One of the main reasons I chose to apply for the Fulbright Colombia program had to do with Colombia’s current transition toward peace from a recent civil war. Since I studied political science in college, I am especially interested in issues related to social justice, human rights and conflict mediation around the world. In 2016, Colombia began the process of negotiating peace between the government and former rebel groups, both sides of which had enacted violence and suffering on everyday Colombian citizens over 50 years of war. I hoped to learn more about different perspectives on the conflict, as well as how people here are moving forward and reclaiming normal life in the country.
Colombia’s civil war did not impact all Colombians equally, however. Rural communities and Colombia’s ethnic Afrocolombian and indigenous populations suffered the most violence and displacement from their homes during the war. Unfortunately, this was no coincidence. From the beginning, Spanish colonization in Colombia included the enslavement of both local indigenous and imported African peoples to work on agricultural plantations and in the mines.
