[Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.] Bunmi Fatoye-Matory (
Premium Times) interviews Afro-Colombian scholar Nohora Fernández about growing up in Colombia, the Afro-Colombian experience, and her interest in Nigerian literature. She says, “The Afro-Colombian experience is not widely known, and it is quite diverse.” Here are excerpts:
PT: Where were you born?
NAF: I was born in Cartagena, Colombia. Cartagena was one of the most important Spanish harbors for the slave trade in the Spanish Caribbean. A huge number of enslaved people arrived in Cartagena and were then sold to Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and other South America countries. Today, it is considered a black city, probably about 80 per cent of the population is black. I grew up in that city.