Even after Colombia legally ended slavery in 1851, these minority communities have experienced various forms of oppression and marginalization, both through government institutions and within their daily lives. Especially since Colombians of majority-Spanish descent have tended to maintain the highest positions of power up through today, Colombia’s most powerful institutions have too often ignored or overlooked the needs of Afrocolombian and indigenous communities. Furthermore, racial and ethnic segregation across regions means that resources accessible to people living in or near cities like Medellín and Bogotá are not readily available to large portions of Colombia’s minority communities.
The forced displacement—or removal from home territories— of thousands of Colombians has been one of the most significant lasting impacts of Colombia’s civil war, and it has disproportionately affected the country’s indigenous and Afrocolombian communities. The primarily Afro-Colombian Chocó region, where I saw the Festival of San Pacho in Quibdó, is one of the poorest regions of Colombia and has also experienced one of the highest levels of displacement in the entire country. Most inhabitants of the Chocó region are descendants of African and indigenous slaves who worked in the Spanish-run gold mines. Many Chocó residents who fled their homes during the war relocated to cities like Medellín in hopes of finding better jobs and resources for themselves and their families. Some of my students at Maria Cano University moved to Medellín from the Chocó region in order to obtain a good university education, which is harder to find in their home region.
