Black Bolivian music and dance known as “Saya”
In 2011, the National
Afro-Bolivian Council declared September to be Black Heritage Month with
September 23rd being black Bolivia’s equivalent of the Juneteenth
celebration as slavery was abolished in 1848. However, more recently, Bolivians
of African ancestry are mentioned in the new constitution as one of the 36
Bolivian nationalities.
Jorge Medina is the first
Afro-Bolivian to hold political office in Bolivia's Parliament and host of a
radio show called African Roots, which broadcasts Afro-Bolivian issues. He
makes it very clear that Black Bolivians are not here only to make people dance
to black music. We are here to make people think, believe, and consider the
black people as an integral part of our nation’s culture. This is “our” awakening, he asserts!
There are people in Bolivia
who have no idea that there are Blacks in their country, and there are others
who do not want to know. Afro-Bolivians already started to develop links with
other black communities in South America to get international
recognition. Afro-Bolivians are found in
all of Bolivia's major cities. In La Paz, the
nation's capital, black Bolivians live on the outskirts of town. In a
patch of rainforest in the Andes Mountains, three-hours from La Paz, there is a
hidden kingdom of Afro-Bolivians called Los Yungas.
The African
inspired music in Bolivia is La Saya. Although it's growing in
popularity in Bolivia, the music itself is still misunderstood. In fact, it has
been said that the only people who do understand La Saya and can
interpret it, naturally, are the Afro-Bolivians themselves. The music involves
Andean instruments of the native Aymara people with African percussion, like
the drum passed down from their African ancestors.
Jorge Medina, the first black representative
in the Bolivian Parliament
The history of Blacks in
Bolivia dates to the 1600s, when Africans slaves were brought in to work in the silver mines,
and under horrific and toxic conditions. Such conditions killed as many as
eight million Africans and native Aymara people. Africans were also brought in to work coca-leaf plantations.
The Underground Black Bolivian Kingdom
of Los Yungas in the foothills of the Andes
Because Bolivian
census figures do not include race, the exact black Bolivian population is
debatable. For example, some sources argue that the Afro-Bolivians population
is as low as 6,000, and if you count the one-drop rule, the population can be
as high as 158,000 or better. Although black Bolivians speak mostly Spanish,
the Spanish spoken by those living in rural areas includes a small vocabulary
of African languages. Blacks in Bolivia take such pride in their history and
culture that they are taking extensive measures to preserve it.
