Katie Meola, Sept. 15, 2012
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This post presents an excerpt from the Wikipedia page about Afro-Bolivians and a reprint of an online article about Afro-Bolivian history and culture. That post also showcases three videos about Afro-Bolivians.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/01/information-four-videos-of-afro.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post presents information about and four videos of the Afro-Bolivian Saya music and dance.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/01/online-comments-about-saya-caporales.html for Part III of this series. That post presents selected comments about the Afro-Bolivian Saya music and dance, and about Caporal and other Bolivian folk dances.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/01/excerpt-from-1998-book-about-history-of.html for Part IV of this series. That post presents an excerpt of a 1998 book about the history of Afro-Bolivian Saya and the history of Bolivian Caporal.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/01/blackface-in-bolivian-tundiki-and.html for Part V of this pancocojams series. That post showcases a video and presents excerpts and comments about blackface and blackfishing in Bolivian Tunkiki and Caporal dances.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
UN Human Rights, July 12, 2011
Bolivians of African descent still find themselves living on the sidelines of society. The United Nations has designated 2011 as the International Year of People of African Descent. The year aims at strengthening the integration of people of African descent into all aspects of society. Learn more at http://ohchr.org/
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #3
Afrobolivianos - Pueblos Originarios - Tocaña, Bolivia
Chisperos del Sur, March 17, 2017
PUEBLOS ORIGINARIOS 2008 - Documental - Telesur Serie 13 capítulos. Chisperos del Sur hace un acercamiento a los pueblos originarios de nuestra américa. Cómo viven nuestros originarios HOY. Conoceremos así pueblos Originarios del Brasil, Paraguay, Perú, Argentina, Méjico, Nicaragua y Bolivia -snip-
Here's a comment from this video's discussion thread:
Los Afro Bolivianos son los que crearon la saya y por tanto el baile caporal boliviano. Ellos se merecen el reconocimiento de eso y de todo su duro trabajo y lealtad a Bolivia Ahora que Bolivia esta mejor, amigos Bolivianos acuerdense de estas comunidades que nunca pidieron nada, que dieron mucho, y que los necesitan. Acuerdense de estos otros compatriotas suyos. Ha medida que el pueblo aymara mejora, es tiempo que tambien se ayude a los Afro Bolivianos y que se tenga su representacion de alguna manera en el gobierno Boliviano. Adelante Afro Bolivianos, adelante Bolivia!
-snip-
Google translate from Spanish to English:
"The Afro-Bolivians are the ones who created the saya and therefore the Bolivian caporal dance. They deserve recognition for that and for all their hard work and loyalty to Bolivia. Now that Bolivia is better, Bolivian friends, remember these communities that never asked for anything, that gave a lot, and that need you. Remember these other compatriots of yours. As the Aymara people improve, it is time that Afro-Bolivians are also helped and that they have their representation in some way in the Bolivian government. Forward Afro-Bolivians, forward Bolivia!"
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ARTICLE EXCERPT
"Afro-Bolivians
ETHNONYMS: Morenos, Mulatos, Negritos (pejorative), Negros, Zambos
Orientation
Identification. Afro-Bolivians typically refer to themselves as "Negros" (Blacks). Black intellectuals introduced the term "Afro-Boliviano" in the last quarter of the twentieth century, and by the early 1990s the term has found its way into usage among Black urban migrants living in La Paz and more generally among Bolivia's intelligentsia. "Negrito" (Little Black) and "Moreno" (Brown) are the terms most commonly used by Bolivians when referring to Blacks; however, Blacks find the diminutive offensive. Afro-Bolivians use the term "Mulato" to refer to a Black of a lighter skin color. "Mulato" in its more common usage in Bolivia refers to the the offspring of Whites or Hispanics and Black people. "Zambo" refers to someone of mixed Indian and Black parentage; it is mainly used derogatorily.
Location. There are Afro-Bolivian communities throughout Bolivia, especially in the semitropical climates of the departments of La Paz, Santa Cruz, Beni, and Cochabamba. The largest concentrations of Blacks are found in the lowland provinces of Nor Yungas and Sud Yungas in the department of La Paz. Several communities of Black agriculturists are located in each of these provinces, such as Chicaloma and Chulumani in Sud Yungas and Mururata and Tocaña in Nor Yungas. The Bolivian Yungas are characterized by heavy rainfall and a mean temperature of 23°C.
Besides rural agricultural communities, there are migrant communities of Afro-Bolivians in all major Bolivian cities. In La Paz, Afro-Bolivians live mainly on the outskirts of town, especially in the rapidly growing areas of El Alto and Villa Fatima. Because of inconsistent migration patterns, there are no well-defined Afro-Bolivian neighborhoods in La Paz. As migrants from rural villages arrive in La Paz, they settle in the poorest neighborhoods. Participation in social activities, music ensembles being the most important example, is central to Afro-Bolivians' establishment of a subjective sense of community. These groups are based on common origin, for example the province of Nor Yungas. They chose a central location within the city to meet, thus keeping transportation costs and accessibility approximately equal for all members.
