Pope denounces ‘suffering and humiliation’ of African enslaved people during Peru visit
ZAÑA, Peru (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday denounced the “suffering and humiliation” endured by African enslaved people as he made a tangible show of remorse in Peru following his historic apology for the Holy See’s own role in legitimizing the African slave trade in the Americas.
The U.S.-born Leo, whose own family tree includes enslaved people and slave owners, delivered the remarks in the northern Peruvian city of Zaña, a UNESCO-recognized memorial site of slavery and center of the Afro-Peruvian community today.
Zaña is part of Leo’s former diocese of Chiclayo, and the former Robert Prevost came here often to pray before the relics of a 16th century saint, including the night before his ordination as a bishop. He knows the city and the history of African-descended Peruvians well, and the continued discrimination that Afro-Peruvians face today.
In remarks to the community Saturday, Leo said Zaña “preserves the memory of generations of Africans who were torn from their homes and subjected to slavery.”
“Many endured great suffering and humiliation. Dear brothers and sisters of African descent, today I want to express my affection and closeness to you,” he said. “Thank you for all that you contribute to the life of this church.”
Zaña, a historic town in Chiclayo province, was recognized by UNESCO in 2017 as a “site of memory of slavery and African cultural heritage.” The recognition was the first of its kind granted to a Peruvian Afro-descendant community or any comparable community along South America’s Pacific Coast, the government says.
Zaña is also home to the sanctuary of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, the first archbishop of Lima. Mogrovejo is revered here for having denounced abuses against Indigenous and enslaved people by Spanish colonizers, and Leo has made clear on this trip that he modelled his ministry on Mogrovejo’s example.
In addition to having criss-crossed his vast archdiocese on foot and horseback, Mogrovejo learned Indigenous languages and was known for having confirmed St. Martin de Porres, the first Black saint of the Americas and the patron saint of racial harmony, social justice and people of multiracial backgrounds.
“I know that many families in this region suffer because of crime, extortion and insecurity,” Leo said Saturday in the shadow of the Mogrovejo sanctuary. “I am pained at the thought of those who live in fear, of people whose honest labor is under threat and of those who continue to experience discrimination. I hold you in my prayers and ask the Lord to grant you the peace you so deeply need.”
In his first encyclical, “Magnificent Humanity,” Leo made a sweeping apology for the role of past popes in legitimizing slavery in the Americas and failing to condemn it for centuries. It was a reference to the series of 15th-century directives from the Vatican that authorized European sovereigns to conquer Africa and the Americas and enslave non-Christians.
“It is impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many in stark contrast to their immeasurable dignity as persons infinitely loved by the Lord,” Leo wrote in the encyclical. “For this, in the name of the church, I sincerely ask for pardon.”
The estimated 100,000 African slaves brought to Peru after the arrival of Spanish conquistadores toiled in sugar plantations and silver mines, with some becoming urban artisans. At one point, they and their descendants were more than 40% of Lima’s population.
Blacks now are a small fraction of Peru’s 35 million people. But they have struggled to advance in the more than 170 years since emancipation.
“Historically, the Afro-Peruvian community — much like other Afro-Latin American communities — has faced a twofold form of invisibility: the denial of its demographic and cultural weight in the nation’s formation, and the reduction of its contributions to mere folklore,” said Alejandro Frigerio, researcher at the National Council for Scientific Research of Argentina who focuses in Afro-American religions.
He said Peru had made significant strides in institutional recognition of the community, but “the primary challenge remains ensuring equitable access to rights and eradicating both everyday and institutional racism.”
The 2017 national census recorded 1,311 Zaña residents who identified as Afro-Peruvian, compared with 78,639 across the entire Lambayeque region.
On Saturday, Leo addressed them, saying he was aware that many families in the region are suffering because of crime and extortion.
“I am pained at the thought of those who live in fear, of people whose honest labor is under threat and of those who continue to experience discrimination,” he said. “I hold you in my prayers and ask the Lord to grant you the peace you so deeply need.”
There was a hint on the day Leo arrived in Peru that he would address the legacy of African-descended Peruvians when Susana Baca, the Latin Grammy-winning Afro-Peruvian singer, serenaded him on Lima’s Plaza Mayor.
Baca, arguably the best-known Afro-Peruvian musician, was also Peru’s first Black Cabinet minister and became a leading figure in the campaign to end the discrimination that has long made second-class citizens of Black Peruvians and Peru’s Indigenous peoples.
Known for her velvet voice and barefoot dancing, Baca told The Associated Press that she felt a special connection to Leo because of the importance he has placed in asking forgiveness for past injustices.
“I believe that one of the most important things in the history of Afro-Peruvians is that we did not remain submerged despite our history of suffering,” she said after her barefoot performance on Wednesday. “We are an Afro-Peruvian people who have learned to forgive.”
“And perhaps this is what connects me, in my conscience, to the pope,” she said in an email. “I feel that in all his homilies and teachings, the pope emphasizes the importance of asking for forgiveness and forgiving — that the injustices of many moments in history are less painful if we have the capacity to forgive and to be forgiven.”
She said she chose to sing “Canción de Fe” (“Song of Faith”) and “Si me quitaran totalmente todo” (“If Everything Were Taken From Me”) to the pope because they embody the same notion of faith that Leo shares.
Members of Zaña’s Afro-descendant community celebrated the return of Leo, their former bishop, and were particularly proud of Baca’s performance before an American pope with Black ancestors.
“I’m so proud to see an Afro-Peruvian person singing to the pope, and to know that Black blood courses through his veins,” said Felipe Gutierrez, a local chef and poet known as Frontado.
All four of Leo’s maternal great-grandparents were “free people of color” in 19th-century Louisiana census records. As part of the melting pot of French, Spanish, African and Native American cultures in Louisiana, the pope’s maternal ancestors would be considered Creole.
Zaña is home to an Afro-Peruvian museum, which features a rich collection of historical photographs, plantation carts and percussion musical instruments of African origin from Peru, Cuba and Brazil. It also holds records relating to enslaved people and some of the shackles used to restrain them.
One of its walls has photos of the Chicago-born Leo during visits to the town when he was bishop. There are also large framed photographs of Barack Obama, the first Black U.S. president, and South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.
“They show us how someone who is Black as we are in Zaña became a president and we’re proud because we all deserve the same rights,” said Gutierrez, wearing a Chicago Bulls shirt with Michael Jordan’s iconic No. 23 on the back.
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Winfield contributed from Chiclayo, Peru.
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