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Beyoncé is one of the most popular stars of this generation, and she has embraced her identity as a black woman and celebrated it over the years. However, 'black' is an all-encompassing term and is used for a wide spectrum of races and ethnicities that are often ignored in the common jargon.
Beyoncé Knowles is originally a Creole, with a part of her ancestry being from Louisiana. The name, Beyoncé, is a derivation of her mother's family name Beyincé.
Before the American Civil War in the 1860s, members of the Beyincé family tree, born in Louisiana, used to live in Abbeville, Iberia, Saint James, and Vermilion parishes. In the twentieth century, Beyoncé's ancestors migrated to Texas with thousands of other Creoles.
Beyoncé's Louisiana roots come from her mother's side of the family. Both her maternal grandparents hail from Louisiana. Tina Knowles' parents, i.e., Agnez Dereon and Lumas Beyincé were from New Iberia and Abbeville, respectively, and belonged to the French Creole group. Their ancestry was a concoction of various cultures including Indian, Spanish, Native American, African, and French.
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The 32-time Grammy winner has flaunted her Louisiana-based Creole heritage many times in her works. Most notably, her song Creole from the 2006 studio album B'Day talks about the Louisiana heritage of Queen Bey and celebrates the diversity.
Who are Creoles? Deep-diving into Beyoncé's ethnic roots
Most people consider Beyoncé as an African-American woman and overlook her Louisiana-based Creolic ancestry. This is because Creole isn't a race, unlike the common perception. The term instead describes the cultural roots of an individual.
Historically, the term Creole has meant a blend of multiple cultural groups. Creoles generally comprise people of a mixture of French, Caribbean, and African origins. They have their own native language, delicacies, and cultural norms.
In the United States, the largest population of the Creoles resides in Louisiana. They share a mixture of French and Spanish origins and settled down in Louisiana for the first time between the 17th and 18th centuries.
Beyoncé gets her Creole heritage from her mother, Tina Knowles. The 70-year-old is a French Creole, with both her parents hailing from Louisiana and having a blend of Native American, African, Spanish, and French roots.
Even Tina Knowles' maternal ancestry is linked to someone who has a significant contribution to the history of the Creoles. Tina Knowles' maternal grandparents were Eugene DeRouen and Odilia Broussard and the family line extends backward to connect Beyoncé with Joseph Broussard.
He is extremely significant to Lousiana Creoles, as one of the prime men to have fought against the British in Canada as the leader of the Acadians. He led the Creoles to southern Louisiana and formed the Cajun lifestyle in 1765.
Beyoncé is proud of her Creole roots and has flaunted it in many musical numbers
Queen Bey is proud of her Creole roots and has flaunted them several times in the past. The 42-year-old has even signed endorsements and contracts that focussed on her rich ethnic heritage.
Queen Bey and her mom founded a fashion line in 2004 called House of Dereon, which was named after Tina Knowles' Creole mother Agnez. The brand focuses on making stylish yet affordable attires. The Cowboy Carter singer is also known for her endorsements with beauty juggernauts like L'Oreal.
As an ambassador for the brand, Beyoncé has always maintained that her unique skin tone is the result of the rich concoction of ethnicities that came from her ancestors.
Finally, the Renaissance singer has released two significant musical numbers that flaunt her Louisiana roots. In 2006, she released Creole as a part of her album B'Day. In the song, she explains that her Creole link is the product of the intermingling of several ethnicities.
"So all my red bones get on the floor/And all my yellow bones get on the floor/And all my brown bones get on the floor/Then you mix it up and you call it Creole." sings the Grammy winner.
Finally, she expresses her pride over being a Creole and raves about her Louisiana heritage.
"Baby, I see you, that look in your eyes/Hips that keep shaking, mysterious style/Exotically tempting, familiar to me/That Creole s*xy, it's all over me."
Besides being a quintessentially African-American woman, Queen Bey is also the product of her rich Creole heritage. The pop icon is proud of her heritage and her fans should recognize the richness of her family's roots and their significance in shaping her career.
