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In the national censuses of Colombia, black people are recognized as 3 official groups: the Raizals, the Palenques and other Afro-Colombians. Africans were enslaved in the early 16th century in Colombia.
This article affirms the history, culture, and heritage of Afro Colombians, the country's citizens of African descent. Colombia is considered to have the fourth largest Black African population in the Western Hemisphere, after Brazil, Haiti, and the United States.
The Afro-Colombian population consists mainly of blacks, mulattoes, raizales, palenqueros, and zambos (a term used since colonial times for individuals of mixed Amerindian and black ancestry).
Colombia has one of the largest populations of people of African descent outside of Africa, Brazil, and the U.S. The population includes blacks, “mulattoes,” “raizales,” “palenqueros,” and “zambos.” Afro-Colombians have heavily influenced the country’s art, music, and customs.
“These Afro-Colombian women inspire and ennoble Colombia, and have marked its history from their areas of influence,” said the RNC on its website. Meet the 8 most influential Black women who have made remarkable contributions to Colombia’s history.
Seventy-seven percent of Black Colombians live in extreme poverty or are at risk for it, and they face disproportionate rates of police violence and diminished access to education.
Slavery was abolished in 1851, 30 years after Colombia gained its independence from Spain. Today, however, Colombia’s Black population is still behind in areas like educational achievement and access to basic services like the internet.
The Colombian Department for National Statistics (DANE) has recognized that there are four distinct Afro-descendant groups in the country: Black, Afro-Colombian, Raizal and Palenquero communities, and that two of these speak their own distinct languages.
One out of four Colombians is black. Yet, Colombia’s black community historically has faced discrimination on a racial, social, political, economic and cultural basis. And the community now faces a new risk.
Rural Afro-Colombian women seeking to vindicate their land rights find themselves at the mercy of multiple vectors of discrimination: they are black; they are women; and they are rural farmers. Their land rights are under threat—from land occupations from below and State Development plans from above.