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AFRO-COLOMBIANS Promoting Alternatives to Violence, Displacement, and Impoverishment 3

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AFRO-COLOMBIANS Promoting Alternatives to Violence, Displacement, and Impoverishment 3 RESOURCE AFRO-COLOMBIANS Promoting Alternatives to Violence, Displacement, and Impoverishment 3 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me descendants remained enslaved because he has anointed me to until Colombia formally abolished bring good news to the poor. He the practice in 1851. Colombia's has sent me to proclaim release coastal lands provided refuge to to the captives and recovery of those who fled enslavement to live sight to the blind, to let the in defiant palenque (escaped slave) oppressed go free, to proclaim communities. The department the year of the Lord’s favor. (state) of El Chocó, reportedly the Luke 4:18-19 first regional administrative black territorial division, was created in Colombia is presently experiencing 1945.5 the worst human rights crisis in the Americas. It has suffered over four Today, most Afro-Colombians live in decades of internal conflict, poverty along the Atlantic and exacerbated in recent decades by Pacific coasts where their ancestors an illicit drug trade. Every sector of had settled, or in urban areas. Colombian society has been Significant numbers of Afro- affected by the decades of terror Colombians have also moved south. and violence. Rich and poor alike According to the U.S. State have all felt its impact, but this Department, the departments in protracted conflict has taken the Colombia with the largest number of greatest toll on Colombians living in Afro-Colombians are Valle, extreme poverty — a Antioquia, Bolivar, Atlantico, disproportionate number of whom Magdalena, and Cordoba, while the are Afro-Colombians. As with the Map courtesy of The General Libraries , The University of Texas at Austin department of Chocó has the “War on Drugs” in the United States, the exile of community leaders, and an highest percentage of Afro- minority populations in Colombia have incapacity to exercise cultural practices. Colombian residents, at 85 percent.6 been more affected than others by this war on drugs as well as by the ongoing United States policy toward this troubled As in the African-American experience, civil conflict in their country. country has focused primarily on drug Afro-Colombians have faced centuries trafficking, and more recently on of disenfranchisement and According to the U.S. State Department, terrorism. As a result, foreign aid to discrimination. The UN High 4,416 civilians died as a result of Colombia has been mostly military in Commissioner for Human Rights notes politically motivated homicides in that an estimated 80 percent of Afro- 1 nature, and has also included funds to Colombia during 2002. Conflict, support aerial fumigation of illegal Colombians live in conditions of political violence, and human rights narcotics crops and to protect an oil extreme poverty (nationwide 17.7 violations in Colombia have produced pipeline. Critics argue that these percent of the total population lives one of the world’s largest uprooted policies have only served to prolong the populations, with one million people conflict and damage the environment. registering with the government as Additionally, there is little attention given displaced between 2000 and 2003, and to the damaging effect of these unofficial estimates of 3 million since programs on minority and indigenous 1985.2 The United Nations Refugee communities in Colombia. CHURCH WORLD SERVICE Office in Bogotá said that “although the number of new displaced people 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 700 registered in Colombia in 2003 was BACKGROUNDBACKGROUND AND AND HISTOR HISTORY Y NY, NY 10115 212-870-2061 lower than the previous year, the scale of displacement continues to grow every P.O. Box 968 Elkhart, IN 46515 While exact figures vary, according to a 1-800-297-1516 day, making this the worst humanitarian study commissioned by the Inter- crisis in the Western hemisphere and American Development Bank, www.churchworldservice.org one of the most serious internal 3 approximately 30 percent of Colombians displacement situations in the world.” 