![]() Īfro-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. Critics argue that this important legal instrument is not enough to address their social and developmental needs completely. The 1991 Colombian Constitution gave them the right to collective ownership of traditional Pacific coastal lands and special cultural development protections. Only around 25%, or 1.2 million people, are based in rural areas, compared to 75%, or 3.7 million people, in urban zones. Most Afro-Colombians are currently living in urban areas. This led to an increase in the number of urban poor in the marginal areas of big cities like Cali, Medellín, and Bogotá. 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. El Chocó provided the possibility of building an African territorial identity and some autonomous decision-making power. In 1945, the department of El Chocó was created, the first predominantly African political-administrative division in the country. This form of discrimination still occurs today. 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. In order to maintain their cultural traditions, many Africans and indigenous peoples went deep into isolated jungles. īeginning in 1851, the Colombian State promoted mestizaje or miscegenation. There they learned to have a harmonious relationship with the jungle environment and share the territory with Colombia's indigenous people. They were forced to live in the jungles for self-protection. In 1851, after the abolition of slavery, the plight of Afro-Colombians was very difficult. Afro-Colombians were able to participate at all levels of military and political life. Historians note that three of every five soldiers in Simón Bolívar's army were African. Īfrican people played key roles in the struggle for independence from the Spanish Crown. This is where Cimarrón leaders like Benkos Biohó and Barule fought for freedom. Some historians considered Chocó to be a very big palenque, with a large population of Cimarrones, especially in the areas of the Baudó River. Those who escaped from their oppressors would live in free Black African towns called Palenques, where they would live as " Cimarrones", or fugitives. 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. ![]() Other sectors of the Colombian economy, like tobacco, cotton, artisanship and domestic work would have been impossible without African labor. Emerald mines outside of Bogotá relied on African labourers. In eastern Colombia, near the cities of Vélez, Cúcuta, Socorro and Tunja, Africans manufactured textiles in commercial mills. The UNODOC reported 66% of the alluvial gold is illegally mined, with 42% of these illegal activities directly affecting Afro-Colombian communities. 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. "A Gold-Washing Technique, Province of Barbacoas" by Manuel María Paz (1853).Įnslaved African people were forced to work in gold mines, on sugarcane plantations, cattle ranches, and large haciendas.
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