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are descendants of forced migrants from Africa to Colombia. Colombia has the third largest population of people of African descent in the Americas following Brazil and the United States.

 
   
The First Mestizo

 

 

Vicente Guerrero
 

 


 

 
The Afro Creole Colombian People

A Colombia Based Creole language...Click here

 

Miss Colombia (Chocó) 2001-02 (she was also the first black Miss Colombia) & Miss. Chocó 2005-06... Click here for more

 

The Afro/Creole Colombian People

The census data in Colombia does not record ethnicity, other than that of those identifying themselves as members of particular minority ethnic groups, so overall percentages are essentially estimates from other sources and can vary from one to another.[44]

According to the CIA World Factbook, the majority of the population (58%) is mestizo, or of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry. 20% is of European ancestry only (predominantly of Spanish, with some Italian, Portuguese and German ancestry), 14% mulatto (of mixed European and black African ancestry), 4% of black African ancestry only, and 3% zambo (of mixed Amerindian and black African ancestry).

Pure indigenous Amerindians comprise only 1% of the population.[2] The overwhelming majority of Colombians speak Spanish (see also Colombian Spanish), but in total 101 languages are listed for Colombia in the Ethnologue database, of which 80 are spoken today as living languages. Most of these belong to the Chibchan, Arawak and Cariban linguistic families. The Quechua language, spoken in the Andes region of the country, has also extended more northwards into Colombia, mainly in urban centers of major cities. There are currently about 500,000 speakers of indigenous languages.[45]

 

Miss Colombia 2005

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The Black African presence in Colombia dates back to the Hispanic colonial period, but some sources talk about African presence in the Caribbean long before the European invasion. Black African slaves began being imported by the Hispanics in the first decade of the 16th century. By the 1520s, Blacks were being imported into Colombia steadily to replace the rapidly declining native American population.

Slavery was not abolished until 1851, and even after emancipation, the life of the African Colombians was very difficult. African Colombians were forced to live in jungle areas as a mechanism of self-protection. There, they learned to have a harmonious relationship with the jungle environment and to share the territory with Colombia's indigenous communities.

A Colombian Vendor

From 1851, the Colombian State promoted the ideology of mestizaje, or miscegenation. This whitening of the Black African population was an attempt by the Colombian government to minimize or, if possible, totally eliminate any traces of Black African or indigenous descent among the Spaniards. So in order to maintain their cultural traditions, many Blacks and indigenous peoples went deep into the isolated jungles.

Afro-Colombians and indigenous people were, and continue to be, the targets of the armed actors who want to displace them in order to take their lands for sugar cane plantations, for coffee and banana plantations, for mining and wood exploitation, and so forth.artagena, and Barranquilla.

Colombia is considered to have the third largest Black/African-descent population in the western hemisphere, following Brazil and the USA.

 

It has been estimated that only 4.4 million Afro-Colombians actively recognize their own black ancestry, while many other African Colombians do not, as a result of inter-racial relations with white and indigenous Colombians.

[3] Afro-Colombians may often encounter a noticeable degree of racial discrimination and prejudice, as a socio-cultural leftover from colonial times. They have been historically absent from high level government positions. Many of their long-established settlements around the Pacific coast have remained underdeveloped.[3] In Colombia's ongoing internal conflict, Afro-Colombians are both victims of violence or displacement and members of armed factions, such as the FARC and the AUC. African Colombians have played a role in contributing to the development of certain aspects of Colombian culture. For example, several of Colombia's musical genres, such as Cumbia, have African origins or influences. Some African Colombians have also been successful in sports.

Source Wikipedia

 

 
Mulatto People
   
   
 
 
 

Champeta Criolla Anne Swing La Vuelta Anne Zwing

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
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