Prof. Dr. Luz Adriana Maya-Restrepo

Of the 124 processes carried out against African people and their descendants by the Inquisition Court of Cartagena de Indias, between 1614 and 1721, 80 correspond to African, Afro-Caribbean or Afro-Grenadian women. The accusations made by the inquisitors were for witchcraft, sorcery and folk medicine. However, when carrying out an Africanist reading of such files, we find that the practices done by these women from the coasts of West Africa, from the region between Senegal and Angola and by their daughters already born in the Caribbean, emerge as forms of symbolic and practical marronage powerfully anchored in religious practices and rituals inherited from the different religions of West Africa from which they came. All of them at the service of the resistance against slavery. Practices and beliefs that came into contact with those typical of idolatrous Catholicism in the great basin of the Caribbean and that were also in contact with the beliefs and practices of some aboriginal populations in this region.

I do not intend in this investigation task to anchor such a debate in the concept of miscegenation, mestizaje or syncretism, but quite contrary to these general trends in Afro-Latin American studies, I intend to demonstrate how the permanence of the African cult of the spirits of the ancestors, in its varied manifestations, such as those coming from the Voodoo of the Gulf of Guinea, or those of the Bantu religions that arrived in Cartagena de Indias or other Caribbean ports, survived throughout the seventeenth century and at least until the first quarter of the 18th century and were notably expressed in multiple forms of female resistance to slavery in the continental Caribbean and in the insular Caribbean too. Being the corporality and the art of loving well the forms of feminine resistance par excellence against slavery in the Caribbean.

Luz Adriana Maya Restrepo is a PhD in History from the University of Paris 1 (Pantheon-Sorbonne) and a professor in the Department of History at the Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá-Colombia) where she has been a teacher, researcher and consultant since 1993. She has published books and articles about Africans and their descendants in America. Among them stands out Witchcraft and reconstruction of identities among Africans and their descendants in Nueva Granada, 17th century which was awarded the National Prize for Unpublished Work—History Modality by the Ministry of Culture of Colombia in 2003.

Her investigative and consulting work links history, memory, identity, heritage and cultural entrepreneurship for local development in Colombia, Latin America and the Caribbean. His main focus of interest concerns Africanist and Afro-American studies and cultural and educational public policies. With an emphasis on studies related to persistent inequalities and racism towards descendants of African people in Colombia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Her historical research and her activity as adviser to the Colombian State and international entities have nourished debates on cultural legislation and public policy referring to the issue of Africa and Afro-American heritage in museums as well about cultural entrepreneurship for local development. Within the research topics in convergence with his academic-political work related to Afro-Colombian and Afro-Latin American ethnic legislation, institutional racism of the state, violence and public policies stand out.

Among the tasks and positions that link history, public policies and research, her performance as curator of the exhibition entitled Mandinga Sea! Africa in Antioquia held at the Museum of Antioquia (December 2013–March 2014). In addition, he produced the museum script on Afro-Colombian communities at the National Museum of Colombia and the traveling exhibition Legacies of Afro-Colombian communities as well as the Africa in Colombia script at the Museum of the Inquisition of Cartagena de Indias. She has participated in the creation of the Network of Afro-American Religions (Havana-Cuba) and the Center for Afro-American Studies (Esmeraldas-Ecuador), both sponsored by UNESCO. She was a member of the National Heritage Council of the Colombian Ministry of Culture (2009–2010). She has been visiting professor at the Institut des Hautes Études de l'Amérique Latine –IHEAL— (Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle-Paris III)   and at the University of California (Santa Cruz).

1999
PhD in History

Doctoral dissertation title: "Witchcraft and reconstruction of identities among Africans and their descendants in New Granada, 17th century"

Université de Paris 1, Centre de Recherches Africaines (Pantheon, Sorbonne), Paris-France

1988–1989
D.E.A. (Diplôme d´Etudes Approfondies-Advanced Studies Diploma) in African History.

Monograph dissertation title: "De Instauranda Aethiopum Salute: a documentary contribution to Africanist and Afro-Americanist history"

Université de Paris 1, Centre de Recherches Africaines (Pantheon, Sorbonne), Paris-France

1986–1988
Master's in History.

