Abstract

VARGAS-ARANA, Paola  and  YEPES-LONDONO, Jorge-Humberto. Andrés Jolofo and the Black Roque: Two Inheritance Proceedings of the African Diaspora from the Slave Period in Antioquia, The New Kingdom of Granada, 1657 and 1763. Hist. Soc. [online]. 2023, n.44, pp.231-260.  Epub Feb 22, 2024. ISSN 0121-8417.  https://doi.org/10.15446/hys.n44.102281.

Kept in the Archivo Histórico de Antioquia, the manuscripts herein transcribed are two exceptional pieces that help interpret the African diaspora history in America. Although they do not clarify whether the men depicted were born in Africa or in America, both refer to dark skin men of sociodemographic African ascendance, who lived in Antioquia province, The New Kingdom of Granada, during the 17th and 18th centuries. The first, of 1657, is Andrés Jolofo's will, a man who was a "negro horro", concept referred to individuals who obtained freedom during their lifetime. We suggest the Jolofo ethnonym, and the belongings left in his will are a bridge to approach the West African Jolofo culture, and the records of arrival of this population in The New Kingdom of Granada. The second transcript is the Negro Roque inheritance proceeding of 1763. This proceeding shows how the African diaspora population used the porosity of the slave system in their favour, since Roque, employing his skills as a businessman and a builder, circumvented the socio-legal status that prevented him from owning a real estate because he was enslaved, and acquired a house with a garden as his property.

Keywords : Slavery; Africa; colonization; African diaspora; Antioquia; New Granada.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )