The collective resistance of Afro-Colombian women surviving victims in Colombia: A counter-hegemonic bet

Resumen

Colombia’s 2011 Victims and Land Restitution Act opened a political space in which the voices of surviving victims were considered in the reconciliation and reparation hearings. In connection with the aforementioned Act, the paper sets out the experiences of a counter-hegemonic political group of Afro-Colombian women surviving victims. To this end, a general summary is given of the place occupied by these victims in Colombia’s internal armed conflict. It goes on to illustrate several initiatives that paved the way for Afro-Colombian Movements in their quest for reparations. Said initiatives show the need to think hard about reparations in ways that respect local ancestral strategies for healing and making amends. Here, such strategies not only need to take account of the damage and harm arising from armed conflict but also the ethnic-racial historical dimension — something that goes beyond the scope of the Act. A decolonial methodological approach is adopted and is based on two emblematic cases. The paper reveals the organisational experience of surviving Afro-Colombian women victims. Their collective initiatives place counter-hegemonic bets on various concepts of reparation. These initiatives reveal a social movement whose resistance came up with new alternatives for action on the Colombian armed conflict in relation to the remedies available under the Act.