| CIMARRON was created in Buenaventura on the 15th of December 1982 by a group of Afro-Colombian community leaders and human rights activists who through an academic think tank called SOWETO, dealt with issues affecting the Afro-Colombian community. Led by Juan de Dios Mosquera Mosquera, a group of Afro-Colombian students from diverse regions of the country started SOWETO in 1976 in Pereira and Risaralda. |
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The name CIMARRON evokes the heroic undertakings of African slaves in the Americas who fled the oppressive colonial system in search of self-determination, dignity, equality, and freedom.
In America, CIMARRONES were the enslaved Africans who found refuge in the jungles in order to develop a new and just society where slavery no longer existed. They called their new cities PALENQUES, cradles of liberty and Independence in the American continent.
The National Movement CIMARRON leads the National Union of Afro-Colombian Organizations (UNOAFRO), a network of over 100 organizations that promote the empowerment, coordination, identity and unity of Afro-Colombian communities and organizations. It also supports the Afro-Colombian Women’s National Network, and it is associated with the Afro-American Continental Organizations Network and other human rights networks and non-governmental organizations in Latin America, Europe and the United States. |
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