African Diaspora

Green Grabbing: The Modern-Day Colonization

By Jessica Turner

This piece was originally published on defineearth.com.

Imagine waking up one day to the news that your land, which you and your tribe have subsisted on for generations, has been sold by the government to someone else. In return, you will be moved to a small plot of land without the same kinds of resources as before. This loss of land creates a domino effect of loss in other areas such as income, traditional environmental knowledge, and general stability. Through green grabbing, government entities or private investors use their power over Indigenous and Afro-descendant groups to confiscate land under the guise of environmental conservation.

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The Palenqueras of Cartagena

Mom walking across the street in Cartagena in a blue shirt and white skirt going towards a blue wall with a palenquera selling fruits painted on it

By Nneya Richards

This piece was originally published on ‘N A Perfect World…

If you’ve been to Cartagena de Indias you’ve seen the women who are icons of the city: las palenqueras. These beautiful Afro-Latinas, dressed in colorful traditional garb and often pictured selling fruit or candy, are the pride of Colombia and on much of the country’s promotional material, especially that of the city of Cartagena. Tourists line up to get that Cartagena picture with the woman whose bright smiles and deep eyes often hold the story of Colombia that many of these same tourists might not care to know: the story of the black Colombia.

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