Afro- Uruguyans People of African Ancestry, Latin America

Afro-Urguyans are a group of African descendants they can be found in Uruguay they were mostly captured from the Bantu regions and West Africa countries like Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Gambia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Sierra leone, Gambia, some parts of Cape Verde and Senegal, East Africa countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Central Africa countries like Angola, Equitorial Guinea and some parts of Republic of Congo. They also kept their Indigenous African Spirituality they used instruments such as drums, chords to create a rhythm, especially for  Afro Caribbeans and Cubans new musical form called tango and candombe, Afro- Uruguayans perform a traditional dance called Gramillero is a dance performed during carnival and parades it is combined with African drums rhythm played on tambor drums.  

For more than 200 years they have maintained their African tradition and of Candombe a rhythm brought from Africa to Uruguay by enslaved Africans the music carries centuries of liberation and resistance from the Spanish.  The candombe simply means place and dance for the Africans while they laboured on the sugar cane plantations and coffee plantations, they performed the Candombe which has been passed down from generations to generations.  

In 1750 , Africans came from Angola from Mozambique and Congo the Spanish sold them to Argentina and Uruguay according to Afro Uruguayan Anthropologist Mario Suarez a young Afro Uruguayan playing a traditional drums in Islade flores de comparsa, the LIamdas is very important and performed the African identity of the comparasa Isala de flores was strong and because it is part of their identity barrio ansinas and barrio sur, the first llamdas took place in the barrio ansinas and barrio sur their culture they also celebrate the candombe carnival some women keep their natural hair and braid their hair.  

During the 18th Century the slave trade gained increasing importance in Montevideo, Uruguay had no large rural establishments which permitted the cultivation of cotton, coffee or sugar cane, most Africans brought to Uruguay worked as domestic workers and laboured on the plantations later slavery was abolished between 1842 and 1852 along many died fighting for Uruguay Independence against Spain from 1816-1821 and Brazil from 1821-1825.  

They also write poetry about them being sold from the Motherland Africa to Uruguay both Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay claimed that is a white nation and blacks are not recognized as people from that country due to racism most of the Africans continued on to Argentina during the late 1700s and early 1800s some disembarked in Montevideo and remained in Uruguay.  The literature is about representation and resistance in Afro Uruguayan culture representation through literary expression in black periodicals and resistance to total domination by majority Euro centric culture through expression associated with the African heritage.