4 can be considered Afro-Colombian. As Church World Service is a cooperative ministry For Afro-Colombians, this situation has with most of the Americas, the Spanish of 36 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican resulted in a disproportionate number of colonists in Colombia used slave labor denominations, providing sustainable self-help displaced, the loss of traditional from Africa to work in gold mines, cattle and development, disaster relief, and refugee assistance in more than 80 countries. homelands, a fragmentation of families, ranches, and large plantations. Their public services and Additionally, efforts to organize and private investment claim legal rights to their traditional in Chocó and other lands have been seen as a threat and predominantly Afro- have likely further contributed to Colombian regions violence against Afro-Colombian along the country's communities as well as their massive coastline.9 By displacement.12 1996, some communities were being granted DISPLACEMENTDISPLACEMENT AND AND ITS ITS IMP IMPACTACT formal title to the lands their Today displacement is no longer ancestors had just a collateral effect of the armed traditionally conflict: it is one of the central occupied; however, strategies of those who are the process has sponsoring, leading, and profiting moved slowly. from the confrontation.14 "The Atrato will continue to be our land"— displaced Afro- Colombians call attention to their loss. Difficulty in Displacement takes its toll in many below the poverty line7);74 percent enforcing this and ways. Rural campesinos (farmers and receive wages below the legal other laws beneficial to minority peasants) constitute the majority of the minimum; and their municipalities have communities is due in part to the low internally displaced. Arriving in urban the highest rates of poverty. Chocó has representation of minorities in elected areas, they have great difficulty finding the lowest per capita level of social office. According to the U.S. State work and adequate shelter — most end investment and ranked last in terms of Department, as recently as 2002, “Afro- up living in urban slums where education, health, and infrastructure.8 Colombians had almost no conditions are overcrowded and representation in the executive branch, unsanitary. These communities usually In spite of these conditions, Colombia judicial branch, civil service positions, or lack most basic public services has a vibrant Afro-Colombian society. in military hierarchies.”10 including water, sewage, and electricity. Some people have managed to Streets are unpaved, and most houses preserve their African heritage both in Afro-Colombians also find themselves are only rudimentary constructions of language and culture. Afro-Colombians disproportionately affected by the cinderblocks, plastic sheets, mud, and have organized to promote their rights, violence of the country’s 40-year armed tin. claim title to their lands, and build peace conflict. As a minority, they are one of communities. Efforts of organized Afro- the most vulnerable sectors of the In July 2002, the UNHCR reported that Colombians led to the recognition of population. The area where they are 72 percent of all internally displaced certain cultural and land rights in most concentrated along the Pacific persons were women and children. 15 Colombia’s 1991 constitution. Despite coast has become a battleground Over 1 million children have been passage in 1993 of a special law between armed groups vying for displaced from their homes over the designed to benefit Afro-Colombians, economically valuable land and past decade, and only 15 percent of little concrete progress had been made strategic corridors to receive weapons displaced children attend school. 16 The on the law's commitments to expand deliveries and ship drugs abroad. 11 World Food Programme, in June 2003, Colombia's displaced trying to stave off starvation and disease on the fringes of society The last African slaves landed at Colombia's port of Cartagena 150 years ago. But long after abolition, their descendants are still not masters of their destiny. More than 50,000 refugees, almost all of them black, have left behind plots of land in the interior of Colombia and are now squatting on the outskirts of the former slave port. They call their shantytown Nelson Mandela City, after the South African statesman. The collection of shacks made from scraps of wood, tin, and plastic is their only haven from Colombia's drawn-out war between leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary squads, and the army… The refugee children are malnourished, and the only relief comes from a United Nations-aided soup kitchen. The shantytown has no running water… Jobs are scarce. Desperate refugees are reduced to such unhealthy activities as picking through trash heaps to recycle glass bottles and cardboard in exchange for about $2 a day. International aid agencies have helped build schools and organize community projects in Nelson Mandela City, but the shanty dwellers said that history and race work against them. Blacks have historically been among Colombia's poorest populations and have received little government assistance.13 2 caught between these forces are unable CLIMATECLIMATE OF OF VIOLENCE VIOLENCE to receive shipments of medicines, salt, cooking oil, and fuel. This blockade has Massacres, threats, and contributed to an increase in malaria in disappearances have been the region, due to the lack of proper routinely used to encourage treatment.23 According to the UNHCR, Afro-Colombian communities some Colombian experts
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