Afro-Bolivians

19 Apr

jpinedo
King Julio Bonifaz Pinedo, Afro-Bolivian King © Guardian

Having arrived to Bolivia as slaves over 5 centuries ago, the Afro-Bolivians seek to be recognised in the South American country which has made great strides in that they voted in their first indigenous president and have a multiethnic and pluricultural constitution.
Julio Bonifaz Pinedo, the first Afro-Bolivian King in 500 years and the only African King in the global North, is the face of the struggle of the Afro-Bolivians, having being recently recognised as a direct descendant of Bonifaz, a king from a central African country who worked in the silver mines of Potosi. His great-grandfather moved to work in the coca fields in the Yungas region, in the eastern piedmont of the Bolivian Andes Mountains.

It was a bit like a slave scheme, but as everybody was ‘Afro’ we were used to being treated like slaves. We grew citrus, coffee and most of all coca – the ‘sacred’ leaf, as this is what gives us life. Without coca there would be nothing in the Yungas. Coca is our means of support; it allows our children to go to school; it feeds us, dresses us and gives us life. People don’t understand that it is not a drug. We don’t even know how to make cocaine; we have never touched it, seen it or tasted it.

King Julio continues to live a modest life, while fighting for recogition of his people in Bolivia and the world at large.

Saya [Afro-Bolivian music] started to get popular in the area – and in the country as well – and people started to realise that we, the Afro-Bolivians, existed. We are the last in a country of forgotten people. We have an indigenous government, but we are not considered indigenous, and we are not part of the white minority, of course. So we are just forgotten. But we are not slaves any more: we are free people, free farmers. We’re poor but free, and we would like the country to know – the world to know – that we exist.

Jorge Medina, an Afro-Bolivian leader echos these sentiments, whilst seeking office in Bolivia.

“….we are not here in Bolivia only to make people dance to black music. We are here to make people think, believe and consider the black people. This is our awakening.”

Sources: UK Guardian and BBC

Also, in connection, I recently stumbled on an Afro-Latino website AFRO-PRESENCIA. Interestingly, they use the Adinkra (symbology by the Akan in Ghana) DWENNIMMEN which stands for humilty and strength.