Afro-Bolivian Ethnicity
Total population:
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22,000 inhabitants
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Ecoregión:
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Amazon (subtropical)
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Department:
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Peace
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Province:
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Nor Yungas and Sud Yungas
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Municipality:
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Chulumani, Coroico, Coripata
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Community:
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Chicaloma, Mururrata, Tocaña, Coripata, Dorado, Chico Chijchipa, Negrillani
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Linguistic family:
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Spanish
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Main activity:
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farming
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Products:
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Coca, Yuca, Bananas, Citrus, rice.
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Access roads:
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Land
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There is a tendency towards population growth. Afro-Bolivians migrate to urban and semi-urban centers of our country in search of better living conditions, work, education, land and opportunities.
HISTORY
The Afro-Bolivians were brought from Africa, to work in subhuman conditions in the silver mines of Potosi, withstanding the cold and the altitude of 4200 meters above sea level, a situation to which they were not accustomed. When the fall of mining migrated to the yungas of La Paz. They arrived at the yungas through 3 Inca roads: El Choro, Taquesi and Yunga Cruz.
In the Yungas they had to learn to cultivate the coca leaf. The landowners who owned haciendas in the Yungueña area required the services of the now Afro-Bolivians for agricultural work, where they also exploited them as slaves.
In the year 1945, President Gualberto Villarroel promulgated Supreme Decree No. 319, which declared the services of Pongueaje and Mitanaje abolished. In 1952, free labor and servitude were eliminated. On August 2, 1953, through Decree Law No. 3464, "pongueaje" and "mitanaje" were abolished, which favored Afro-Bolivians because they were freed from slavery, and they were also granted land where they currently live and work.
In February of 1992 the First Assembly of First Nations and People was held, in which several addresses of the indigenous and indigenous organizations participated, headed by the CSUTCB and the CIDOB, it had the objective that the First Nations and the People have an instrument of power and unity, which constitutes a valid interlocutor for the whole people, that recovers its territory and bears the ideological contents of: class, nation, identity and culture, for the construction of a Multinational State, Pluricultural, Multilingual, Community Socialist, Democratic with dignity, participatory, with mutual respect among the indigenous peoples, impoverished middle class, mestizo peoples and black people.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
The social organization of the Afro-Bolivians, is based on the nuclear family, the family unit, shows very strong ties between its members, due to the segregation that exists because of its color. This reflects their closed ethnic organization, inside the same keep alive features of their culture of origin.
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
The political authority of the Afro-Bolivian communities is the Board of Directors of the Union, headed by a General Secretary, followed by 5 or 7 members, who are elected annually.
CULTURAL ASPECTS
The Afro-Bolivian Indigenous people have a strong cultural root, based on their migrated ancestors from Africa, the suffering of their elders for slavery in Potosà and their natural assimilation of the Aymara people.
The Afro-Bolivians make the Saya, a true musical cultural expression, where they capture the social anxieties, joys, sorrows, criticisms with rhyming couplets to the African rhythm of drums, the same ones that carry the mischievousness of the copleros who on the fly improvise stanzas of expression group and social. Music as in most of the indigenous peoples also accompanied harvests, the work and commemorative dates of the communities.
The Languages and their dialectical variations, the music, the attitude and way of being of the Afro-Bolivian, is a special mixture of the black race, the Aymara and the mestizo criollo with their own personality.
Religion and Mythology: Afro-Bolivians, in addition to having Christian influence, still preserve ritual elements from the Macumba and the Vuh-duh; especially in the populations of Chicaloma and Mururata, some traditions survive although with the names changed and / or completely forgotten.
LAND AND TERRITORY
As for land tenure, there are few Afro-Bolivians who have titles to their lands and the community properties they possess, belonged to their former patrons. The lands with permanent crops represent the capital of the town.
It is important to note that a large part of the Afro-Bolivian population live in cities such as La Paz and Santa Cruz.
INFRASTRUCTURE
They have health posts and health personnel.
In schools there are two cycles (primary and secondary)
Only some communities have telephone, radio and television.
ECONOMY AND PRODUCTIVE ACTIVITIES
The main economic activity of Afro-Bolivians is slash-and-burn agriculture. They cultivate mainly coca, which is the economic base of the home and which is the fundamental source of the community's economy. They also cultivate coffee, citrus, banana, yucca, papaya and cereals for self-consumption.
The coca is planted when the earth is tired, the cocal lasts approximately 30 years.
Coffee is the Arabica of poor yield, but resistant to impoverished soils and variable rains. It does not need seedbeds, it is sown directly inside the coffee plantation and when the plant is large, it is removed to transplant it in large holes, three or four plants in each, these activities are carried out between the months of January and March. After pruning the coffee trees, the land is used to plant bananas, yucca, papaya and other fruits.
Marketed Products: Coca, coffee, citrus, bananas, yucca and papaya.
Subsistence Activities: Agriculture, fruit, coffee and handicrafts Sale of labor, extraction of wood.
Productive or Marketing Organizations: They have marketing organizations ACOPCA; ADEPCOCA.
ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Habitat: They inhabit the Yungas of La Paz, at a height above sea level, which varies between 800 and 200 meters, the ambient temperature is higher than 17 ° C, the annual fluvial rainfall is 2000 mm.
Environmental problems: The wear of nutrients in the soil, because the coca plant, the same that absorbs them, the lack of fertilizers and fertilizer and the so-called chaqueo are the environmental problems that seriously affect the environment of the Afro-Bolivians.
LANGUAGE
- Afro-Bolivians speak Castilian and Aymara deformed in pronunciation and sometimes in semantics.
- Rice: Aró, aló
- Drummer: pump
- candle: candela
- butler: caporal
- I have it: loi
- you: oté
- whip: suraigo
- Cry: Yoris
- mother: mai
- Father: pai
- compadre: compai
- hut, house: bohÃo
- What does it say ?: Insé?
- black: prieto-preto
- coca deposit: matuasi
- you are: you are
- give away
- be: istar
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