“Resistance and re-existence: That is our history”: Diana Jemuel on 12 October commemorations

Video OpEd By Diana Jembuel

Every October 12th, the arrival of the Christopher Columbus expedition to Abya Yala is commemorated. The wrong thing they called the day of the race. October 12 marks the beginning of the greatest genocide committed against the peoples of an entire continent.

In this video column, Diana Jemuel, Secretary General of Akubadaura, talks about the more than 500 years of the longest and most numerous genocide in history, and that does not end, about how the death and slavery of the Afro and Abya Yala peoples are disguised talking about the evangelization process, magnifying the supposed contributions of language and faith to hide the barbarity of the invasion.

“This is not a celebration but rather the claim of the struggle for the survival of the peoples, for our rights… We are citizens who contribute to society, not only in cultural diversity and in the economy but also in the protection and care of the mother earth… it is ending us, not only the peoples, but humanity,” he says.

  • More than 13% of Colombians recognize themselves as belonging to an ethnic group.
  • There are 115 Indigenous Peoples in Colombia: nomads, semi-nomadic and sedentary, each with their different life plans, according to their territorial space (ONIC)
  • Almost two million people recognize themselves as indigenous, that is, 4.4% of the population (DANE)
  • There are 36 indigenous peoples at risk of physical and cultural extinction
  • In Colombia more than four million people recognize themselves as Black, Afro-descendant Raizal or Palenquera population, which is equivalent to 9.34%. And there is the Rom people, with more than two thousand people.

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