File number: bnj0069

© South American Pictures/ Tony Morrison

Bolivia.   In Spanish colonial times a small number of Black Africans were taken to Bolivia to work as slaves in the silver mining area of Potosi. They were not suited to the harsh climate and the majority were moved to the Yungas, the steep sub-tropical valleys in the eastern Andes. They worked there also as labourers until the 1952 National Revolution when they received some land. Now their descendants farm Erythroxolon coca [also as Erythroxylum] the plant that produces coca leaves. In the Yungas the production is for the legal Bolivian internal market.   Afro Bolivian woman picking coca, Yungas slopes, east Andes