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African Diaspora in Peru

Afro-Peruvian history

by: Khadiga Ghirani 

Life as A Peruvian Slave

04/29/2019

slavery in Peru was brutal. peru is located in South America, and is the home for Afro-Peruvian slaves, or slaves that arrived to Peru from Africa. the first slaves arrived in the sixteenth century and many slaves came via Brazil or Caribbean and had lost touch with their African identity. by becoming the main source of labor in Peru, slaves formed the heart of Peru's plantation labor (Ali). slaves came from West and West central africa. conquerors came to Peru in the 1500s. In 1527, the first black soldiers arrived under Francisco Pizarro's command. with that, spain conquered Peru's indigenous people.
slavery was especially hard for Peru's indigenous people. because of SmallPox and other infections, the entire indigenous community were wiped out. (Ali). these illnesses and infections were brought to their community by the Spaniards who took over their country. because of these unfortunate mishaps, Peru's original or first people were almost entirely wiped out. slaves had a lot of work to do. slaves worked on mines and plantations, but there has been cases where they built churches for the Spanish. African slaves were the ones that were ordered to clear the land, lay the streets, and build churches for their Spanish masters (Ali). So, not only did slaves work on plantations, they also worked for the Spanish to help them spread their religious beliefs.,However, there were also Urban slaves. urban slaves could work to pay for their freedom. a few of those slaves were urban slaves, so some miserable slaves tried way to escape (Ali). Only a few managed to escape, though. 

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   Resistance 

Fighting Back

Many slaves resisted in different ways. Slaves were treated badly and when one does not have the will to do a task, they will most likely resist it or rebel against it. Slaves in Peru resisted as a way of protest. Many slaves found different ways to disobey their masters. Some unwillingly worked and broke items, making little but affectable forms of resistance. Others made bigger gestures by starting revolts, riots, and cimarronaje. Others also escaped. Their masters called those who escaped “cimarrones”, which means “animal” (Valdes). Because slaves did not want to do any of the hard tasks, they resisted in either big ways or small ways as a form of protest against the system. Peru was one of the many countries that had resistance to the slave trading system. Slaves did more things to resist. They feigned illness, destroyed tools, set fire to crop,and less frequently armed revolts. Slave masters punish their slaves in different ways for escaping or resisting, but the most common for runaways was no less than 100 lashes (Ali). Slaves resisted but that only caused more punishments given by the Spaniards--their masters.

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  Effects slavery has on Peru

African culture can still be found in Peru today. There are many arts and cultural traditions practiced in Peru. Painters would paint pieces that depict daily lives of slaves. Dance, religion, and music were practiced at that time and today as well (Ali). The Afro-Peruvian developed a genre of music called “Lando”. Lando is a mix of African and Spanish music. Lando is still practiced today. Afro-Peruvians also  developed a drum called the Cajon, which is the main instrument in Lando music. They played beats on the drum even though it was banned and disguised the beat as a seat or stool sound (Carroll). Because they would get in trouble for trying to link with their African culture, slaves came up with ways to cover up the beat and still play their music, not knowing that those beats would still be made and celebrated today.

 

There are also bad effects that slavery has done in Peru today. There has been many cases where slavery leaves a dent on a country’s economy and Peru is one of those countries. Plantation slavery in Peru left a legacy of racism, locking many Afro-Peruvians into a world of exclusion and poverty, leaving their descendants in the modern era, numbering two million today, with the much difficult task of doing away with racism and negative stereotypes (Contresas). Though the days of slavery are long gone, the dent or legacy of this institution has not completely wiped out, leaving Peru’s people in bad shape in terms of stereotypes and racist remarks.

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Citations:

  • Ali, Omar H. “Afro-Peru.” ReVista, 2014, revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/afro-peru.

  • Valdes, Daniel. “Cómo Ridiculizar a Napoleón | La Soga Revista Cultural.” La Soga | Revista Cultural, 10 Aug. 2018, lasoga.org/como-ridiculizar-a-napoleon/.

  • “Afro-Peruvians.” Minority Rights Group, minorityrights.org/minorities/afro-peruvians/.

  • Contresas, Emilio. “Africans in Peru.” Vanderbilt Historical Review, 20 Sept. 2016, vanderbilthistoricalreview.com/africans-in-peru/.

  • Carroll, Tom. “Afro-Peruvian History and Its Influence on Peruvian Culture Today.” Luxury Travel to Peru, Galapagos & Bolivia, 6 Nov. 2018, www.kuodatravel.com/background-afro-peruvian-history-influence-peruvian-culture-today/.

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