Afro-Colombian

Afro-Colombians
Total population
4,944,400 (2013) (10.6% of Colombian population)
Regions with significant populations
Predominantly in the Pacific Region of Colombia, some areas of the Caribbean natural region and urban areas across the country.
Languages
Colombian Spanish - San Andres Creole - Caribbean English
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic, minorities of Protestant.

Afro-Colombians refers to Colombian citizens of Black African descent; this article is about the influence they have had on Colombian culture. Notable Afro-Colombians include Colombian scientists like Raul Cuero, writers like Manuel Zapata Olivella and politicians: Piedad Córdoba, Paula Marcela Moreno Zapata, and Luis Gilberto Murillo, Miss Colombia 2001 winner and fashion model Vanessa Alexandra Mendoza Bustos, Miss Colombia 2015 winner and fashion model Jealisse Andrea Tovar Velásquez, first Olympic gold medal winner for the country Maria Isabel Urrutia, Major League Baseball player Edgar Rentería, the wonderkid/football player Eder Alvarez Balanta, musician/composer/producer Elkin Robinson from Providence, and producer/composer/singer Jacob Bush (DJ BUXXI) from San Andres. Colombia is considered to have the fourth largest Black African population in the western hemisphere, following Brazil, the United States, and Haiti.

Enslaved Africans first began being imported into Colombia by the Spaniards and the English in the first decade of the 16th century. By the 1520s, Africans were being imported into Colombia steadily, from places such as Congo, Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Sierra Leona, Senegal and Mali, to replace the rapidly declining Native American population. Africans were forced to work in gold mines, on sugar cane plantations, cattle ranches, and large haciendas. African labor was essential in all the regions of Colombia, even until modern times. African workers pioneered the extracting of alluvial gold deposits and the growing of sugar cane in the areas that correspond to the modern day departments of Chocó, Antioquia, Cauca, Valle del Cauca, and Nariño in western Colombia.