Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged after the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others are Ecuador and Venezuela). A decades-long conflict between government forces, paramilitaries, and anti government insurgent groups heavily funded by the drug trade, principally the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), escalated during the 1990s. More than 31,000 former United Self Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitaries demobilized by the end of 2006, and the AUC as a formal organization ceased to operate. In the wake of the paramilitary demobilization, new criminal groups arose, whose members include some former paramilitaries. After four years of formal peace negotiations, the Colombian Government signed a final peace accord with the FARC in November 2016, which was subsequently ratified by the Colombian Congress. The accord calls for members of the FARC to demobilize, disarm, and reincorporate into society and politics. The accord also committed the Colombian Government to create three new institutions to form a ‘comprehensive system for truth, justice, reparation, and non-repetition,’ to include a truth commission, a special unit to coordinate the search for those who disappeared during the conflict, and a ‘Special Jurisdiction for Peace’ to administer justice for conflict-related crimes. Despite decades of internal conflict and drug-related security challenges, Colombia maintains relatively strong and independent democratic institutions characterized by peaceful, transparent elections and the protection of civil liberties.

Economy

The Colombian economy prior to COVID-19, one of the most consistent growth economies; declining poverty; large stimulus package has mitigated economic fallout, but delayed key infrastructure investments; successful inflation management; sound flexible exchange rate regime; domestic economy suffers from lack of trade integration and infrastructure.

Population

The population is 49,336,454 (2023 est.) which includes Mestizo and White 87.6%, Afro-Colombian (includes Mulatto, Raizal, and Palenquero) 6.8%, Amerindian 4.3%, unspecified 1.4% (2018 est.) Colombia has the second largest Afro-descendant population in Latin America after Brazil. While most analysts assert that Afro-Colombians constitute between 19% and 26% of the Colombian population, only 11% of the population self-identified as Afro-Colombian in the country’s 2005 national census. Most Afro-Colombians reside in rural areas on the country’s Pacific Coast, but many have also fled to poor neighborhoods in the country’s large cities as a result of the country’s ongoing armed conflict. Some 80% of Afro-Colombians live in conditions of extreme poverty, and 74% of Afro-Colombians earn less than the minimum wage. Chocó, the department with the highest percentage of Afro-Colombians, has the lowest per-capita level of government investment in health, education, and infrastructure. Some 30% of the Afro-Colombian population is illiterate, with illiteracy in some rural black communities exceeding 40%. The Colombian health care system covers only 10% of black communities, versus 40% of white/mestizo communities. Despite their marginalized position in Colombian society, Afro-Colombians reside on some of the country’s most biodiverse, resource-rich lands.17

Africans were enslaved in the early 16th century in Colombia. They were from various places across the continent, including: modern-day Congo, Angola, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gambia, Liberia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Mali.

Enslaved African people were forced to work in gold mines, on sugarcane plantations, cattle ranches, and large haciendas. African slaves pioneered the extraction of alluvial gold deposits and the growing of sugar cane in the areas that are known in modern times as the departments of Chocó, Antioquia, Cauca, Valle del Cauca, and Nariño in western Colombia.

The UNODOC reported 66% of the alluvial gold is illegally mined, with 42% of these illegal activities directly affecting Afro-Colombian communities.

African people played key roles in the struggle for independence from the Spanish Crown. Historians note that three of every five soldiers in Simón Bolívar‘s army were African.   Afro-Colombians were able to participate at all levels of military and political life.

After the revolution, (modern day Colombia and Venezuela) created “The Law of July 21 on Free Womb, Manumission, and Abolition of the Slave trade” in the Cúcuta Congress.   This led to the creation of a Free Womb trade that existed until emancipation in 1852.

In 1851, after the abolition of slavery, the plight of Afro-Colombians was very difficult. They were forced to live in the jungles for self-protection. There they learned to have a harmonious relationship with the jungle environment and share the territory with Colombia’s indigenous people.

Beginning in 1851, the Colombian State promoted mestizaje or miscegenation. In order to maintain their cultural traditions, many Africans and indigenous peoples went deep into isolated jungles. Afro-Colombians and indigenous people were often targeted by armed groups who wanted to displace them in order to take their land for sugar cane plantations, coffee and banana plantations, mining and wood exploitation. This form of discrimination still occurs today.^[15]

In 1945, the department of El Chocó was created, the first predominantly African political-administrative division in the country. El Chocó provided the possibility of building an African territorial identity and some autonomous decision-making power.