Demography. Estimates of the population of Afro-Bolivians range as low as 6,000 to as high as 158,000, or 2 percent of Bolivia's population. These estimates vary widely because census figures for Bolivia do not include racial differentiations.
Linguistic Affiliation. Afro-Bolivians throughout Bolivia speak mostly Spanish. The Spanish spoken by rural Black agriculturists is a dialect, and Afro-Bolivians maintain a small vocabulary of words of African origin. In the province of Sud Yungas and, to a lesser extent, in Nor Yungas, Blacks also speak the Aymara language.
History and Cultural Relations
The history of Blacks in Bolivia dates from colonial-era Peru, when Africans were imported as slaves to labor in the silver mines of the Peruvian viceroyalty. By the turn of the seventeenth century hundreds of thousands of Africans had been imported into Spanish America (Bowser 1974, 37), and by 1611 some 6,000 Black and Mulato slaves worked the upper Peruvian mines of Potosí (Klein 1986, 32). Africans were also imported as slave labor to work coca-leaf plantations in the semitropical provinces of Nor Yungas and Sud Yungas (M. Léons 1978). Emancipation was legislated in Bolivia's constitution of 19 December 1827; political debates delayed its enforcement until 1851."...
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COMPLETE REPRINT OF A 2018 ONLINE ARTICLE ABOUT AFRO- BRAZILIANS
From https://minorityrights.org/minorities/afro-bolivians/
"Profile
Most of the 23,300 Afro-Bolivians live in the Yungas region of the Department of La Paz, where they are employed on farms, cultivating the coca-leaf, coffee or citrus fruits. Many Afro-Bolivians are bilingual in Aymara and Spanish and their religion shares the Roman Catholic Andean syncretism. They are usually distinguished from ‘whites’ and mestizos in economic rather than racial terms, and the majority tend to think of themselves as Bolivian rather than African.
‘Afro-Bolivian’ was adopted as a self-description with the emergence of a black consciousness movement in the early 1990s; but the movement has faced organizational problems as well as a split between the interests of urban intellectuals and rural peasant farmers.
Historical context
Bolivia’s Afro-Latin population is descended from slaves who were brought to work in the silver mines in Potosí in the early 1500s. Many died due to maltreatment and inhumane conditions. They were also unaccustomed to the high altitude and cold temperatures. When mining declined they migrated to the Yungas, where they were exploited as slaves on the large haciendas. The agrarian reform of 1953 ended this form of slavery. Since the 1980s a large number of Afro-Bolivians have migrated from the Yungas to the cities of La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba.
Over time many Afro-Bolivians adopted Aymara language and culture, and the Afro-Bolivian Spanish dialect, and their music and dance, became less distinctive. However, this trend was reversed in the late twentieth century with the revival of the saya dance, as part of a black consciousness movement. The Movimiento Cultural Negro was formed in 1994; literature on the country also makes reference to a Casa Afro-Boliviana in Santa Cruz and a Centre for Afro-Bolivian Development in La Paz. The most well-known group, however, is the Movimiento Saya Afro Boliviano, which aims to recuperate, strengthen and promote the values and cultural identity of Afro-Bolivians.
Due to improving access to education since the revolution of 1952, some Afro-Bolivians have been successful in areas such as medicine, law and teaching, but most are extremely poor farmers. They have shared the same problems as other rural workers: environmental deterioration, low prices for agricultural produce and US-sponsored demands for coca eradication. In contrast to Bolivia’s indigenous peoples, the census of 2001 failed to recognize Afro-Bolivians, although the passing of Law 200 entailed that future censuses had to include Afro-Bolivians as a distinct ethnic/cultural group. The 2012 census was the first to do so.
Current issues
The Afro-Bolivian community did not figure in Bolivia’s previous Constitution and many community members complained that the government failed to recognize and appreciate the contribution of black people to Bolivian society. This was reflected in their exclusion from Bolivia’s official census for more than a century, despite the repeated demands of Afro-Bolivians to be included. In addition, Afro-Bolivians have long faced severe disadvantages in health, life expectancy, education, income, literacy and employment. Rural areas are still lacking in many basic services such as running water, electricity, drains and roads.
However, the election of Evo Morales in 2005 was welcomed by many Afro-Bolivians: he vowed to improve the living standards of Bolivia’s socially excluded, indeed, to end their exclusion, and since his election he has stopped the US sponsored coca-eradication campaigns (affecting many Afro-Bolivian coca-growers in the Yungas). While there were some initial complaints about the lack of Afro-Bolivian candidates included in Morales’ new Constituent Assembly, however, since then the government has taken a number of steps, including recognizing and naming Afro-Bolivians as a specific minority ethnic group in the 2009 Constitution, including the provision that‘the Afro-Bolivian people enjoy, in everything corresponding, the economic, social, political and cultural rights that are recognized in the Constitution for the nations and the rural native indigenous peoples.’ Afro-Bolivians were also included in the 2012 census as a distinct category, allowing for a more accurate assessment of their population as well as providing further formal recognition of their place in Bolivian society.
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