BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Afro-Paraguayan
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 4% of the Paraguayan population. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Central Department, Paraguari Departmentand Emboscada | |
| Languages | |
| Paraguayan Spanish · Guarani language | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism · Animism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Afro-Latin American, African people |
Afro-Paraguayan are Paraguayans of African descent. They can be found in Camba Cua outside Asuncion; Kamba Kokue outside of Paraguari, and the city of Emboscada.[citation needed]Currently, the Afro-Paraguayan population accounts for 2% of the total population.
History
The first African slaves arrived at Paraguay in 1556.[1] The majority of the slaves were of Nigerian and Angolan origin, but the Sudamericans elsewhere were obtained from. Thus, according to Argentine historian José Ignacio Telesca, the slaves that entered legally came from the esclavostas ports ofBuenos Aires, Montevideo and Córdoba, while those that entered illegally came from Brazil. Thus, the Spanish explorer Pedro de Mendoza - who reached the Rio de Plata in the 16th century and was appointed its viceroy - brought enslaved Africans to Paraguay to settle them in that place. According to the aforementioned Telesca, more than 4% of the population were slaves in colonial times, keeping the same percentage in the 19th century after independence.[2] However, according the Kamba Cuá "Afro Paraguayan Association", in 1782, the black population represented 11.2 percent of the total population of the then Province of Paraguay.[1]
This population was continued to increase, as already in 1811, according Telesca, half of the Paraguayan population was of African descent,[3] whether slave or free. So, several towns like Aregua, Emboscada (in English: "Ambush"), and Guarambare were established as black communities.[4]
Also, with the arrived of Artigas' also arrived, curiously, people of Kamba ethnic, a Kenyan ethnic group, from Uruguay, who settled in Paraguay in the 1820s.[5] They arrived in a regiment of 250 spearmen, men and women, who accompanied to General Jose Gervasio Artigas, the revolutionary leader of the now Uruguay, in his exile in Paraguay.[1] The Kamba Cua were dispossessed of their land by General Higinio Morinigo in the 1940s. Of his 100 hectares they stayed with 3 hectares.[6]
Demography
Although according official estimates, the Afro-Paraguayan population accounts for 2% of the total population, the Afro Paraguayan Association Kamba Cuá, supported by the Department of Statistics, Surveys and Censuses (Dgeec) and the U.S. and state IAF, estimated the number of Afro - Paraguayan people only in 8.013, equivalent to 0.13 percent of the 6.1 million inhabitants of Paraguay.[1] This censuses indicate specifically that there 422 people in Kamba Cua, 385 people in Kamba Kokué, and more of 6.000 people in Emboscada: 2.686 in urban areas and 4,524 in rural areas, 58% of the total population are of African descent.[7] So, Of the total of African descent, 5.6 percent live in Kamba Cuá, 4,9 percent in Kamba Kokue and 89.5 percent in Emboscada.[1]
The census also shows that they are virtually matched for sex and they have a predominantly young population: 63% had at that time less than 30 years, all African descent speak Guarani, like the rest of the Paraguayans. The illiteracy rate stands at 7.4%, and of that percentage, 58% are women. The number of people who have come to attend the first through sixth grade accounted for 60% and those who have reached university level only 1%.
Note that the results are incomplete, since the census did not reach all residents, especially in Emboscada; addition, some residents surveyed did not identify themselves as Afro apart from other concentrations of African descent Paraguayan and individuals of African descent throughout the country that were not included in the census.[7]
As already mentioned, there are three communities of Afro - Paraguayan: the Kamba Cuá, in the Central Department (outside Asuncion), Kamba Kokue, meaning "chacra de negros" (farm of blacks) in Guarani language, and is situated in the Paraguarí Department, and Emboscada, in the Cordillera Department. The three communities are in the eastern region. The origins of these settlements dating back to the Spanish colonial period.
Kamba Cuá is the place having the Afro Paraguayan community more important. This place, in the Central Department, is populated by so-called Artigas Cue -or "black of Kamba Cuá"-, which are descended of Kamba people (a Kenyan ethnic group[5]). They arrived in Paraguay as members of a regiment of 250 spearmen, men and women, who accompanied to General Jose Gervasio Artigas, the independence´s leader revolutionary of the Eastern Band (the current Uruguay) in his exile in Paraguay in 1820. After of arrived to Asunción, they settled in the Campamento Loma area, practicing dairy and secondarily agriculture. However, in the 1940s, they were dispossessed of their land by General Higinio Morinigo. Of his 100 hectares they stayed with 3 hectares.[6] However, the community survived, kept his chapel and dances, created a football club ("Jan Six-ro") and one school of drum and dance for children. His ballet is the only Afro-Paraguayan expression, and premiered at the Folk Festival peach "Uruguay Yi sings in" 1992, where it won the "Golden charrúa". Their original lands at Campamento Loma remained vacant, and Kamba Cuá recently occupied them and planted the manioc, but by the government decision of Was mosy (postStroessner), were accused of "terrorist", beaten and evicted.
Today, according official estimates, in Kumba Cuá live about 300 families (between 1.200 and 2,500 people).[4] However, according censuses of the Afro Paraguayan Association Kamba Cuá, this community it formed only by 422 people.[7] Religiosity is an integral part of daily life. Currently they are Catholic. His saint is San Benito of Palermo and King San Baltazar, who came from Uruguay. Its main festival is celebrated on 6 January each year on the community's social club named after the saint padron. Are important ballet artistic expressions of the Kamba Kua, and culinary arts in this community, maintained for nearly 180 years. Their oral tradition recalls that many of them participated and died in the defensive war against the Triple Alliance (1865–69), which destroyed Paraguay. They keep memories of their history, passed down from generation to generation, hold dances like "candombe", dedicated to San Baltasar, and drumming.[4] So, this community is the best known of African descent in Paraguay for having preserved their identity and culture, promoted through its traditional festivals.[6]
Emboscada (in Spanish: "Ambush"), a city that now has about 14,000 inhabitants, was founded in 1740 under the name of "Emboscada de Pardos libres "(Free Pardos ambush), because it was a point of frequent ambushes and because early settlers were 500 brown (black and mestizos) freedmen.
Kamba Kokue, in the Paraguarí Department, also was founded by black communities, having there ranches of slaves of the religious missionaries of the Catholic Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuit order.[1] Also towns or villages as Aregua, Emboscada, and Guarambaré were established as black communities.[6]
Year of African descent
The United Nations declared 2011 the International Year of People of African Descent in order to strengthen national policies and international cooperation for the benefit of this group to achieve, in theory, the satisfaction of all their rights, their participation and integration in all political, economic, social and cultural aspects of society, and promote greater understanding and respect for the diverse heritage and culture of these people.
In this context in Paraguay has been developing the tour of a show called "Negritud de colores" (Negritude Colors) that runs different cities. It is a show of Afro-Latin American music and dance scene that rises to 25 artists to develop a wide repertoire of songs, chants and dances with rescued African roots of this continent. The Paraguayan singer Mariví Vargas, the team of musicians and a group of drummers and dancers Kamba Cua led by Lazaro Medina offer a show that aims to bring African culture and make visible the collective African descent.
Showing and themes from Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Mexico and Cuba and of course of Paraguay, with the presentation of the galloping "San Baltasar" and "Kamba la Merce," a rich description of the dances related popular culture afroparaguaya, plus rhythms Kamba Cua group like-Pitiki Guarimba pitiki and gallops.[7]
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