# Africans in Australia - constructing Black identities, negotiating whiteness  
The complexities of black identity construction in Australia can also be illustrated with reference to the growing and diverse number of African communities. African people had come to Australia prior to the 1900s. In recent times, Africans have arrived in different waves. Communities from South Africa started to arrive before the 1970s, made up mostly of white South Africans. In the 1990s, people came from countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia and Sudan, and different groups started arriving in the 2000s (Jakubowicz, 2010). While there is now a growing and very diverse African population in Australia, Jakubowicz (ibid., p. 21) noted that 'Australia's approach to immigration, including its relationship with Africa, was long informed by viewing the issue through the lens of race, accepting 'whites' and rejecting "blacks". Importantly, during the White Australia period, different immigrant groups, including people from Southern Europe (such as Italians and Maltese) - people who did not speak English and were not British - were also racialized and 'othered' (Hollinsworth, 2006).  
Some recent studies have examined the settlement experiences of people from different African background communities, bringing into focus how racism and racialization often impacts identity and belonging in Australia