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Colombia's Black Community Joins Hands with the Forest Indians

by Ruth Mayne
FOR once, in tHi ■' tin wettest region*l the world. Il ta not raining.
But that I* the only relief for Noheml who spend* the five-hour dug-out canoe Journey squatting on a wooden plank, bailing out and explaining, above the noise of the outboard motor, the unprecedented bul fragile alliance between Colombian Indians and the country s people of African descent
She herself personifies the tentative ending of centuries of separateness, because she is a black woman working for an Indian organisation, the Regional Indigenous Organisation Embera Waunana (OREWA), in Choco State on Coiopibla s Pacific coast.
She worked for years to gain acceptance, and then almost lost everything because of the "scandal* of her marriage to an Indian leader.
There is pain in her eyes when she recalls those days, but In the end. she says, “fave conquered everything.”
Similar determination is
needed now. because the 110.000 Indians and the even larger number of descendants of escaped slaves brought from Africa to work the Spanish gold mines five centuries ago are fighting for the life of their communities in one of the world s most biologically rich rainforests. A decade of "'Development” has brought the usual catafogue of problems: deforestation, soil loss, fights over land. and. as in the Amazon, mercury pollution of the rivers from gold mining which means less fish.
"Look at the height of icurrent generation of Indians, says Nohemi. "They are shorter than their parents because of the worsening diet.”
Both communities suffered a slow deterioration of their conditions, bul saw each oilier as enemies not allies. "The blacks felt threatened by the creation of Indian 'reserves’.
and Ilie Indiana have had lo fight black* off the land lo stop them selling wood lo the timber companies.' explains Nolicmi.
What has brought them together is the fear that the next round of development. In the shape of the government s ambitious Pacific Plan, will prove even deadlier lo their environment.
The Plan involves building ports on the Caribbean and Pacific coasts connected by road, rati and oil pipelines.
The 230 kilometre (143 mile) "land bridge” will be a competitor for the Panama Canal. It will prove a gateway to the booming markets of the "Pacific rim." seen by many pundits as the focus of world economic growth in the next century.
The whole design is based on the rapid extraction and export of natural resources.
partly to pay off the country’s UM 16 billion foreign debt.
Says the Bishop of Quibdo. capital of Choco State: "Government plans for the Pacific coast provide no guar an tecs for the basic human rights of the local communities or for the conservation of natural resources.
The plans are inhumane, unjust and will mean the cultural and social death of our communities."
That is why Nohemi has made the -arduous Journey down the San Juan River to the sttlt-housc village of Noamama. where tall, broad-backed black campeslnos (peasants) are discussing common problems of land, culture and community with the smaller beaded and painted Indians.
"The government is strong and has firm plans." a black
leader tells the meeting, "but We ure dispersed and unorganised. If we don't unite, well be wiped ouL"
An Indian leader agrees: "So far we have been completely excluded from the planning process and our organisations
disregarded. Our communities are Invisible in government plans."
The I I different Indian peoples in the region have considerable experience of organising themselves against outsiders, and are helping the blacks — only one per cent of whom have legally recognised land titles — to do so
Says Miguel, a founder of OREWA: "Al first we consid ered the black* a threat and called you co Ionisers, but now we realise that if the indigenous have rights to land, so shild the original black population who Have been here almo.si 500 years."
Cooperation is nol always easy Despite centuries of coexistence, there is no common culture and little mixing. Leaders of both are careful to stress that unification does not have to mean living together. Conflicts still break out over land, though they can often be dealt with at the previously unheard—of community meetings like the one at Noamama.
But the incentive is strong. Says Miguel : "Five hundred years ago the Spanish invaders killed three-and-a-half million Indians in 30 years, destroyed our political and social organisation and stole our wealth. Wc won t survive if history repeats Itself — PANOS