Afro-Colombians and Indigenous People
Around 9% of the population in Colombia identify as Afro-Colombian and around 4% are from an Indigenous group. The problem of land is key to understanding the Colombian armed conflict, and particularly for Afro-Colombian and indigenous people. For these communities, the territories in which they live form an important part of their group identity. However, armed groups threaten these communities by making their homes a dangerous place to live.
An indigenous man from the Arhuaco community expressed it like this:
“For the indigenous people, the land is not just a piece of a hill or plains that give us our food. For us, the way that we live in it, work it, enjoy it and suffer over it is the root of our existence. That is why it is our mother and we defend it.”
La Guajira shown in red © tubs
Deborah’s story
Deborah is a member of the Wayuu indigenous community, who come from the La Guajira peninsula, a desert area in the northeast of Colombia. The families there lived off fishing and artisanry, trading fish for rice, oil, sugar and corn.
In 2003, members of a paramilitary group arrived dressed as civilians and started to disrespect the community and take things from stores, farms and gas stations without paying. When two villagers went to the closest police station to report this, they were killed the same day. Then some police officers were killed close to Deborah’s house and her two brothers were called up to give testimony, but they were also murdered. They were 18 and 24 years old.
Deborah’s uncle called for the army to protect the community from the paramilitaries, who were threatening them every day. Soon after this the paramilitaries left, leaving 12 people dead, 20 people missing, and 300 people displaced. The army base had been 10 minutes away. Deborah believes the army was involved in the events that took place and that the paramilitaries wanted to use their land for drug trafficking and the port for arms exports, which is why the community were forced from their homes and displaced.
Domingo’s story
Chocó shown in red © TUBS
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Domingo is from the Chocó region on the Pacific coast of Colombia, which is home to a large population of Afro-Colombians. He clearly remembers what happened on 2nd May 2002 in the town of Bellavista.
At the time, confrontations between FARC (a guerrilla group) and the AUC (a paramilitary group) had erupted in the province. During this confrontation, a cylinder bomb fell on the church where the villagers took refuge from the violence and killed 74 people. Domingo was one of the first on the scene, and helped remove the bodies of the men, women and children. The massacre displaced an estimated 6,000 people from the municipality of Bojayá, where Bellavista is located, and some neighbourhoods are now entirely made up of displaced people from the province. He sings along with the survivors to honour the memory of the victims.