Saya music (2018). The word saya originates from
Kikongo '''', referring to the act of singing while performing communal work.
Caporales Caporales is a dance popular in the Andean region of Bolivia. It gained popularity in 1969 by the Estrada Pacheco brothers, inspired by the character of the 'Caporal' or "overseer" of which, historically black slaves, usually mixed race, wore boots and held a whip, the dance originates from the region of the Yungas in Bolivia. However, elements of the dance (such as the costumes) were of European origin.
Morenada .
Morenada is a folkloric dance in Bolivia. The dance originated with sufferings of the African slaves brought to Bolivia in order to work in the Silver Mines of Potosí. The enormous tongue of the dark masks was meant to represent the physical state of these mines workers and the rattling of the Matracas are frequently associated with the rattling of the slaves' chains and satirizing "white men".
Language Afro-Bolivians have traditionally maintained their own
creole language, with links to earlier
Bozal Spanish. The founding monarch,
Uchicho, was allegedly of
Congolese (specifically Bakongo) and
Senegalese origin, and was brought to the Hacienda of the Marquis de Pinedo, in the area of Los Yungas in what is now La Paz Department. Other slaves allegedly recognized him as a man of regal background (a prince from the ancient
Kingdom of Kongo) when seeing his torso exposed with royal
tribal marks only held by royalty; he was later crowned in 1823. The monarchy still survives today and the current monarch,
King Julio Pinedo, is a direct descendant of Uchicho.
Keeping the culture ) Cultural Program focusing on preserving cultural rhythms and expressions. Aspects such as feasts, their creole language (that has since
decreolized), religion that survived through colonialism have since gone extinct, culturally, although fragments remain. Afro-Bolivians due to isolation from much of Bolivia speak a dialect of
Bolivian Spanish, akin to
African-American Vernacular English in the United States. Afro-Bolivians, in addition to being
Roman Catholic incorporate elements of
African diasporic religions such as rituals in the
Macumba and
Voodoo religions have influence their practice of Christianity, mainly prevalent in the towns of
Chicaloma and
Mururata. Musical traditions such as dances, instruments, and techniques with ancestral origin in
Sub-Saharan Africa, to the present day define Afro-Bolivian identity. ==Afro-Bolivians today==