**2. Afro-descendant communities in Colombia**

Colombia is a country with a wide ethnic and cultural diversity, in which the rights of all its inhabitants are recognized. In this sense, the 1991 constitution, in addition to the equality of human rights without any discrimination, also guarantees the participation, protection, recognition, decision-making and equality of the entire Afro-descendant population [7]. Since then, many Afro-descendant communities that live in vulnerable conditions have been recognized in the country, and are a priority for the competent authorities [8–12].

Law 70 of 1993 defines the *Afro-descendant communities* in its article 2 as a set of families of Afro-descendants who have their own culture, share a history and have their own traditions and customs within the countryside-town relationship. The Colombian constitutional court includes within this group, the Afro-descendant communities of the Pacific, the traditional groups of the Archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia (Raizal), and all people located anywhere in the Colombian territory that meets the established conditions of historical descent, origin and cultural independence, as is the case of the Palenquero communities living in the Municipality of Mahates (Department of Bolívar) [13–15].

Colombia is the third country in America with the largest number of Afrodescendant population. Thus, according to data from the DANE, between 18 and 22% of the country's total population is Afro-descendant, a percentage in which about 8.500.000 Colombians participate [16]. Similarly, the DANE has established in the National Population and Housing Census with an ethnic differential approach in 2018, that there is an estimated total of 4.671.160 people belonging to the Afrodescendants, Raizal and Palenquero populations, which is equivalent to 9.34% of the total national, approximately [17].

The guidelines for the development plan for Afro-descendant communities 2018–2020 have established that currently, this population in the country is mainly concentrated in twelve regions: Pacific Nariñense, Pacific Buenaventura-Valle, Pacific Chocoana, Pacific Caucano and Patía, San Andrés and Providencia, Urabá, Chocó, Antioquia-Córdoba, Caribbean, North of Cauca-South of Valle, Bajo Cauca Antioquia-Córdoba-Sucre, Caldas and North of Valle. These sites concentrate approximately the 91.6% of the total Afro-descendant population in the country, the rest are distributed within 876 municipalities [6, 18–20]. The distribution of the Afro-descendant, Raizal and Palenquera population in the Colombian territory is shown in **Figure 1.**

#### **2.1 Afro-descendant communities in the biogeographic Chocó**

Biogeographic Chocó is the Colombian territory with the largest number of Afro-descendant communities since colonial times. This region includes the Colombian Pacific, humid forests, hydrographic basins, estuaries, mangroves and coastlines. Some statistics indicate that 82.7% of the population that inhabits this department is Afro-descendant, which is comprised of 60 community councils in charge of overseeing the rights of the territories and their inhabitants [6, 23, 24].

According to Rolland [25] in the department of Chocó, and specifically in the Bajo Atrato region, the introduction of the Community Council figure produced great changes in the local organizational system: the figure of the Community Action Board (JAC, by its acronym in Spanish) that had worked for a long period of time almost disappeared from the political landscape of the region. Today, in the area, some communities - mainly mestizo - are still organized in the form of the Community Action Board, but are in a minority situation. Local Community

#### **Figure 1.**

*Distribution of the afro-descendant, Raizal and Palenquera population in the Colombian territory. The number of people belonging to each population corresponds to that reported by DANE [21]. The percentage of each population was calculated taking into account the projection of the total Colombian population for the year 2020 according to DANE [22] and the number of people belonging to each group for the year 2018.*

Councils are constituted as intermediate political forms between a classic form of community organization, and a new form of authority in the process of construction, founded on identity ethnicity and the collective appropriation of a titled territory.

The promotion of the ethnic rights of Afro-descendant and mestizo communities drives an innovative political context that is more participatory, and that allows the construction of a new collective political subject, the Association of Community Councils and Organizations of bajo Atrato, (ASCOBA, by its acronym in Spanish). Such political subject includes the identification, social representation and territorialities of the biogeographic Chocó population. Being an *ascobatic* becomes a new political identity for the inhabitants, who includes individuals from different ethnicities, as well as displaced and peasant people [26].

Article Fifth of Law 70 defines the entire range of functions provided for the Community Councils of the Pacific communities. This political figure plays an important role as environmental and traditional authority, and as justice organ of the Afro-descendant culture. In this sense, this article stands that the Community Council must watch over the use and conservation of natural resources, act as mediatory organ to solve and conciliate internal conflicts, and watch over the preservation of cultural identity [13]. In general terms, the common activities of the Board of Directors of the Community Council include three main factors: the administration of the territory and the issue of boundaries with other communities, management of timber resources, and the role of dialog with the Colombian government, with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and with municipal administrations. The Afro-descendant riparian communities from the biogeographic Chocó were titled by the Colombian State between 2000 and 2001. Notions of cultural identity and Afro-descendant ethnicity, recognized by Law 70, become essential tools that allow sustaining the territorial claims of community members [25].

