Czech in effect, Jun 26, 2024
The Black side of Colombia
Welcome to "The Black side of Colombia".Despite
the warnings signs about it being dangerous City .I wanted to highlight the
presence of Afro Colombians people in Quibdó Chocò.This town is 95% Afro
Colombians the majority are Melanated ,Brown skin people like myself .
Throughout my time here I felt more at home than any other City in
Colombia.This Afro Community Welcomed me with open arms.from warm greetings and
helpful directions-join me as I share my story discovering the beauty in the
Black side of Colombia Quibdo and its people -
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases two YouTube videos of Black people in Colombia, South America.
This post also presents excerpts from the Wikipedia page about Afro-Colombians.
The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, and educational purposes.
Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos and thanks to the producers and publishers of these videos. Thanks also to all those who ae quoted in this post.
Click the tags below for other pancocojams posts about Colombia.
-snip-
I was motivated to research this subject and publish this pancocojams post because of news about Colombia's President responses to the United States about its mistreatment of undocumented immigrants being returned to Colombia in shackles on board US military airplanes Click https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/01/26/gustavo-petro-responds-to-trump-overthrow-methe-americas-and-humanity-will-respond/ for an article about that subject.
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SHOWCASE VIDEO #2
ACE, Oct 4, 2023 #Colombia #Choco
Choco The Black Side Of Colombia. In this video, I visit
Quibdo Choco an all-black city in Colombia to learn about the culture and
history of the people that inhabit its land.
#Colombia #Choco
-snip-
Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Q8_Ggoobs for Part 2 of this YouTube video.
EXCERPT FROM THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE ABOUT AFRO-COLOMBIANS
From
"Afro-Colombians (Spanish: Afrocolombianos), also known as
Black Colombians (Spanish: Colombianos Negros), are Colombians who have
predominantly or total Sub-Saharan African ancestry.
[…]
History
Africans were enslaved in the early 16th century in
Colombia. They were from various places across the continent, including:[7]
modern-day Congo Republic, DR Congo, Angola, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gambia,
Liberia, Guinea, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Mali
and parts of Togo, Benin, Namibia and Zimbabwe.[8] They were forcibly taken to
Colombia to replace the Indigenous population, which was rapidly decreasing due
to extermination genocide campaigns, disease and forced labor.
Enslaved African people were forced to work in gold mines, on sugarcane plantations, cattle ranches, and large haciendas. African slaves pioneered the extraction of alluvial gold deposits and the growing of sugar cane in the areas that are known in modern times as the departments of Chocó, Antioquia, Cauca, Valle del Cauca, and Nariño in western Colombia.[citation needed]
In eastern Colombia, near the cities of Vélez, Cúcuta, Socorro and Tunja, Africans manufactured textiles in commercial mills. Emerald mines outside of Bogotá relied on African labourers. Other sectors of the Colombian economy, like tobacco, cotton, artisanship and domestic work would have been impossible without African labor. In pre-abolition Colombian society, many Afro-Colombian captives fought the Spanish, their colonial forces and their freedom as soon as they arrived in Colombia. Those who escaped from their oppressors would live in free Black African towns called Palenques, where they would live as "Cimarrones", or fugitives. Some historians considered Chocó to be a very big palenque, with a large population of Cimarrones, especially in the areas of the Baudó River. This is where Cimarrón leaders like Benkos Biohó and Barule fought for freedom.[citation needed]
African people played key roles in the struggle for independence from the Spanish Crown. Historians note that three of every five soldiers in Simón Bolívar's army were African.[better source needed][10] Afro-Colombians were able to participate at all levels of military and political life.
After the revolution, (modern day Colombia and Venezuela) created "The Law of July 21 on Free Womb, Manumission, and Abolition of the Slave trade" in the Cúcuta Congress.[11] This led to the creation of a Free Womb trade that existed until emancipation in 1852.
