The Bolivians with African ancestry are known as Afro-Bolivians. They are descended from the Enslaved Africans who were shipped during the middle passage to the Americas.
The term “Afro-Bolivian” also describes historical or cultural aspects of Bolivia that have their community as their source. It can also refer to the mixture of African and other cultural aspects of Bolivian society, including class culture, music, language, and the arts. The government of Bolivia recognizes Afro-Bolivians as one of the nation’s ethnic groups. They are ceremonially led by a king who can trace his ancestry to a line of kings who ruled in Africa during the Middle Ages. According to the 2012 census, there were 23,330 of them.
The Spanish Conquistadors found the silver mines in 1544 in what is now the city of Potos, at the foot of Cerro Rico. They started to enslave the natives who were laborers in the mines.
Subsequently, native workers in the mines’ health deteriorated rapidly, prompting the Spanish to start employing enslaved Africans. Although it was more expensive, 30,000 Africans were sent to work in the 17th century. The price in Bolivia was close to 800 pesos.
They were transported to Bolivia by foot after being purchased from eastern slave ports in towns like Cartagena, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires. They were not used to working at such a high altitude, and had to endure harsh working circumstances where some only lasted a few months.
The hazardous smelting gases and mercury vapors these Native Americans and African miners absorbed while working the mines caused many of their lives to be cut short. On average, slaves spent 4 months working in the mines. They also had to wear blindfolds when they left the mines to protect their eyes, which had become accustomed to being in the dark. Younger children also worked in the mines, even though it is only permitted for Native Americans and Africans over the age of 18 to perform 12-hour shifts.
Although they put in fewer hours, these kids were still subjected to asbestos, hazardous gases, cave-ins, and explosions. Between 1545 and 1825, the end of the colonial period, up to eight million Africans and Native Americans are thought to have perished while working the mines. Due to unfavorable circumstances and weather, many freshly imported slaves perished. By giving the enslaved Africans coca leaves to chew, the Spaniards armed them against the conditions. Chewing coca leaves dulled their hunger pangs, helped them recover from altitude sickness, and numbed their sensitivities to the cold.
Similar to the Potos mines, coca crops were the area’s main Cash crop. Like Julio Pinedo’s forefathers, thousands of slaves were transported to coca leaf haciendas to be used for cultivation and processing. a cocoa plantation where cultivation had previously been carried out utilizing slave labor from Africa in the Yungas area of Bolivia in 1924. Even though these Afro-Bolivians were free, they still struggled to preserve their culture. Many aspects of their culture started to fade away and were put in risk.
They were forced to fight back against colonial aggression and exclusion of their post-emancipation culture with great vigor. Festivities, their creole language (which has since been decreolized), and a religion that withstood colonialism have all since disappeared, though remnants still exist. Due to their isolation from the majority of Bolivia, Afro-Bolivians speak a form of Bolivian Spanish that is comparable to Black English in the United States.
In addition to practicing Roman Catholicism, Afro-Bolivians also incorporate aspects of African spirituality into their practices of Christianity, particularly in the towns of Chicaloma and Mururata. Examples of these rituals are those found in the Macumba and Voodoo religions. Through their music and dancing, they were able to preserve their tradition in part. The identity of Afro-Bolivians is defined by musical traditions that date back to Sub-Saharan Africa and include dances, instruments, and methods.
In the Yungas, there are thought to be 25,000 Afro-Bolivians. They have worked really hard to protect their culture and are proud of it. In fact, the Afro-Bolivians in the town of Mururata were able to preserve their ancient way of life to the point where they were able to continue the current Julio Pinedo-led monarchy.
The Afro-Bolivian population grew in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz de la Sierra to the east. Despite their efforts to protect their culture, the Afro-Bolivian group nonetheless faced racism, exclusion, and intolerance. The first anti-discriminatory law (law 45) was passed in 2010 and was met with violent protests and riots, and as a result, laws that punish racism and discrimination have been gradually ratified in Afro Bolivia. In 2009, President Evo Morales amended the country’s constitution to include provisions outlining Afro-Bolivians’ rights and ensuring their protection.
Afro-Bolivians were officially recognized as a minority group in Bolivia as a result of the amendments, despite the fact that they were not counted in the national census three years later. The amendments also generally extended to indigenous peoples.
President Morales updated the country’s constitution in 2009, and he also established the Vice Ministry for Decolonization to develop laws that criminalize racism while promoting literacy and improving racial relations in Bolivia. The Vice Ministry for Decolonization also promotes “interculturality,” which holds that all ethnic groups’ customs and cultural practices are valuable contributions to society, and works to eradicate colorism and racism that were fostered by European colonization.
King Pinedo—the monarchs of the Afro-bolivians
The Afro-Bolivian Royal House is said to be a ceremonial monarchy. Despite having a history dating back more than 500 years, it wasn’t until 2007 that the tribe’s status as a kingdom and Piedo’s coronation as king were eventually recognized by the Bolivian government.
Piedo learned that he was related to Senegalese tribal king Bonifaz. Prince Uchicho, who is regarded as the father of the Afro-Bolivian monarchy, predated Bonifaz.
Prince Uchicho’s life’s course was altered when he was made a slave by the Spanish. He belonged to the long-gone Kingdom of Kongo, which dates back to the early 1300s and lasted until 1914. The kingdom became a source of African slaves when it interacted with Portuguese traders.
In Bolivia, Prince Uchicho was sold into slavery during a power struggle involving rival sons and chiefs. Because of his body ornamentation, he was immediately recognized by other slaves when he arrived. The Kongo Kingdom’s aristocracy was distinguished from other members of society by distinctive royal tribal marks on their torsos.
Following the selection of Uchicho as the head of the enslaved Africans in Bolivia as their new king in 1823, the monarchy of the Afro-bolivians officially began. His son Bonifaz Pinedo, who adopted the plantation owner’s name, succeeded him. The Afro-Bolivian royalty still addresses themselves by this term today.
A different kind of king exists in Julio Piedo. He is not directing people while wearing a silk robe. He is, in fact, a farmer, and you can find him, like so many others in Mururata, taking care of his crops.
King Piñedo and Queen Larrea have a son, Prince Rolando— a law student at the Universidad de Los Andes in La Paz. His major is reportedly influenced by his father’s impact and potential role as the future king.
“I would like to keep pushing forward to make the Afro-Bolivian community more recognized and visible, the way my father has done until now,” he said in a statement.