Thesis Summary - Maria Diaz-Gonzalez

Topic:

My thesis will be a fictional account of enslaved Africans in Colombia.  

Specifically, I hope to follow a woman through her kidnapping from Africa, to her transport to Colombia, through enslavement and finally to her escape as part of a maroon community.

Characters:

In my work, I hope to create three groups of people to mirror the African, Indigenous, and European people involved in the colonization of South America. As of now, I’ve determined that the group analogous to indigenous people will live underwater but have yet to determine specifics for the other two.  For now, I will refer to the characters involved as African, Indigenous, or European.

The main character will be an African woman, whose character is known from childhood.  She will be born on a slave ship and have an obvious, intimidating magical quality about her. She will experience enslavement in the silver mines of the Colombian interior, but will frighten her overseers too much either to keep her or to kill her. Consequently, she will be sent back to the slave port of Cartagena and later escape the man who buys her. She will travel to a maroon community and defend it fiercely against the attacks of Europeans.  

The second main character is a young indigenous man, who is dealing with the constant rain of black bodies on his home. Simultaneously he has to contend and with the grave-robbing and land thieving Europeans. It is possible that he will negotiate with the Europeans by trading the black bodies that fall to the ocean floor from slave ships in exchange for the return of indigenous bodies and land. He eventually encounters the main character’s maroon community and must confront their hurt and anger.

This thesis will also marginally involve European actors. The slave traders, mine overseers, and the religious officials who serve to assuage the souls of the aforementioned two.

Locations:

Ocean floor and Caribbean islands – home of the indigenous group

Mainland Colombia – particularly city of Cartagena

Questions:

As of yet I do not have a central question to tie my thesis together, yet I wish to address the following in my work:

How did the enslaved claim land in the Americas as theirs?

How did black and indigenous people interact?

How do contemporary Afro-Colombian communities fight resource extraction and violence on their lands?

Problems:

I have several concerns about the process of writing this thesis. One is my current lack of a cohesive question around which my thesis might revolve. I am also concerned that I will be trying so hard to tell a story with the elements I’ve detailed above that I’ll fail to make a significant point. I am also worried that I won’t be able to communicate the racial paradigm of a Latin American context to a North American audience.

Sources:

In order to complete this thesis, I hope to compile resources on the history of Cartagena and of the Spanish slave trade. I would also love to find accounts about the escaped slave communities in Colombia and of any relationship between these communities and native ones.

I have done some preliminary reading on the current situation of Afro-Colombian communities, which I hope to at least allude to in this thesis.

1. Cardona-Maguigad, Adriana, and Kari Lydersen. “Survival, Profit, and War: The Many Faces of Gold Mining in Colombia (Pt. 1).” NACLA. N.p., 11 Nov. 2015. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.

2. "Observations of the IACHR after Visit of the Rapporteur on the Rights of Afrosdescendants and against Racial Discrimination." Observations of the IACHR after Visit of the Rapporteur on the Rights of Afrosdescendants and against Racial Discrimination. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.

3. Sanchez-Garzoli, Gimena. "Interview with Afro-Colombian IDP Leaders." The Brookings Institution. N.p., 01 Dec. 2003. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.