Afro-Paraguayan
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (1-2% of the Paraguayan population.) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Central Department, Paraguari Department and Emboscada | |
| Languages | |
| Paraguayan Spanish · Guarani language | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism · Animism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Afro-Latin American, African people |
Afro-Paraguayan are Paraguayans of African descent. They can be found in Camba Cua outside Asuncion; Kamba Kokue outside of Paraguari, and the city of Emboscada.Currently, the Afro-Paraguayan population accounts for 2% of the total population.
The first African slaves arrived at Paraguay in 1556. The majority of the slaves were of Nigerian and Angolan origin, like other black people from any South American country. Thus, according to Argentine historian José Ignacio Telesca, the slaves that entered legally came from the esclavistas ports of Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Córdoba, while those that entered illegally came from Brazil. Thus, the Spanish explorer Pedro de Mendoza - who reached the Rio de Plata in the 16th century and was appointed its viceroy - brought enslaved Africans to Paraguay to settle them in that place. According to the aforementioned Telesca, more than 4% of the population were slaves in colonial times, keeping the same percentage in the 19th century after independence. However, according to the Kamba Cuá "Afro Paraguayan Association", in 1782, the black population represented 11.2 percent of the total population of the then Province of Paraguay.
This population continued to increase, as already in 1811, according to Telesca, half of the Paraguayan population was of African descent, whether slave or free. So, several towns like Aregua, Emboscada (in English: "Ambush"), and Guarambare were established as black communities.
Also, with the arrival of Artigas' also arrived, curiously, people of Kamba ethnic, a Kenyan ethnic group, from Uruguay, who settled in Paraguay in the 1820s. They arrived in a regiment of 250 spearmen, men and women, who accompanied General Jose Gervasio Artigas, the revolutionary leader of the now Uruguay, in his exile in Paraguay. The Kamba Cua were dispossessed of their land by General Higinio Morinigo in the 1940s. Of his 100 hectares they stayed with 3 hectares.
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