 |
Colombia's Pacific lowlands Geographic area Maps History Bibliography Glossary Mazamorreo Quicktime video Film structure Festivals Consultants |
The Afro-Colombian heritage: A system of castes(Nina S. de Friedemann's)
A brief history
The reason why African slaves were brought to Colombia, mainly from Angola and Green Cape and of Bantu origin, (Friedemann, 1993), and localized in the hostile rainforest area of the Cauca's Pacific lowlands region, was to pan for gold, platinum and timber in this alluvial area.
"The upper and middle portions of almost all the waterways of the western slope of the cordillera (Andean) are gold bearing. The most important gold zones are the ancient gravels of the interfluvial areas between the modern streams. Most of these gravels were deposited at the end of the Pliocene or during the Pleistocene by streams cutting through the western cordillera gold zone. They extend along a belt that runs the length of the cordillera, from the Upper Atrato River to the Colombian-Ecuadorian border."After the abolition of slavery in 1851, the oppression of these groups continued indiscriminately throughout the 20th century in various ways and by various entities. For instance, in between the two World Wars, an English-French company settled in Santa María de Timbiquí and introduced the cross-tunnel method.
(Friedemann, 1998:184)
In the 1990s, a Russian-Colombian firm returned to this same village to continue the gold digging and introduced the use of heavy machinery to open dredges and pit holes while drastically damaging hectares of land. Both enterprises set their rules in the village and used the work force from the community (including children) without any remuneration.
Since the 1980s, foreign and multinational enterprises have settled in the area and exploited the land and sub-soil for mass extraction and production of shrimp, coconuts, palm hearts, mangrove crabs - usually extracted by women (Machado 1999) - and local forests.
Legally, the Black communities living along the Pacific lowland's rivers for more than 200 years, had the status of squatters (Friedemann, 1998:187), since these lands belong to the state and no title were attributed to these communities prior to the Constitutional Reform which took place in the early 1990s. In 1991 and for the first time since 1886, a Constitutional reform took place.
Minority groups rights were not initially part of the Constituent Assembly deliberations (Wade 1998: 317-18), but, Native American groups (referred in Colombia as Indígenas) begun a mobilization process to fight for their land and heritage. Indí:genas had already gained an institutionalized status and were seen as a minority group, they were the first habitants of the Americas and owned the land prior to the coming of the Spaniards. They used to live in the basins of the Pacific litoral and slowly moved upwards to the Andes after the arrival of Spaniards who brought with them slaves from Africa.
Yet, Blacks had not been accepted as an ethnic group and were basically left out from any law reform dealing with minority groups in Colombia. However, and thanks to the advocacy of Black community leaders and scholars like Nina S. de Friedemann and Jaime Arocha, a Transitory Article (Article 55) was passed in the new Constitution of 1991. This Article required,
" 'the promulgation of a law' [by 1993] ... that 'in accordance with their traditional production practices, and in areas to be demarcated by the same law, recognizes collective property rights for black communities which have been occupying tierras baldías (public or state lands) in the rural riverine zones of the rivers of the Pacific Basin. The law had also to establish 'mechanisms for the protection of the cultural identity and rights of these communities, and for the promotion of their economic and social development.' "In 1993, the president ratified Law 70 after negotiations with Black delegates and the government.
(Wade, 1998:323]
"The law recognizes black communities as an ethnic group ... and focuses on defining the titling of collective land rights to whole black communities on the specified rivers of the area defined as the 'Pacific basin.' ... In terms of content, the law first awards landholding rights to Black communities but then excludes community control over natural resources, sub-soils, National Park areas, zones of military importance, urban areas; it prescribes the ecologically sustainable use of resources by the communities (although resource use by others is nor directly mentioned in this respect)."
(Wade, 1998:323)