Better known for its Spanish influences and carnival atmosphere, Latin America has a dark past as the final destination for more than 95 per cent of African slaves shipped to the New World.

More than 10.5 million slaves ended up in the plantations of Central and South America and the Caribbean, and in some countries today up to 70 per cent of the population is of African extraction. Over the years these millions of workers have become integrated into societies that now combine various European and African influences into a colourfully homogenised whole.

In this four-part series, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr tours the region, finding people marked by African roots behind a shared legacy of colonialism and slavery. He considers whether they have lost their identity and why their contribution is often overlooked. The series starts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before moving on to Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and Peru.