Comments on: Traces of Africa: My Visit to Cartagena

By: Emilia Liz

Emilia Liz — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:53:19 +0000

Dear Mary,

Thank you for your comments.

I had a similar experience visiting Caracas, Venezuela. There you have a mixture of all races, with a near even split between “Whites” (though not all of them are 100% Caucasian) and mulattoes, with few really black-skinned people and almost no one with unmixed Native Indian features.

I didn’t stand out at all there (I have brown hair and green eyes), whereas in Cartagena I was regarded as a tourist and often approached by people who wanted to sell me something or braid my hair for money.

Emilia

By: Mary Clerk

Mary Clerk — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 03:34:03 +0000

Hey,
I absolutly agree, i visited Cartagena and Bogota last summer and i could easily see the difference. Cartagen clearly has an african influence while people in Bogota look to me much more European, Spaniards to be exact. In Cartagena there was mostly blacks and it similirized it African customs while in Bogota, people were much whiter and with European feautures and were all “civilized”. Both were great citiess, and in Bogota my blond hair and blue eyes stood out much less, many thought of me as another “rola”.

By: Emilia Liz

Emilia Liz — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:38:14 +0000

Thank you for the comments. Most of the Black population in Colombia and other South American countries live along the coast – the Atlantic coast, in the case of Brazil, the northern in the case of Colombia and Venuzuela and the west coast in the case of Peru and Ecuador. On the other hands there are fewer blacks in the interior of these countries, though some from the coastal areas have migrated to cities like Bogota and Medellin for work.

Indians in many cases were not legally enslaved in Latin America. Rather they were put to work on “encomiendas,” which were like plantations. Their position was similar to that of “serfs” in Europe in the Middle Ages. Legally they were not slaves, but for all intents and purposes they were unlikely to ever leave the place in which they were born.

On the other hand, a child born to a Black father but an Indian mother would inherit his mother’s status, so he or she would most likely be a “serf” as opposed to a slave.

By: tebitt henry

tebitt henry — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:21:31 +0000

I made a mistake on my email: luckyhendry@yahoo.fr

By: tebitt henry

tebitt henry — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:19:02 +0000

this is a very interesting article as it has given me some idea about the life of black people in Colombia. I really did not know – until a few weeks ago when I read this article- that there was a Black population out there. This has made to do some research on Colombia and I am thinking about going there someday. So I want to thank you for your post and I hope that you are going to come up with many more like this one. Do you really think that black men paired up with Indian women because they wanted their children to be born out of slavery? If that was the sole reason there wouldn’t be any real black looking person in Colombia today. I think they were simply attracted to each other; that is how i see it. I have notes here that tell me that Indians were enslaved as well so I really what kind of freedom a half breed Indian could have at that time. Nevertheless I want to thank you for the post and would appreciate anything from you that deals with race and Africa.

By: Emilia Liz

Emilia Liz — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 02:53:27 +0000

Dear Chibcha,

I did not say that Indians in Colombia had vanished, only that about 2% of the Colombian population consists of Indians who practise their traditional lifestyle. Of course there are many other people in Colombia – the majority – who have partial Indian ancestry, but they are completely Westernized and almost never consider themselves Indian. There are some who still follow an Indian lifestyle, i.e. speak an Indian language, perhaps adhere formally to Christianity but practise some native religious customs. But these are, as mentioned above, a small percentage of Colombia’s population.

Emilia

By: Chibcha

Chibcha — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:48:00 +0000

Hi ya’ll !
it’s a lot of bullshit the dude who wrote this article that indians in colombia have vanished,
it so happens that i am a part of the indian population, i am indigenous! my parents always made me aware of
my indian heritage, i live in the u.s.a. most people think i’m an indian chick from the u.s.a.
i live in florida, i work with the seminole indians, and i’m proud of hell of it!
at the pow-wow, my friend who is seminole indian is lucky as hell to have me to work with her, many people who work with seminole indians are not indian,
wherever i go when i meet other indians, on the street, the pow-wow, the bus, etc.
they ask me about my native heritage. i’m from the chibcha people
have a nice day!
bye fly!

By: Emilia Liz

Emilia Liz — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:35:55 +0000

Sorry, I thought your name connected to a site, but I guess it does not.