Monograph dissertation title: "Critical Balance on Afro-Colombian Bibliography (1954 to the present)"

Université de Paris 1, Centre de Recherche Africaines (Pantheon, Sorbonne), Paris-France

1985–1986
D.E.U.G (Diplôme d´Etudes Générales--BA in History, Université de Paris 1 (Pantheon, Sorbonne), Paris France

• 2023. Witchcraft and reconstruction of identities among Africans and their descendants in New Granada, 17th century. Revised and expanded version. Bogotá: National Press/ Ministry of Culture. 
• 2015. "¡Mandinga Sea! Africa in Antioquia." Exhibition catalogue. Bogota: Uniandes Editions/Museo de Antioquia. Action in Public History. 
• 2010. "Mali, Kongo and Benin. Three great kingdoms of West Africa connected with the history of Colombia." In Rutas de Libertad. 500 years of crossing, edited by Roberto Burgos, 107–122. Bogotá: Ministry of Culture, Javegraf Workshops.
• 2010. "African diasporas in Colombia. Visibility and invisibility of the legacies of West African cultures in times of the Bicentennial of Independence." In Rutas de Libertad. 500 years of crossing, edited by Roberto Burgos, 122–139. Bogotá: Ministry of Culture, Javegraf Workshops.
• 2009. "Institutional racism, violence and cultural policies. Colonial legacies and policies of difference in Colombia." In Critical History Magazine, special edition: 218–245.
• 2003. Atlas of Afro-Colombian Cultures. Bogotá: Ministry of National Education. 
• 2003. As editor. With Diana Bonnett. Balance and challenge of the history of Colombia at the end of the 21st century. Tribute to Jaime Jaramillo Uribe. Bogotá: Center for Social Studies (CESO), Faculty of Social Sciences and Department of History of the Universidad de los Andes. 
• 2002. "History, Afro-Andean spirituality and heritage. Saints and relics at the crossroads of the material and the immaterial." In Memories of the III Meeting for the promotion and dissemination of the folkloric heritage of the Andean countries. Spanish influence and legacy in the traditional cultures of the American Andes. Granada, (Spain) October 12 to 19, 195–204. Andrés Bello Agreement. 
• 2002. "Paula de Eguiluz and the art of loving well. Notes for a history of female maroonage in the Caribbean, 17th century." In Critical History. Bogotá: Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de los Andes. 
• 2001. "Memories in conflict and peace in Colombia. Discrimination against the black(s)." In Latin American Studies on culture and social transformations in times of globalization 2, 179–197. Caracas, Latin American Committee of Social Sciences –CLACSO.
• 2001. "The corp-orality, the party and the communication." In Memories of the II Encounter for the promotion and dissemination of the folkloric heritage of the Andean countries. African influences in the traditional cultures of the Andean countries. Santa Ana de Coro (Venezuela), 57–63. Andrés Bello Agreement.
• 2000. "Afro-Andinidad: memories in transit." In Memories of the Meeting for the promotion and dissemination of the folk heritage of the Andean countries. Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), 295–303. Andrés Bello Agreement.
• 2000. "African Medicine and Botany in New Granada, 17th Century." In Critical History 19. Bogotá:  Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de los Andes.
• 1998. "Demography of trafficking in Cartagena de Indias 1533–1580." In Los Afrocolombianos. Volume VI: Human Geography of Colombia, 9–53. Bogotá: Colombian Institute of Hispanic Culture (ICCH).
• 1998. "'Witchcraft' and ethnic reconstruction of slaves in New Granada, 17th century." In Los Afrocolombianos. Volume VI: Human Geography of Colombia, 191-219. Bogotá: Colombian Institute of Hispanic Culture (ICCH).
• 1997. As work coordinator. Afro-Colombians. Volume VI: Human Geography of Colombia. Bogotá: Colombian Institute of Hispanic Culture (ICCH).
• 1994. "Study proposal for Afro-American training." In América Negra 6, 139–158. Bogotá: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
• 1992. "The witches of Zaragoza: resistance and cultural maroonage in the mines of Antioquia (1619-1622)." In América Negra 4, 85–101. Bogotá: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. 
• 1989. "Africa: spiritual legacies in New Granada, 17th century." In Critical History 12, 29–43. Bogotá: Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de los Andes.

Press articles

• 2009. "An integration from heritage." Newspaper El Comercio, Lima-Peru. 11/14/2009.
• 2005. "Afro-Colombian diversity. The gesture and word." Special delivery of the Week magazine Our heritage. Bogotá, DC, Colombia, Semana Magazine, June 2005.
• 1993. Colombia, Country of regions. CINEP Project and El Colombiano. Offprint # 30. Chapter VII: Pacific Region. 1. Population. Medellín, Colombia, December 5, 1993. pp: 465–480.

Television programs (Actions in Public History)

• 2016. Historical advice for the Telenovela of RCN-Colombia titled: La esclava blanca. Netflix series. 
• 2011. Discovery Channel. Participation in the program entitled In the name of Faith. Regarding the history of the Inquisition in Latin America.