"The influence and role played by persons of African descent in the history of Central America is rooted in great antiquity. The contribution that has been made by Africans to the “blood lines” of the peoples of Central America are an integral part of the cultures of these nations. The role played by these countries in Diaspora history is now only starting to come to light. A series of “migrations waves” into Central America by persons of African origin took place over several centuries. Evidence suggests that Africans played a role in the ancient pre-Columbian cultures of Central America. Among the Olmec, Toltec and the Maya of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize there appears to have been an African influence. In addition, the presence of African tribes in Panama at the time of the Spanish conquest suggest that an earlier trans-Atlantic African crossing could have taken place during the 14th or 15th century. During the age of European exploration and Spanish conquest persons of African heritage were also present. Diego Mendez was with Columbus in Honduras 1502. The nobleman Nuflo de Olano was with Balboa in Panama in 1513. Both examples show us that free blacks played a role in the discovery of the “New World”. Others of African heritage undoubtedly sailed with the Conquistadors but were not noted as being of African descent. A good number of the Spanish and Portuguese soldiers, sailors and colonists themselves were in fact partially of African descent. The African Diaspora scholar A.J. Rogers estimated that over the centuries close to four million Africans arrived in Spain and Portugal between the third century under Hannibal until the abolition of slavery in Portugal in 1773. The regions of southern Spain and southern Portugal (those closest to the African continent) show the strongest influences of the large numbers of persons from Africa who settled or were forcibly brought to these areas of the Iberian peninsula. The Conquistadors thus brought some African ancestry with them to Central America as the racially mixed descendants of Arabic, Germanic, African, Semitic and Celtic peoples who had mingled together over many centuries in the southern parts of Spain and Portugal. The great liberator of five South American nations, General Simon Bolivar, said the following “We must face the fact that our race is not European; it is rather a composite of Africa and America more than an emanation of Europe. For Spain itself ceased to be European by its African blood; its institutions and character”. Bolivar had lived in Spain at one time and evidently came to his own conclusions regarding the ancestry of some of his forefathers. The first African slaves brought to Central America arrived in 1513 with Balboa in Panama. Others arrived in 1524 with Alvarado during his invasion of Guatemala and De Avila during his landing on the Honduran coast. The colonial years (1513-1821) make up the “second wave” of African peoples to arrive in Central America. This was a forced migration, brutal in its destruction of human life. For a period of over 300 years we find persons of African descent held in bondage under the rule of the Spanish. Africans were brought to all the countries of Central America and through their labor contributed to the wealth of the Spanish land owners. This labor was initially used in mining but latter was shifted to the ranches as well as indigo and cacao plantations of the region. A result of colonial slavery in Central America was the great amount of mixing between the races that took place over the course of three centuries. Few European women came to the region and as a result miscegenation became the rule. Among the Africans who were brought to Central America during the colonial era we find few today who are not mixed with some European or native American ancestry. From this racial intermixing the Central American mestizo became the majority of the population in Central America. I am of the opinion that the “typical” Central American mestizo is approximately one-eighth to one-quarter African, with the native American (and in some cases European) strain predominating. Some have little or no African ancestry, but the majority of mestizos can claim at least some remote African ancestry. This mixing over a period of 15 to 20 generations was so widespread that three racial streams became one. In Luis Quintanilla’s book A Latin American Speaks (1943) he writes “The more I study Latin-American life the more I become aware of the tremendous influence of the Negro in Latin-American development and culture. His influence there seems to have been greater than even in the United States”. He goes on to mention that most writers in the United States have made little mention of the important contributions made by black people to Latin-America saying that most do not admit that the majority of Latin-Americans are “a colored people: mestizos, Indians and Negroes”.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 22:14:05 +0000
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