In 1851, after the abolition of slavery, the plight of Afro-Colombians was very difficult. They were forced to live in the jungles for self-protection. There they learned to have a harmonious relationship with the jungle environment and share the territory with Colombia's indigenous people.[citation needed]
Beginning in 1851, the Colombian State promoted mestizaje or miscegenation. In order to maintain their cultural traditions, many Africans and indigenous peoples went deep into isolated jungles. Afro-Colombians and indigenous people were often targeted by armed groups who wanted to displace them in order to take their land for sugar cane plantations, coffee and banana plantations, mining and wood exploitation. This form of discrimination still occurs today.[12]
In 1945, the department of Chocó was created, the first predominantly African political-administrative division in the country. Chocó provided the possibility of building an African territorial identity and some autonomous decision-making power.[13]
In the 1970s, there was a major influx of Afro-Colombians into urban areas in search of greater economic and social opportunities for their children. This led to an increase in the number of urban poor in the marginal areas of big cities like Cali, Medellín, and Bogotá. Most Afro-Colombians are currently living in urban areas. Only around 25%, or 1.2 million people, are based in rural areas, compared to 75%, or 3.7 million people, in urban zones. The 1991 Colombian Constitution gave them the right to collective ownership of traditional Pacific coastal lands and special cultural development protections. Critics argue that this important legal instrument is not enough to address their social and developmental needs completely.[15]
Afro-Colombians are concentrated on the northwest Caribbean coast and the Pacific coast in such departments as Chocó, whose capital, Quibdó, is 95.3% Afro-Colombian as opposed to just 2.3% mestizo or white. Similar numbers are found in the port cities of Buenaventura and Tumaco where over 80% of the population is Afro-Colombian.[16] Considerable numbers are also in Cali, Cartagena and Barranquilla. Colombia is considered to have the largest Black/African-descent population in the Hispanic World, and the fourth largest in the western hemisphere, following United States, Brazil and Haiti.[citation needed]
It has been estimated that only 4.9 million Afro-Colombians actively recognize their black ancestry, while many other African Colombians do not as a result of inter-racial relations with white and indigenous Colombians.[17] Afro-Colombians often encounter a noticeable degree of racial discrimination and prejudice, possibly as a socio-cultural leftover from colonial times. They have been historically absent from high-level government positions and many of their long-established settlements around the Pacific coast remain underdeveloped.[17]
In Colombia's ongoing internal conflict, Afro-Colombians are both victims of violence and displacement as well as members of armed factions, such as the FARC and the AUC.[18]
African Colombians have played a role in contributing to the
development of certain aspects of Colombian culture. For example, several of
Colombia's musical genres, such as Cumbia and Vallenato, have African origins
or influences. Many African Colombians have also been successful in sports,
such as Olympic weightlifter Óscar Figueroa and footballer, Patrocinio Bonilla,
also known as "Patrón"..
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GOOGLE RESULTS FOR MY REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ABOUT AFRO-COLOMBIANS
"Colombia has one of the largest populations of people of
African descent in Latin America. The exact percentage of Afro-Colombians in
the country varies, but estimates range from 9% to 26%.
Population
2018 census
4,944,400 people identified as Black, Afro-Colombian,
Raizal, or Palenquero, which was 9.34% of the population
2023 estimate
7,800,000 people identified as Black, Afro-Colombian,
Raizal, or Palenquero, which is about 15% of the population
Latinobarómetro 2023 study
9% of the population identified as Black, Afro-Colombian,
Raizal, or Palenquero
Location
Afro-Colombians are concentrated in rural areas along the
Pacific Coast and in the departments of Chocó, Magdalena, Bolivar, and Sucre
Some Afro-Colombians have also moved to poor neighborhoods
in large cities
Marginalization
Afro-Colombians are among the most marginalized communities
in Colombia
They face political and socioeconomic marginalization, and
many live in extreme poverty
The Colombian health care system covers only 10% of Black
communities
History
Spanish colonists brought enslaved Africans to Cartagena in
the 16th century
Afro-Colombians have a strong culture of resistance against
colonial oppression and ethnic discrimination."
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