Country: Bolivia

Group: Afroboliviano

Date Finalized: 10/30/20

Team: Natasha Chandra (lead), Rayna Castillo, Thomas Chia

Content Warning: slavery, death

Approximate Time Period: 1544-1952

Bolivians of African origin have faced forced labor throughout history and discrimination based on their skin color. We rated the evidence a 3 because there was substantial information about the history of forced labor among Afro bolivianos.

The Afro boliviano people living in Bolivia have been subjected to slavery as well as discrimination due to their background and skin color. In 1544, the Spanish discovered silver mines in Bolivia (Wikipedia, 2020), and imported African slaves to labor in silver mines (Encyclopedia.com, 2020). Eventually, by the seventeenth century, the Spanish had brought in hundreds of thousands of Africans to Bolivia (Encyclopedia.com, 2020). By 1611, around six thousand Black slaves were working in the mines (Encyclopedia.com, 2020). Many Afro bolivianos died due to maltreatment and inhumane condition (Minority Rights Group International, 2018). The Afro bolivianos were also unaccustomed to the high altitude and cold temperatures (Minority Rights Group International, 2018). It was only until the end of the colonial period, in 1825, that this slavery in the horribly conditioned silver mines stopped for both the Afro bolivianos and different indigenous groups (Minority Rights, 2018). When mining began to dwindle, the Afro bolivianos migrated to the Yungas, where they were exploited as slaves on the large haciendas (Minority Rights Group International, 2018). Ultimately, the agrarian reform of 1953 ended their forced labor (Minority Rights Group International, 2018). The agrarian reform also helped establish a program to redistribute rural land, and similar reforms continued in the 1960s, 1970s, and late 2000s (Shahriari, 2010). While some Afro bolivianos have gone on to experience success in sectors such as medicine, law, and education, most are still poor farmers, indicating residual effects of their enslavement and forced labor systems (Minority Rights, 2018).

Sources

  1. Encyclopedia.com. (2020, October 16). Afro-Bolivians. Encyclopedia of World Cultures. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/afro-bolivians.
  2. Minority Rights Group International. (2018, January 03). Afro-Bolivians. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/afro-bolivians/.
  3. Shahriari, S. (2010, December 16). Bolivian Land Reform: A Country Strives to Sustain an ‘Agrarian Revolution’. The Christian Science Monitor. https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/1216/Bolivian-land-reform-a-country-strives-to-sustain-an-agrarian-revolution.
  4. Wikipedia. (2020, September 20). Afro-Bolivians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Bolivians.