing to sell in Europe. This was crucial to those western European countries which, in the late 17th and 18th centuries, were vying with each other to create overseas empires.

The Portuguese were the first to engage in the Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century. In 1526, they completed the first transatlantic slave voyage to Brazil, and other European countries soon followed. Shipowners regarded the slaves as cargo to be transported to the Americas as quickly and cheaply as possible, there to be sold to work on coffee, tobacco, cocoa, sugar and cotton plantations, gold and silver mines, rice fields, construction industry, cutting timber for ships, in skilled labour, and as domestic servants. The first Africans imported to the English colonies were classified as " indentured servants", like workers coming from England, and also as "apprentices for life". By the middle of the 17th century, slavery had hardened as a racial caste, with the slaves and their offspring being legally the property of their owners, and children born to slave mothers were also slaves. As property, the people were considered merchandise or units of labour, and were sold at markets with other goods and services.

The term Caribbean culture summarises the artistic, musical, literary, culinary, political and social elements that are representative of the Caribbean people all over the world. The Caribbean's culture has historically been influenced by that of African and Amerindian traditions. It has also been strongly influenced by that of its linguistic, economic, and cultural neighbor, the United States.

As a collection of settler nations, the contemporary Caribbean has been shaped by waves of migration that have combined to form a unique blend of customs, cuisine, and traditions that have marked the socio-cultural development of the area.