BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Afro-Costa Ricans refers to Costa Ricans of African ancestry.
Costa Rica has four small minority groups: Mulattos, Blacks, Amerindians and Asians. About 8% of the population is of Black African descent or Mulatto (mix of European and black) who are called Afro-Costa Ricans. Most of them are English-speaking descendants of 19th century black Jamaican immigrant workers.
The first black people that arrived in Costa Rica came with the Spanish conquistadors. Slave trade was common in all the countries conquered by Spain, and in Costa Rica the first blacks seem to have come from specific sources in Africa- Equatorial and Western regions. The people from these areas were thought of as ideal slaves because they had a reputation for being more robust, affable and hard-working than other Africans. During the 17th century, the elite from the then capital city of Cartago invested in cacao farms in Matina, in the Atlantic region. Black slaves worked and lived in these farms, isolated from the rest of the country; the owners only went to oversee the crops once a year. However, the following century witnessed a gradual lessening of the abysmal differences between blacks and their white owners. As whites took black women as their concubines, they freed the children that were born from this union. The same thing started to happen with the "zambos" or the products of the union between Amerindians and blacks. During the slavery´s period, the slaves worked on cattle ranches of Guanacaste and the Central Valley plantations and cacao plantations in Matina, whose situation was more difficult. Over time, many whites freed their slaves and slavery was finally abolished in 1823, along with the other Central American countries.
Origins
In Costa Rica the first blacks appear to have come from specific sources in regions of Equatorial Africa and Western. The people of these areas was considered ideal slaves, because they had the reputation of being more robust, affable and other African worker. The slaves were from than they are the current Gambia (Mandingas), Guinea (specifically Wolofe), Ghanaian (Ashanti), Benin(specifically Ije / Ararás) and Sudan (Puras). Many of the slaves were also Minas (ie slaves from parts of the region extending from Ivory Coast to the Slave Coast), Popo (be imported tribes asAna and Baribas), Yorubas and Congas (perhaps from Kongasso, Ivory Coast). Slaves also came from other places, such as Panama.
However, the most important black community is the Caribbean, which today constitutes the majority of the Costarican black population. Costa Rica has the largest Jamaican diaspora after Cubaand Panama and its development as a nation is witness to his contribution.
Since 1850, began to settle in the Caribbean coasts turtle fishermen of Afro-Caribbean origin, especially from Panama and the West Indies. They stay in temporary camps during fishing seasons, from March to September, planting coconut, cassava, yams, etc., Who harvested the following season. Since 1828, some of these fishermen begin to settle permanently with their families.
Towards the second half of the 19th century, coffee became the main export of Costa Rica. The crops were transported from the Pacific Coast, by an inaccessible jungle terrain of the Atlantic Coast. To be taken to Europe, had to turn back to South America, which increased the cost and competitiveness removed. To remedy this situation, in 1871 began construction of a railway and a port on the Atlantic Coast. Because of the scarcity of local labor, were imported Italian, Chinese, and black Caribbean and Central America. This coincided with an employment crisis in Jamaica that caused an exodus to neighboring countries. So on December 20, 1872 the Lizzie, the first boat from Jamaica, arrived at the port of Limón with 123 workers to work on the railroad. From this moment, the number of Jamaican workers in Limon was growing rapidly and the next year was already over 1,000 Jamaican workers in the port, mostly Ashanti origin.
Many Jamaicans were intended to return home, but most remained in the province of Limón on the Atlantic Coast. The financial crisis of the rail in 1890, forcing many workers to engage in subsistence agriculture, causing the relationship and the mixture of these immigrants with native populations of these areas. More late, the Jamaican workers began working for the banana industry, whose production grew to its peak in 1907.
Usually these workers lived on the plantations and had little knowledge of Costa Rica beyond their immediate environment. The contact was minimal because the Costa Rican banana plantations were in foreign hands. They did not speak Spanish and Jamaican living with their customs. They had their own schools and teachers brought Jamaica. Britons still be considered and treated as such by the Costa Rican government.
Demographics
Three per cent of the population is of Black African descent (called Afro-Costa Ricans) and are English-speaking descendants of 19th century black Jamaican immigrant workers. The indigenous population numbers around 1%, 41,338 individuals. In the Guanacaste Province, a significant portion of the population descends from a mix of local Amerindians, Africans and Spaniards. Most Afro-Costa Ricans are found in the Limón Province.
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