The San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina Archipelago is home to the Raizal people—Afro-Caribbean descendants of enslaved Africans, Jamaican settlers, and seafaring communities with enduring ties to the western Caribbean and Central America. First settled by English Puritans and enslaved Africans in the 1630s, the islands became key nodes in a transnational Afro-diasporic world shaped by resistance, migration, and maritime exchange. Though formally annexed by Colombia in the 19th century, Raizals maintained cultural and political autonomy well into the 20th. Since the 1950s, waves of mainland migration and state-led assimilation have threatened Raizal land, language, and identity. In response, Raizal communities across the archipelago and diaspora have mobilized to defend their cultural survival and assert their rights as a distinct people.
The archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina is located in the southwestern Caribbean and historically formed part of the Mosquitia region. Although currently governed as a department of Colombia, the islands' deep historical and cultural ties connect them to Central America and the broader Afro-Caribbean world. Before permanent colonial settlement, Miskitu peoples from northeastern Nicaragua and Honduras seasonally used the islands for fishing and subsistence. By the 17th century, the islands became a strategic base for English and Dutch privateers. In 1630, English Puritans from Bermuda established the Providence Island colony on Providencia, bringing with them enslaved Africans and forming one of the earliest colonial settlements in the region.
The Providence Island colony, which included both San Andrés and Providencia, was captured by Spanish and Portuguese forces in 1641 after earlier failed attempts. Spanish authority remained intermittent and was only solidified in 1666. The islands were officially awarded to Spain in 1786 and incorporated into Colombia in 1822. After the fall of the colony, English settlers and enslaved people migrated to San Andrés, the Corn Islands, and mainland Central America. These migrations established the archipelago as a vital node in transnational Afro-Caribbean networks spanning Jamaica, the Mosquitia, and other British outposts. The archipelago’s contested sovereignty, colonial conflicts, and deep rootedness in a western Caribbean Black diasporic network have positioned it as a key site in the history of Afro-Caribbean life and struggle.
In the 18th century, San Andrés and Providencia were repopulated primarily by Jamaican settlers who brought with them enslaved Africans. These Afro-Caribbean communities formed the roots of what is now known as the Raizal people. While the term "Raizal" is more contemporary, it emerged to emphasize Black rootedness and indigeneity and to differentiate islanders from other Black populations in Colombia. Raizales are, in essence, Creole people with deep linguistic, religious, and kinship ties to other Afro-Caribbean communities throughout the western Caribbean, including Bluefields, the Corn Islands, Bocas del Toro, Colón, and Limón.
Despite treaties such as the 1786 Convention of London, which mandated Britain's evacuation from the Mosquitia, many English-speaking settlers remained in the archipelago and pledged loyalty to the Spanish Crown. Oral histories suggest they did so under duress and maintained a strong degree of cultural and political autonomy. In 1803, the Spanish transferred the islands' jurisdiction from the Captaincy General of Guatemala to the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, a precursor to Colombia's modern territorial claims. By around 1822, the islands became officially part of Colombia. By the 19th century, the islands' communities had forged a distinct ethnic identity based in historical struggle, language, land tenure, and religious life.
In 1853, the emancipation of enslaved people in San Andrés marked a pivotal moment in the formation of Raizal political consciousness and Afro-descendant self-determination. In the decades that followed, Raizal communities worked to consolidate local governance structures, maintain communal land tenure, and deepen kinship and economic ties across the western Caribbean. The islands remained relatively isolated from direct Colombian state control during this period, allowing Raizal lifeways to continue with a strong sense of cultural and political autonomy.
This began to shift in the early 20th century. In 1912, the Colombian government designated the archipelago as a National Intendancy, initiating a formal process of state integration. Known as colombianización, this policy aimed to culturally and administratively align the islands with the mainland. Spanish-language education, Catholic instruction, and the centralization of legal and property systems increasingly displaced existing Raizal institutions and landholding practices. These measures were experienced not simply as assimilation, but as a form of cultural and territorial encroachment that threatened the foundations of Raizal identity and sovereignty.
The declaration of San Andrés as a Freeport in 1953 accelerated these transformations. Economic liberalization and tourism development triggered waves of internal migration from mainland Colombia, leading to land dispossession, demographic displacement, and the erosion of traditional livelihoods. In response, Raizal communities began to organize more explicitly around the defense of their rights. Political resistance linked to cultural revitalization became a central mode of asserting Raizal autonomy in the face of national and global pressures.
Historically, the Raizal population constituted the overwhelming majority in San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina. They are Afro-Caribbean people descended from formerly enslaved individuals and Jamaican settlers, and they have maintained strong cultural, linguistic, and religious ties to other Creole communities in the Caribbean basin. However, since the mid-20th century, migration from mainland Colombia has significantly altered the demographic landscape. Raizales now constitute less than half of the total population on the islands. At the same time, Raizales have also formed diaspora communities, particularly in Colombia's urban centers like Bogotá, and in Central America and the U.S. These communities continue to advocate for the rights of islanders and promote Raizal cultural and political identity from abroad.
