Kamba Cuá: African presence in Paraguay

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I first learned about the African presence in the South American country of Paraguay after reading “Presencia africana en Sudamérica (The African presence in South America),” compiled by the Mexican anthropologist Luz M. Martínez Montiel. The book featured contributions from several specialists on the African presence in South America, among them was the linguist, Germán de Granda Gutiérrez, who had studied bilingualism in Paraguay and researched the African history of that country.

De Granda had written about his findings in the book, “Origen, función y estructura de un pueblo de negros y mulatos libres en el Paraguay del siglo XVIII: San Agustín de la Emboscada (Origin, function, and structure of a village of free Blacks and mulattoes in 18th-century Paraguay: San Agustín de la Emboscada)” (Revista de Indias 1981).

Three regions in Paraguay still have an African presence. Germán de Granda and the U.S. linguist John M. Lipski wrote in 2009 that these regions are: San Agustin de La Emboscada (originally named Emboscada de Pardos Libres or Free Blacks ambush) which free Black people founded, Kamba Cuá de Fernando de La Mora, and Kamba Kokue. The Blacks of Kamba Cuá came to Paraguay in 1820 as soldiers in the army of the Uruguayan General Gervasio Artigas; when he was exiled to Paraguay, Black members of his army arrived with him. Granted a portion of land, they named their area Kamba Cuá. The word Kamba in the Kimbundu language of Angola means friend and Kamba dame means friends of the soul.

Today, the Black population in Paraguay represents almost two percent of the general population. Afro Paraguayans celebrate a religious holiday for San Baltazar, one of the celebrated three magi or “wise men” who visited the baby Jesus of Nazareth on January 6. That day is set aside for Afro Paraguayans to meet each other, and they often gather in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay.

Lázaro Medina: Afro Paraguayan leader

During the Third World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Forms of Discrimination in Durban, South Africa in 2001, Lázaro Medina spoke about Afro Paraguayans as a component of the cultural diversity of the Paraguayan nation. He gave a lecture that focused on how racism and discrimination affect the Afro Paraguayan population. In the late 1990s, Professor Sheila Walker and I created the working group Afro Paraguayans Speak for Ourselves. Medina told us about the African presence in Paraguay, where music and dance are their greatest African cultural expressions. They use drums that are similar to the Afro Uruguayan drums used in candombe, having its center in the Kuarahy dance and its three essential rhythms: cuareim, Andean, and cordon.

During the feast of San Baltazar, most of the participants are women who are accompanied by more than 40 musicians playing cylindrical drums that look like wine barrels.

At the end of the 1990s, Professor Sheila Walker and I created a working group and as a result we produced the work “Afrosudamericanos …una visión desde adentro (Afro South Americans: a vision from within).” Lázaro wrote about Kambakua history in that text, based on knowledge that was passed down to him by his father, Santiago Medina (1917-2012).

Lázaro, a simple man and great dancer, was the founder of the Ballet Kamba Cuá in 1991; he died prematurely on March 4, 2013, at the age of 48, but he left two lines of work that reaffirmed Afro Paraguayan culture and the advances for a law against racism in Paraguay.

The Ballet Kamba Cuá, following the legacy of Lázaro Medina, presented a draft bill against racial discrimination in 2019. In the year 2022 the Paraguayan state approved the law number 6.940-2022 that establishes mechanisms and procedures to prevent and punish acts of racism and discrimination against people of African descent. This law, the text of the bill asserts, aims to “recognize, value, and dignify the Paraguayan Afrodescendant population and Afrodescendant people who live within the national territory, who have historically been victims of racism and discrimination.”

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