The monarchy is, in many countries of the world, synonymous with luxuries, extravagance, protocols, castles and front pages of magazine covers. For other territories, on the other hand, it is a system of government that goes much further: it constitutes the living representation of a people that, in the midst of the exuberant vegetation, the particularity of its inhabitants and the richness of its history, tries to transcend through time and revalue the cultural traditions of a lineage that goes back hundreds of years.
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There are many sovereigns throughout the globe, but few like Juan Bonifaz Pinedo, the last king of America and, perhaps, the poorest. Although he does not wear a crown or cape -only on special occasions-, nor does he sit on a throne or have an exorbitant fortune to boast about, he does fulfill a task that is not easy to achieve: represent the Afro-Bolivian community.
“I am not like these rich kings of Europe, but I represent the Afro-Bolivian community and this is a great responsibility for me”, is the short but revealing phrase -according to the newspaper ‘La República’- with which the last Latin American king It refers to the by no means insignificant functions that it fulfills in the subtropical zone of the Yungas, a hidden kingdom of two thousand inhabitants located in Bolivia.
More than a political leader, Bonifaz has become a symbolic leader who is proud of the roots of a people that has come face to face with discrimination, invisibility and slavery.. His legacy exceeds monetary riches and, on the contrary, contributes to enhancing the diversity that, on some occasions, has been undermined by some dark periods of humanity.
The royal ancestry of sovereign Juan Bonifaz Pinedo
Between the 16th and 19th centuries, the transatlantic slave trade emerged as one of the main enemies of African communities: not only were they forced to work on coffee, sugar, tobacco and cotton plantations, in gold and silver mines, in the rice fields, in the construction industry, in the wood industry, in the construction of boats and in households as servants, but they were also victims of acculturation processes that were, little by little, producing the partial loss of their history.
Approximately 12 million people fell prey to the transatlantic slave trade, according to The Conversation. Not even Prince Uchicho, of Kikongo origin – son of the King of a Senegalese tribe and later ancestor of Juan Bonifaz – could stand before the “greatest deportation in history” and ended up, like many others, being part of one of the last contingents of slaves around 1820.
Pierre Jacques Benoit was a Belgian cartoonist and painter who, between 1830 and 1840, published in Europe an illustrated book on the slavery of the African population, both free, escaped and enslaved on plantations.
Some images of his story: pic.twitter.com/yrleYkf2CJ– Rocío CR (@Amo_elCafe) July 24, 2020
Uchicho worked at the Hacienda del Marqués de Pinedo -from whom he would adopt the surname-, in the Los Yungas area, north of the department of La Paz, according to the Afro-Bolivian Royal House. It did not take long for in 1832, a little more than a decade after his arrival in America, that he was recognized by the slaves for what he truly was: a prince of the ancient Kingdom of Congo.
Uchicho was bathing in the river and other Africans saw that his torso had scars reminiscent of members of a tribal royal family.
According to Pineda for ‘BBC’, “Uchicho was bathing in the river and other Africans saw that his torso had scars reminiscent of members of a royal tribal family”, so they did not hesitate, not even for a second, to show their respect and support towards him proclaiming him as the first Afro-Bolivian king.
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After the royal recognition also came the sacrifice of hundreds of slaves who offered to work half an hour more a day. Its objective? Get his king released from any kind of work or task that could be detrimental to his status as sovereign.
Although unusual, the legacy did not stop there. The African monarch was succeeded by Bonifacio, who was the last Afro-Bolivian and African-American slave who took his place as king in 1932.
In the words of the current monarch for ‘El País’: “King Boniface was my grandfather. Our ancestors have been brought to work in the mines of Potosí. Later, they were brought to the Los Yungas area, where they were sold to the owners of the haciendas.”
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The Afro-Bolivian monarchy remained without a sovereign for at least 38 years, after Bonifacio brought two daughters into the world who, according to cultural tradition, could not gain the highest title of power within the community.
It was precisely Juan Bonifaz Pinedo who broke with monarchical absenteeism by claiming his right to serve as king in 1992year since which he has been representing the Afro-Bolivian community.
Who is Juan Bonifaz Pinedo?
Juan Bonifaz Pinedo bears the title of king of the Afro-Bolivian territory, but he is not like any king: far from resembling the European monarchs who overshadow the front pages of the national and international media, he has done what not many dare to do: build the future of the community by recalling and recapitulating the past.
With a host of ancestral legacies behind them, Juan Bonifaz Pinedo has become one of the most beloved and respected kings of all time. The material poverty that his hidden kingdom boasts is equivalent to the cultural richness of a people that, for hundreds of years, has been struggling to survive.
(You can read: India calls on England to return the Koh-i-noor, the royal crown diamond).
Can you imagine being able to go to a king for advice or simply visit him to buy a basic food product? Well, Afro-Bolivian citizens have the privilege of doing so. It is enough to approach the small brick and cement house in which the monarch lives with his wife so that ‘Don Julio’, as he is often called by the community, receives them with words and acts full of wisdom and solidarity. .
Pinedo has changed the formal acts, the formal suits, the extravagant dinners and the eccentric parties for a small grocery store that he manages himself, according to ‘BBC’. From tangerines to oranges, preserves and packages of biscuits, at 79 years old, everything seems to indicate that the king is still quite busy.
(Keep reading: Who are the richest kings and princes in the world?).
“These are the leaves that I have harvested from my small plot. Putting them out in the harsh midday sun, I have them ready in about three hours. Then I will put them in bags for the trucks that will take them to the markets in La Paz, ”Pinedo explained to ‘BBC’, referring to one of his favorite ancestral activities: harvesting coca.
Although the sovereign has expressed in some media interviews that his “title is mainly symbolic”, Pinedo is the first of the monarchs of the kingdom officially registered by the Bolivian state.
A path to representation
Evo Morales -former Bolivian president belonging to the Aymara indigenous nation- was, precisely, the one who opened the door for broader recognition of Bolivia’s ethnic minority groups in 2007. So much was the commotion that even the only king of Latin America was invited to record a documentary with his community while he was encouraged “to travel to Uganda to see the land where our ancestors are from,” according to an interview awarded to the British news portal mentioned above.
After a tireless fight for the representation of the Afro-Bolivian community, everything seems to indicate that their monarchy is increasingly far from over.
(You may be interested: The unknown story of when the people of Cartagena asked to be English).
Today, International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, we are proud that the history and struggle of the Afro-Bolivian people for their rights is part of our Democratic and Cultural Revolution. pic.twitter.com/fuRqXSbslL
– Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) March 25, 2021
“I would like to continue advancing so that the Afro-Bolivian community is more recognized and visible, as my father has done so far.“, said the 27-year-old Prince Rolando in dialogue with the ‘BBC’ chain and, with this, planted a new seed of hope for the 26 thousand Afro-Bolivians who expect greater representation in an increasingly dynamic and changing world.
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