Black Peruvians or Afro-Peruvians () are Peruvians of mostly or partially African descent. They mostly descend from enslaved Africans brought to Peru after the arrival of the conquistadors.

Early history The first Africans arrived, as enslaved people, with the conquerors in 1521, and some, taken by force, with colonists to work, for no payment, in 1525. Between 1529 and 1537, when Francisco Pizarro was granted permits to import 363 Africans to colonial Peru, a large group of Africans were captured in order to provide, by force, labor for public construction, building bridges and road systems. They also fought alongside the conquistadors as soldiers and worked as personal servants and bodyguards. In 1533, enslaved Afro-Peruvians accompanied Spaniards in the conquest of Cuzco.Lockhart, James. Spanish Peru, 1532-1560: A Social History, 2nd ed., Madison, Wis., University of Wisconsin Press, 1994 p. 196

Two types of African people were forced to Peru. Those born in Africa were commonly referred to as negros bozales ("untamed blacks"), which was also used in a derogatory sense. These enslaved people could have been directly captured and shipped from west or southwest Africa or transported from the Spanish Indies or other Spanish colonies. Afro-Peruvians previously forced to acculturate to Spanish culture and who spoke Spanish were called negros ladinos ("hispanicized blacks"). Some were mulattos, descendants of Spanish men and African women.Lockhart, James. Spanish Peru, 1532-1560: A Social History, 2nd ed., Madison, Wis., University of Wisconsin Press, 1994 p.195 People of color performed skilled and unskilled functions that contributed to Hispanic colonization.

In urban areas Afro-Peruvians were cooks, laundresses, maids, handymen, and gardeners. In some cases, they worked in the navy, hospitals, churches and charitable institutions. In 1587, 377 people of African descent worked in the shipyards. The industry included a significant number of Afro-Peruvians working in quarries, kilns and construction projects. There were not enough Spanish workers to build the colony, so Black people essentially kept the economy running.Bowser, Frederick P. The African Slave in Colonial Peru, 1524-1650, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1974, p. 126 Gradually, Afro-Peruvians were concentrated in specialized fields that drew upon their extensive knowledge and training in skilled artisan work and in agriculture.

In the social hierarchy of the slave stratum, the Black artisans had the highest rank due to their skills. They worked as carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, swordsmiths and silversmiths. This group enjoyed more freedom than their fellows who worked at large haciendas or in private households. Spanish small-business keepers would dispatch a whole team of servant-artisans to do a job independently and then return to their owner. As the prices for artisans rose, Black artisans gained better treatment and sometimes took a role of a low-ranking employee. Skilled trades were a major avenue of social progress for the Black population.Bowser (1974), The African Slave, p. 125 Due to their high skills, Afro-Peruvians gained prestige among Spanish noblemen. They occupied a relatively low social stratum but had some status related to the natives, and were considered above the emerging class of mestizos (descendants of indigenous people and Spanish colonists).

As the mestizo population grew, the role of Afro-Peruvians as intermediaries between the indigenous residents and the Spaniards lessened. The mestizo population increased through liaisons between Spanish and indigenous Peruvians. The elite Spanish developed a caste system based on racial descent and color, to protect their privileges and their Spanish and mestizo children. In this system, Spaniards were at the top, mestizos in the middle, and Africans and the indigenous populations at the bottom. Mestizos inherited the privilege of helping the Spanish administer the country.

As additional immigrants arrived from Spain and settled Peru, the mestizos tried to keep the most lucrative jobs for themselves. In the early colonial period, Afro-Spaniards and Afro-Peruvians frequently worked in the gold mines because of their familiarity with the techniques. Gold mining and smithing were common in parts of western Africa from at least the fourth century. But, after the early colonial period, few Afro-Peruvians would become goldsmiths or silversmiths.

In the end, Afro-Peruvians were relegated to heavy labor on sugarcane and rice plantations of the northern coast, or the vineyards and cotton fields of the southern coast. In the countryside they were represented in wet-nursing, housekeeping, domestics, cowboys, animal herding, etc. After indigenous Peruvians became scarce as labor force on haciendas, the people of color gained a title of yanakuna, hitherto assigned only to indigenous servants with full right to own a piece of land and a day to work on it.Brockington, Lolita, "The African Diaspora in the Eastern Andes: Adaptation, Agency, and Fugitive Action, 1573–1677," The Americas, 57(2), 2000, p. 212 Afro-Peruvians often exercised agency by using huido (translated as escape, flight) from haciendas and changing masters on their own initiative or joining the cimarrones (armed gangs of runaway enslaved people that formed small communities in the wilderness and raided travel merchants). The indigenous population were used to work in the silver mines, where they had more expert knowledge than West Africans or Spanish, even in the pre-Columbian eras.

