Afro-Romanians are citizens or residents of

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

who are of African descent. Afro-Romanian populations are mostly concentrated in major cities of Romania. Africans have been immigrating to Romania since the

Communist Era A Communist Era is a sustained period of national government by a single party following the philosophy of Marxism–Leninism. Many countries have experienced such a period of Communist rule. Current communist states China The Chinese Communist ...

. The majority of African-Romanians are of mixed ancestry, usually being the children of a Romanian parent and an African student who came to Romania.

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He ...

had a plan to educate the African elites. Most Africans who studied in Romania during the Ceaușescu era came from Sub-Saharan African countries such as

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

DRC The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

, and other states, primarily from

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali ...

and

Equatorial Africa Equatorial Africa is an ambiguous term that sometimes is used to refer either to the equatorial region of Sub-Saharan Africa traversed by the Equator, more broadly to tropical Africa or in a biological and geo-environmental sense to the intra- ...

, with which Ceaușescu developed close relations, as well as from

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

(see Arabs in Romania). Since the early 60s, young people from around the world came to study in the

Socialist Republic of Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian Peop ...

. The communist state leadership wanted to link mutual friendship with different countries. After the fall of the communism, the numbers of Afro-Romanians increased. Currently, in Romania, most Africans are students, refugees, guest workers or children from mixed-families of a Romanian parent and an African student or worker who came to Romania.

Areas

In Bucharest, although Afro-Romanians live in all parts of the city, most of them are concentrated in the Giurgiului and Baicului areas.

Notable individuals

Fashion designers

* Joseph Seroussi

Modelling

* Agnès Matoko

Music

* Kamara Ghedi * Veronika Tecaru * Julie Mayaya * Tobi Ibitoye

Politicians

* Gaston Bienvenu Mboumba Bakabana

Sports

Nana Falemi Ngassam Nana Falemi (born 5 May 1974) is a former footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Born and raised in Romania to a Cameroonian father and a Romanian mother, he capped for the Cameroon national team. International career Nana F ...

- Footballer * Jean-Claude Bozga - Footballer * Calvin Tolmbaye - Footballer * Baudoin Kanda - Footballer * Yasin Hamed - Footballer *

Karim Adeyemi Karim-David Adeyemi (born 18 January 2002) is a German professional footballer who plays as a winger, striker or attacking-midfielder for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund and the Germany national team. Club career Red Bull Salzburg Adeye ...

- Footballer * Benjamin Adegbuyi - Kickboxer * Stephen Hihetah - Rugby player *

Giordan Watson Giordan Watson (born 24 October 1985) is an American-Romanian professional basketball player for Cluj of the Romanian Liga Națională. Standing at 178 cm (5 ft 10 in), Watson primarily plays as point guard. A naturalized Romanian, he a ...

- Basketball player * Uchechukwu Iheadindu - Basketball player * Annemarie Părău - Basketball player * Chike Onyejekwe - Handball player * Nneka Onyejekwe - Volleyball player

Television

Cabral Ibacka Cabral Neculai Ibacka Zabana (), popularly known as just Cabral (born 4 October 1977) is a Romanian television personality, actor, philanthropist, Tae Bo coach, and 1994 European vice-champion at kick-boxing. Career Born in Bucharest, Cabral start ...

* Laura Nureldin * Nadine Voindrouh *

Désirée Malonga Désirée Parfait Malonga (born September 26, 1981) is a Romanian actress and model. Malonga is best known in Romania for playing Désirée McLoud on the hit Prima TV Prima TV () is a Romanian commercial TV channel, famous mainly for the '' ...

Florina Fernandes Florina Fernandes, nicknamed Fefe, is a retired Romanian television presenter, news anchor and actress. She is of African descent through her father. Fernandes was the first exotic appearance in the country show business, at least after the Romani ...

References

{{Portal bar, Romania, Africa African diaspora in Europe Ethnic groups in Romania

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...