The following section analyses a selection of the Saya songs that have been most frequently performed publicly and in the presence of state authorities since the inauguration of Bolivia’s new constitution in 2009. Rather than analysing Saya music itself, this chapter focuses on the content represented by the lyrics of Saya, specifically how traditional Saya music emphasises Afrobolivian territoriality in the Yungas. This claim for territoriality is then analysed in the context of Afrobolivian land claims, revealing how Afrobolivian organisations politicise territorial belonging expressed in Saya music to claim land ownership from the state. Considering the state’s discourse on ethnicity and ethnic rights elaborated above, this reveals the fundamental contradiction of Afrobolivian identity politics: to be recognised as an ethnic group by the plurinational state, Afrobolivians culturally perform and constitute a racialised and biologised notion of the African diaspora localised in the Yungas.
According to Afrobolivian activist Mónica Rey, Saya derives from the word
‘Nsaya’, meaning ‘common work or labour’ in Kikongo (Choque Gutiérrez, 2017). The songs consist of several stanzas of four to six verses of text which each contain eight syllables. One stanza is defined as the chorus which is repeated after each stanza of the verses. Traditionally, the chorus is sung by
women while the other verses are sung by men. There is one male and one female leader during performances, who wear bells around their ankles. Men generally play two or three differently voiced drums as well as differently sized guaches [shakers], guided by the male leader. The female leader guides the dancing (Arias, 2009). Probably the most frequently performed Saya song, ‘Se presenta el afroboliviano’ by the group Saya Unión Afro (SAU), opens with the verse:
Todos somos coroiceños Traemos lindas tonadas Reciban fuertes abrazos Del Grupo Afroboliviano2
Coroico is the capital city of the Northern Yungas province and the largest city in the entire Yungas region. The verse emphasises the importance of Coroico as the physical and social centre of Afrobolivianness. Coroico is portrayed as Afrobolivian territory, underlining associations of the city with Afrobolivian people and their cultural heritage. Afrobolivianness is spatialised, expressing Afrobolivians’ territorial belonging to the Yungas. Through the public performance of these songs, Afrobolivianness is literally ‘mapped onto Bolivian territory’ (Busdiecker, 2009b, p. 127).
Another traditional Saya song, composed by Vicente Gemio, repeats the verse (see Templeman, 2001, p. 449):
Todo es de fruta Café y coca El lugar donde vivimos
Se llama Coroico3
The reference to coffee and coca, Afrobolivians’ main source of income, and crops which in Bolivia can only be grown in the Yungas, emphasises the socioeconomic importance of Yunguean territory. The geographical region of the Yungas is portrayed as essential to Afrobolivian economic, social and cultural life. Afrobolivian intellectual and activist Maconde (2006) states that Afrobolivian culture ‘flourishes in the Yungas’ because its geographical landscape serves as an inspiration for Saya music. Claims for support for communal projects, particularly in the agricultural sector, stress the responsibility of the state to support the development of the Yungas for environmental as well as cultural reasons, indicating the importance of the Yungas for Afrobolivian heritage (CONAFRO, 2011, p. 2). Consequently, the recognition of Afrobolivian land is portrayed as a precondition for the protection of Afrobolivian cultural heritage.
2 We are all Coroiceños / We bring beautiful tunes / Receive strong hugs / From the Afrobolivian Group.
3 Everything is fruit / Coffee and coca / The place where we live / Is called Coroico.
The Saya song ‘Si yo fuera presidente’, by Afrobolivian composer Manuel Barra, opens with the verses:
Yo vengo de Coroico El pueblo más querido Con toda su gente linda Caramba, ¡viva Bolivia!
Si yo fuera presidente Formaría un puente Formaría un puente, ¡caray!
De Coroico hasta La Paz4
In addition to the emphasis on Coroico and the Yungas, this song shows how Afrobolivians claim belonging to Bolivia. The patriotic expression ‘viva Bolivia’, as well as the metaphorical notion of forming a bridge between the Yungas and La Paz, Bolivia’s capital city, highlight that Afrobolivians present themselves as part of the Bolivian nation. Jorge Medina Barra, the first Afrobolivian member of parliament, calls public Saya performances an instrument to show that Afrobolivians have ‘their own culture’ (Medina, 2014). The lyrics clearly emphasise that this uniquely Afrobolivian cultural identity, expressed through Saya, does not contradict a Bolivian national identity. Despite criticising Afrobolivian marginalisation within dominant Bolivian national identity templates, Saya lyrics express Afrobolivian willingness to enrich rather than alter Bolivian nationality. By combining the cultural and socioeconomic importance of the Yungas, Saya performances clearly demonstrate Afrobolivian territoriality and social attachment to the region. Simultaneously highlighting their belonging to Bolivia reveals how Afrobolivians portray their cultural heritage as eligible to be protected by the Bolivian state in the form of guaranteed land titles.
