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A brief history
The Afro-Colombian heritage: A system of castes
In 1851, slavery was abolished starting on January 1, 1852. (Friedemann, Nina S. de.1993:19)
- Although Black people had
some legal rights from this date on, socially, they were still discriminated
upon. It is at this point in time, that the social process known as
whitening began. This seemed to be the
only plausible way to reach true freedom and civil rights. (Friedemann,
Nina S. de.1993:64)
- This
vertically-conceived social ladder was racially based. It then became
the foundation for a social system based on casts shaped by the racial
mixture between White Europeans, Native Americans and Africans. (Friedemann,
Nina S. de.1993:64)
- Different
ethnic groups occupied the different regions of the country. For instance,
the various gold cycles drove African slaves from Cartagena de Indias
(Atlantic coast) to Antioquia and the pacific lowlands. In Antioquia,
the White population was greater than in the Pacific lowlands, thus
this region underwent a great deal of racial mixture creating a new
Colombian identity known as "Antioqueñidad". On the other hand,
the White population of the Pacific lowlands was scarce and the Native
people that occupied the lowlands moved up-wards towards the Andes as
the Spaniards settled in. Thus this region remains primarily of African
origin. (Friedemann, Nina S. de.1993:65)
- Later,
from the 17th century on, Black people were used along the Cauca River's
sugar plantations and cattle farms as hand labor. Cities such as Cali
and Popayán soon had a significant African-based groups.
(Friedemann, Nina S. de.1993:65)
- The
caste system established all rights and duties to the different ethnic
groups based on the color of the skin or on the degree of European traits
each person had. Each caste had to dress and respect the social protocol
accordingly to its status. For instance, the way each one of these groups
would behave at the church, the market, salute other members of higher
or lower classes. A classic example is the protocol used by landowners
and workers. (Friedemann, Nina S. de.1993:67)
- The
only group of people who weren't incorporated in the caste system were
the so-called Zimarrones. Zimarrones were the Black rebels who escaped
from the mines, farms and domestic services to find refugee in the obscured
Zimarrón settlements or palenques. (Friedemann, Nina S. de.1993:68)
The palenques became the centers for the African Diaspora's social and cultural preservation. Despite the great efforts invested by the Spaniards to fraction these rebel settlements and to recapture the fugitive slaves. In 1691, the king of Spain declared the palenques free territories and acknowledged the ownership of the land to the Black communities. In that measure, landowners or miners were forced to stop the bloody crusades into the jungles in the attempt to reclaim ownership on their former slaves. In a sense, the palenques became the first liberated communities of the Americas. However, there is a lack of research regarding the way of life the palenqueros lived. It is presumed that these fugitives recovered their African languages, religious beliefs and social structures, although there isn't enough data to sustain such a theory. So far, anthropologists, historians and linguistic scholars have been able to trace back words from the African Bantu communities that spoke Kikongo and Kimbundu. (Friedemann, Nina S. de.1993: 69-73)