### **2.2 Communities of the Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina**

In the region of the Archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia live Raizal communities, whose descendants are Afro-Anglo-Antilleans. It is a department made up of three islands that are equivalent to a territorial extension of 52.5 km2 , *Socio-Economic and Environmental Implications of Gold Mining in Afro-Descendant… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96407*

with an approximate population of 73925 inhabitants [27]. This population shares two linguistic forms, *Creole* and Caribbean English, and religious traditions that include the baptism. The Archipelago is also inhabited by people arriving from continental Colombia, mainly from the Colombian Caribbean coast, Valle del Cauca and Antioquia. In the specific case of the San Andrés island, there is a foreign migration of people from Syria, Libya, Turkey and Palestine, who are called *Turks*, and who currently manage the trade of the islands. This group came driven by commercial initiatives from other places of Colombia, such as Maicao or Barranquilla, or directly from their countries of origin. Additionally, it is important to mention the existence of another group, the *half and half, mitimiti or fifty-fifty*, which correspond to the sons and daughters of a foreign or continental mother or father, and of an island-raizal mother or father, who are the mestizos in this insular context [28]. The Archipelago is an area of great cultural wealth, declared by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2000, as part of the *Man and the Biosphere Reserve program* [29].

Currently, the inhabitants of the Archipelago proclaim a movement for the Self-determination of its inhabitants, AMEN-SD, which takes into account a series of historical demands of the Raizal People, under the banner of the Right to Self-Determination of Peoples with the support of the national and international regulatory authorizations. Thus, the reparation to the possible damages caused by the national state policies and the defense of the model of sustainable development, the culture and the territoriality of the Raizal people, are the great proposals of AMEN-SD. The group is made up of various local organizations, among which are: SAISOL –San Andrés Isla Solution-, Barrack New Face, SOS –Sons of the Soil-INFAUNAS –Independent Farmers United National Association-, KETNA – The Ketlena National Association, Just Cause Foundation, and Cove Alliance [30].

#### **2.3 The community of San Basilio de Palenque**

The community of San Basilio de Palenque is located in the municipality of Mahates, in the department of Bolívar. This population is located approximately 70 km from Cartagena. It achieved its freedom in 1603 and became the first free people in America. The inhabitants of this community speak the Afro-descendant Creole language called *Palenquero* [31, 32].

In the community of San Basilio de Palenque there are multiple organizations that watch over the well-being of its inhabitants. One of these social movements is the Black Communities Process (PCN, by its acronym in Spanish), which has the greatest strength both in this area and in Cartagena, represented by the Regional Palenque and a group of organizations of diverse character, such as the "Jorge Artel" Corporation, the "Gavilaneo" Afro-Caribbean Social Integration Council, the Festival of Drums and Cultural Expressions of Palenque Corporation, the Network of Community Councils, among other groups [33]. In addition to these mixed organizations, there are also other feminist movements, such as the Association of Afro-descendant Women of the Caribbean "Graciela Cha Inés", which also integrates the Local Committee of the Network of Afro-descendant Women, an entity that in turn, coordinates in this region of the country to women's organizations belonging to the National Network of Afro-descendant Women "Kambirí" [34].

This region was declared "Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO in 2005, and in addition, the Colombian Ministry of Culture approved by resolution 2245 of 2009, the Special Plan for the Safeguarding of San Basilio de Palenque, declared as an asset of Cultural Interest in the National Environment and included in the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage [35] achievements after which there was a dedicated and intense work in order to preserve its historical value [36]. Due to the efforts of the organizations, the institutionalization of the government agencies that deal with policies for the Afro population, together with the perseverance of organized groups in the communities; it has been allowed the maintenance of their cultural and historical heritage [37]. In addition, there has been a phenomenon of identity reaffirmation, and valuation of being *palenquero* or Afro-descendant, with an important component of gender identity. Undoubtedly, this is a population of special interest given its preservation of the African tradition through time, which remains in force today.

### **2.4 Communities of the big cities**

Afro-descendant communities are distributed in practically the entire national territory, mainly in the Valle del Cauca, Cali, Buenaventura, Antioquia, Bolívar, Chocó, Cauca, Atlantico, and Sucre regions [17].

Despite being distributed over a wide territory, the communities largely share their traditions and culture. In general, for Afro-descendant men and women, natural resources are essential for the sustainability of the planet and for biodiversity. The knowledge related to the care and use of territories largely corresponds to the main tool for preserving the environment in which they live. Likewise, the gender roles for these communities are well defined, and these are based on activities and the use of resources. For instance, tasks that require greater physical strength are reserved for men, and the rest of the spaces are activities carried out by women and children, or by the general community. For the Afro-descendant population, the territory expresses organizational forms around fishing, mining, hunting, searching for wood, planting and harvesting. In addition, the territory is made up of knowledge of the healing properties of medicinal plants [35].

Another of the key aspects for the Afro communities located in the big cities corresponds to their rites and traditions. For these groups, ancestral resistance is vital to preserve their culture and knowledge. The festivities are the representation of the collective sentiment, the reflection of the adaptive process and various forms of reinterpretation of cultural symbols and meanings. In Colombia, Afro-members mobilize from different areas of the country to participate in events such as the Barranquilla Carnival, the Kings' Party - in the Andean Festival of Blacks and Whites -, the Devil's Festivals, and the Balsadas de los Santos in the Pacific, in which the inheritances of the African culture are expressed with enough color and iconographic content [38, 39].

The organization of these communities in cultural and social movements has contributed to the establishment of actions in favor of equal opportunities for the Afro-descendant population. For this, it is necessary the proper interaction between the decisions of the governments and the reality of the people. Thus, the generation of scientific evidence of the environmental and social problems that these communities are facing is highly encouraged.