Afrobolivians’ claim for state recognition as an ethnic group has been partly successful. Following Afrobolivian demands, the MAS government integrated the Law against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination into the constitution (Constitution: Art. 45). In the most recent ethnic survey (INE, 2012), ‘Afrobolivian’ was for the first time listed as a separate ethnicity.
Moreover, in 2014 the government included Afrobolivian history and culture in the Yunguean school curriculum (CONAFRO, 2014a). However, CONAFRO’s most important aim, the recognition of land in the Yungas as ancestral Afrobolivian territory, has not yet received attention from the MAS government.
Simultaneously, the Afrobolivians’ claim on the state for the recognition of them as an ethnic group caused an increase in ethnic differentiation and conflict within the Yungas. The high level of cultural diversity and mixture
4 I come from Coroico / The most beloved town / With all its beautiful people / Caramba, long live Bolivia! // If I were president / I would build a bridge / I would build a bridge, Good Heavens! / From Coroico to La Paz.
in the Yungas makes it hard to distinguish between ancestral Aymara and Afrobolivian territory. The distribution of land titles by the state, however, requires a clear territorial demarcation between Aymara and Afrobolivian land.
As the legal recognition of land titles is based on the sociocultural meaning attached to territory by one ethnic group, the clear separation between Aymara and Afrobolivian land and culture is a precondition for any territorial demarcation. Due to the limited amount of land available for distribution to ethnic groups, Aymaras and Afrobolivians find themselves in a competition over whose ethnic identity is more ‘original’ and ‘authentic’, and hence requires state protection in the form of guaranteed land.
Afrobolivians define clear boundaries between Afrobolivian and Aymara heritage in Saya music. When Los Kjarkas, a popular Bolivian folklore band, mixed traditional Saya songs with caporal rhythms and pan flute sounds associated with Aymara music, the Afrobolivian composer Santos Reynal wrote the following Saya verse:
Los Kjarkas están confundiendo La saya y el caporal Lo qué ahora están escuchando
Es saya original5
This reveals that Saya music is not seen as original when it is appropriated by non-Afrobolivians and mixed with sounds and rhythms associated with Aymara music (Céspedes, 1993, p. 55). Afrobolivian dancers emphasise that non-Afrobolivians may learn how to dance and perform Saya, but they ‘never feel the same connection to the music as Afrobolivians’, making performances
‘less authentic’ (Busdiecker, 2009b, p. 129; Rossbach, 2007, p. 187). This self-ascription of Saya to Afrobolivian identity portrays music as inherent and essential to Afrobolivianness. As Afrobolivianness itself is defined in racial terms, the ability to produce and perform Saya is treated as directly linked to an African bloodline.
The differentiation of Aymara culture by Afrobolivians is not only expressed in music, but also in legal terms. In 2014, Afrobolivian activists demanded a nationwide prohibition of tundiqui, a carnival dance usually performed by Quechua or Aymara dancers who dress as African slaves and imitate African dances (Buechler, 1980, p. 42). Current director of CONAFRO, Juan Carlos Ballivián, justifies the demand for a prohibition of tundiqui with the argument that this imitation represents ‘distortions of Saya and Afrobolivian culture’
(Cuevas, 2014). The imitation and appropriation of Afrobolivian history and music by non-Afrobolivians blurs the boundary between indigenous and Afro ethnicity, impeding the recognition of Afrobolivians as a distinct ethnic group associated with a unique ancestral and cultural heritage. Claiming ethnic
5 The Kjarkas are confusing / The Saya and the caporal / What you are listening to now / Is original Saya.
authenticity by differentiating themselves from indigenous culture is therefore a precondition for the recognition of Afrobolivian territory by the state.
Furthermore, the purposefully constructed link between ‘authentic Afrobolivianness’ and the Yungas leads to increased invisibility and marginalisation of Afrobolivians living in other parts of the country. The state’s emphasis on ancestry and territoriality to qualify as an ethnic group – as well as Afrobolivian activism demonstrating these characteristics systematically – excludes the 40 per cent of self-identified Afrobolivians who live in urban areas outside the Yungas. The importance given to ancestral land recognition by the Bolivian state monopolises the political negotiation between Afrobolivians and state authorities. Other issues which primarily concern Afrobolivians outside the Yungas, such as discrimination in urban labour markets, are neglected.
The focus on land ownership manifests and perpetuates Afrobolivians’ role in Bolivian society as coffee and coca farmers. Consequently, demands made by Afrobolivians that do not relate to land ownership in the framework of ethnic rights are marginalised.