Slave trade

Over the course of the slave trade, approximately 95,000 kidnapped and enslaved Black people were brought into Peru, with the last group arriving in 1850. Often enslaved were initially trafficked to Cuba and Hispaniola, from where traders brought them to Panama and the Viceroyalty of Peru. Planters and others also purchased enslaved people in Cartagena, Colombia or Veracruz, Mexico, at trade fairs, and they returned to Peru with the new enslaved people imported by the slave ships. As a result of the "New laws" of 1548 and the influence of the denunciation of the abuses against Native Americans by Friar Bartolomé de las Casas, slaves gradually replaced natives at the encomiendas.

Enslavers in Peru developed preferences to have enslaved people from specific areas of Africa (believed to have certain characteristics); they wanted to have enslaved people of one area who could communicate with each other. They believed enslaved people from Guinea, from the Senegal River down to the Slave Coast, were easier to manage and had marketable skills. They already knew how to plant and cultivate rice, train horses, and herd cattle on horseback. The enslavers also preferred enslaved people from the area stretching from Nigeria to eastern Ghana. The enslavers third choice was for enslaved people from Congo, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Angola.

In the 17th century some people began the process of manumission of people of color. In some cases, enslaved people were allowed to buy their freedom, and a free Afro-Peruvian social class emerged. Enslaved people had to pay a high amount to buy their freedom; some were allowed to earn money on the side or, if leased out, keep a portion of their earnings. Others raised loans, and some were granted freedom by their enslaver. Even when free, independent Black people were not considered equal to Spaniards. Free people of color enjoyed equal privileges in certain aspects, for instance, there are records of free Africans buying and selling land as well. Freed Black people engaged in various entrepreneurial activities, of which trade was a significant factor. Some people of African descent became owners of shops. But, the status of a free citizen brought new challenges and conditions that a man of color had to face. A freed person of color needed to have a job, was required to pay the tribute, was called to serve in the militia to defend the state. All were under supervision of the Holy Office.

The Crown raised revenues on the freed Black population. A decree that compelled former enslaved people to hire themselves out to and reside with a Spaniard enslaver was another way to limit freedom of emancipated Black people. While some did stay with Spanish in order to save money, the large majority successfully defied the rule and began building "joint communities" to support each other. A discrimination policy with big and long-term impact was the exclusion of Black people and mulattoes from education. Universities and schools largely run by the Church forbade the non-white population to enroll, under the justification that they were "unworthy of being educated". Wealthy, skilled, capable mulattoes however made their way through the political ladder and achieved occupation of minor official posts.Bowser, Frederick P. The African slave in colonial Peru, 1524-1650, Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1974 p.312

In 1821, General José de San Martín outlawed the slave trade in Peru.

In 1835, President Felipe Santiago Salaverry signed a decree again legalizing the deportation of enslaved people through the other Latin American countries. Thus, two years after his death, will be removed from the constitution the principle of "emancipating soil" according to which an enslaved person entering Peru is, de facto, made free.Código Civil de 1852: Lo nacional y lo importado, by César Luna Victoria León.

In 1854, President Ramón Castilla y Marquezado declared slavery abolished.

Today, Afro-Peruvian communities celebrate the landmark decision of Castilla with a popular refrain:

Translation Que viva mi papá,Que viva mi mamá,Que viva Ramón CastillaQue nos dio la liberta' Hooray for my Dad,Hooray for my Mom,Hooray for Ramón CastillaWho gave us liberty

The newly freed citizens typically took the last name of their former owners. For instance, enslaved people in the service of the Florez family named themselves "Florez" or "Flores".

Despite the gradual emancipation of most Black enslaved people in Peru, slavery continued along the Pacific coast of South America throughout the 19th century, as Peruvian enslavers kidnapped Polynesians, primarily from the Marquesas Islands and Easter Island and forced them to perform physical labour in mines and in the guano industry of Peru and Chile.

Afro-Peruvian music

Afro-Peruvian music has its roots in the communities of Black enslaved people brought to work in the mines along the Peruvian coast. As such, it's a fair way from the Andes, culturally and geographically. However, as it developed, particularly in the 20th century, it drew on Andean, Spanish, and African traditions, while its modern exponents also have affinities with Andean nueva canción. As a result, the hotbed for Afro-Peruvian music are the small coastal towns of Chincha and Cañete, not too far south of Peru's capital, Lima. The music was little known even in Peru until the 1950s, when it was popularized by José Durand, Porfirio Vásquez, Nicomedes Santa Cruz, and Victoria Santa Cruz, whose body of work was taken a step further in the 1970s by the group Perú Negro. At an international level, this form of music has had recent publicity through David Byrne's Luaka Bop music label, with the edition of the compilation by the group Perú Negro and the albums by Susana Baca. There are demonstrations that are still valid, such as the "Danza de Negritos y Las Pallitas" developed at Christmas time in the towns of the central coast of Peru.

Afro-Peruvians today

The Afro-Peruvian population is found mainly in two sectors: north coast (between La Libertad, Lambayeque, Piura and Tumbes); and on the south central coast (especially in Lima, Callao, and in the provinces of Cañete, Chincha, Pisco, and Nazca).