The Community Council of the Black Women’s Community was awarded a 99-hectare property that benefits 39 families.
Two Afro communities in the municipality of Patía (Cauca) received from the National Land Agency (ANT) five properties totaling 444 hectares and that were part of the Land Fund for Comprehensive Rural Reform, which operates to provide provision to ethnic communities.
The first collective title delivered by the Agency this week, has an area of 99 hectares and benefits the Community Council of the Black Community of Afro Women of Patía California, made up of 39 families (88 people).
The second collective title allocates four properties, with a total area of 345 hectares, to the Despertad Patianos Community Council, made up of 243 families (681 people).
The Community Council of the Black Community of Afro Women of Patía California is made up of the Afro-descendant population of three villages: Angulo, Mulao and Juncal.
The process of settling the territory of this community began with the migration of black maroons who came from the large slave estates of Cauca and who founded El Palenque el Castigo.
These maroons participated in the battles for independence at the beginning of the 19th century. The group ‘Los Macheteros’ is one of the most remembered and a point of pride for Patians.
The black community that makes up the Despertad Patianos Community Council lives in the villages of Patía, Pueblo Nuevo, Piedra de Moler, La Ventica, Potrerillo, San Pedro and Mira Flores.
The residents of this community have been organizing and training for the protection and defense of the territory, a process in which the community action boards have been fundamental as organizational figures.
Other collective titles for the Afro population
The national government has delivered property titles to Afro communities in the Caribbean and the Pacific, specifically in the departments of Nariño, Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Chocó and Bolívar.
The most recent delivery of collective titles had been related to the Afrorenacer del Micay Community Council, made up of 609 people, gathered in 262 families, who received the title to 28,417 hectares of land.
On the other hand, after 15 years of waiting, 1,500 families from black communities of San Basilio de Palenque, in the department of Bolívar, managed to have the Colombian State recognize the legal security of their territory.