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the Raizal people have resisted state-led assimilationist policies that threatened their cultural and political autonomy. Spanish-language education, the expansion of Catholic institutions, and the privatization of communal lands sparked waves of protest and organizing. In the 1960s, activist Marcos Archbold Britton petitioned the United Nations on behalf of the islands, signaling the beginning of a formal separatist movement. By the 1980s, the Sons of the Soil (S.O.S.) movement and the Archipelago Movement for Ethnic Native Self-Determination (AMEN-SD), led by Rev. Raymond Howard Britton, emerged as key platforms for Raizal political advocacy. These groups called for land rights, cultural preservation, and political self-determination.
In 2002, Raizal leaders issued a collective declaration of self-determination demanding recognition and justice. Today, organizing continues in both moderate and radical forms, ranging from calls for increased autonomy within Colombia to demands for full independence. Despite growing challenges, Raizal communities have maintained their language, oral traditions, and religious practices, particularly Protestantism, as vital sources of resilience and resistance.
Visual and material art has played a central role in sustaining cultural memory and articulating political critiques. Iris Abrahams painted island seascapes and landscapes as a mode of resistance to Colombian tourism and economic encroachment, capturing the island's pre-Freeport beauty and autonomy. Carson Hodgson is known for his vibrant murals and landscapes that foreground Afro-diasporic identity through depictions of vernacular island architecture. Carley Jackson, a native of San Andrés of Caymanian descent, has painted hundreds of works in realism, depicting landscapes and cultural scenes; he has exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally. Brazilian-born artist Aurea Oliveira Santos, who settled on the island more than 40 years ago, has created landscape murals and an 8-meter illustrated timeline narrating 500 years of local history, from Indigenous presence to contemporary devastation, using art as a tool for historical recovery. Mixie Stephens and Martha Lucía Forbes preserve traditional Raizal craft and architecture in miniature, using recycled and native materials like wild pine. Elba Jay Archibold works in patchwork, centering domestic life and women's memory in her textile art, while Lucy Chow paints lush landscapes and scenes of island life. Sculptor Ernest Lynton and the late muralist and painter Eligio Corpus have also contributed powerfully to the region's visual and political culture through public art and community-based storytelling.
Music and performance are equally central to Raizal cultural life. Musicians like Job Saas & the Heartbeat (reggae), Elkin Robinson (Caribbean folk), and Elijah (traditional and fusion genres) continue to shape the sonic identity of the islands and their global diasporas. Film has also become a powerful medium for documenting and amplifying Raizal resistance. A forthcoming documentary titled RAIZAL: Taking Back Paradise seeks to tell "the incredible story about the native people of the archipelago of San Andrés and their quest to take back what has been taken away from them." Through interviews, archival footage, and contemporary storytelling, the film aims to illuminate ongoing struggles for land, culture, and autonomy while providing an accessible platform for transnational solidarity.
● AMEN-SD (Archipelago Movement for Ethnic Native Self-Determination) — Advocates for Raizal sovereignty, cultural preservation, and self-determination.
● Sons of the Soil (S.O.S.) Movement — Grassroots organization challenging state assimilation and promoting Raizal autonomy.
● ORFA (Raizal Community Organization for Residents Outside the Archipelago) — Represents diaspora Raizales in political and cultural forums.
● Raizal Youth Organization — Youth-led collective promoting Raizal self-determination through advocacy on land rights, intergenerational knowledge, and ecological justice.
● Banco de la República Cultural Center (San Andrés) — Offers oral history programming, regional collections, children's activities, and a memory lab focused on Raizal storytelling and identity.
● Pretty Ai House (San Andrés) — Cultural space dedicated to Raizal heritage and education.
● Island House Museum (San Andrés) — Showcases the material culture, oral history, and domestic life of the Raizal community through a restored traditional home.
● Posada Nativa Miss Trinie (San Andrés) — A native guesthouse reflecting island architecture and founded by the first medical doctor on San Andrés.
● Midnight Dream Theater (Providencia) — A performance and film space supporting cultural expression and community gathering.
● Old Providence Records (Providencia) — A local studio supporting the recording and production of island music and cultural content.
● De Albuquerque, Klaus and William F. Stinner. "The Colombianization of Black San Andreans," Caribbean Studies 17, nos. 3–4 (1977–78): 171–81.
● Crawford, Sharika. "'Under the Colombian Flag': Nation-Building on San Andrés and Providence Islands, 1886–1930." PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh, 2009.
● Crawford, Sharika. "A Transnational World Fractured but not Forgotten: British West Indian Migration to the Colombian Islands of San Andrés and Providence." New West Indian Guide 85, nos. 1&2 (2011): 31-52.
● Steele Mitchell, Andrés. "Evangelización, escolarización y colombianización en San Andrés, Isla: El Colegio Sagrada Familia. (1928-1978)." PhD diss., Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2014.
● Crawford, Sharika. "From Native to Raizal: Indigeneity and the Anglophone Afro-Caribbean Heritage of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina." In Histories of Perplexity, Colombia, 1970s – 2010s (Routledge, 2024): 65 – 83.
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