Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Bolivia's little-known tribal kingdom

Bolivia's little-known tribal kingdom

For hundreds of years, the tiny Kingdom of the Afro-Bolivians lay hidden from the outside world.

Bolivia’s La Paz is the highest capital in the world. At 3,690m in elevation, its air is cold and thin, leaving many visitors gasping for oxygen and experiencing altitude sickness, known locally as soroche. But if you push past the chaotic traffic and drive 100km north-east, descending into the sub-tropical Yungas valleys, you’ll discover a cluster of quiet villages hidden in the forest connected by a labyrinth of dirt roads.

There, hidden amid the tapirs, jaguars and spectacled bears that call the Yungas home is a remarkable community that has remained largely unrecognised by the outside world for nearly 200 years: the Kingdom of the Afro-Bolivians – the spiritual capital of thousands of Bolivians of African descent and one of the last kingdoms left in the Americas.

The roughly 2,000 inhabitants of this hidden, humble kingdom are mainly farmers who live next to their small land plots, where they grow coca, citrus and coffee. In Mururata, a village of around 350 inhabitants, free-range chickens cluck loudly on dirt roads, children play together in the streets, and men and women work the land with hoes and emerge from the forest carrying newly chopped bundles of firewood. Others sit in front of their tin-roofed homes, greeting passersby and waiting for the first stars to appear in the sky at dusk.

Afro-Bolivians are descendants of the enslaved West Africans brought by the Spanish between the 16th and 19th Centuries to work in the mines of Potosí, a city in south-western Bolivia that was more populated than London in the early 17th Century. According to Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano, the mines are notorious for claiming the lives of roughly 8 million enslaved indigenous South Americans and Africans over a 300-year period – many of whom died as a result of being overworked, underfed and suffering in the region's extreme cold.

Nestled in the Yungas valley, Mururata is the centre of the Kingdom of the Afro-Bolivians


In his book Los Afroandinos de los Siglos XVI al XX, former Bolivian MP Jorge Medina, an Afro-Bolivian himself, explained that his ancestors couldn’t adapt to the cold weather of Potosí in Bolivia's southern highlands. In the beginning of the 19th Century, they were relocated to the warm Yungas to work on the Spanish-owned hacienda plantation estates. It was here where this unofficial "kingdom" formed in 1820 among a group of enslaved Afro-Bolivians. Though this mini-monarchy has always functioned more like a tribe, after 187 years, the kingdom was finally recognised by the Bolivian government in 2007.

Mururata is the centre of this kingdom and is where the king of Afro-Bolivians, Julio Bonifaz Pinedo lives and "rules" over the community's 2,000 residents – yet, it would be difficult to recognise him, as he largely blends in with the other villagers. In fact, one might buy a bundle of bananas from him without realising his title, as he manages a small grocery store from his small brick-and-cement home.

King Julio farms, manages a local store and "rules" over the community's 2,000 residents


Co-managing the store is his wife, the queen Angélica Larrea. From their garden, they also sell mandarins, oranges, canned food, soft drinks and packages of cookies, among other basic supplies. At 78 years old, Pinedo still keeps himself busy. When I met him, he was in front of his store, spreading coca leaves on top of a large, blue tarp.

“These are the leaves I’ve harvested from my small plot of land. By exposing them to the strong midday sun, I have them ready in just about three hours. Then I’ll put them in sacks for the trucks that will take them to the markets of La Paz,” he explained. For centuries, the indigenous people of the Andes have chewed coca and used it in teas to suppress hunger, fatigue and help overcome soroche.

When Pinedo finished the task, he sat on a wooden chair at the entrance of his store as neighbours casually greeted “Don Julio”. The queen, Doña Angélica, sat behind him on the stairs leading to their home, where she watched a soap opera on a small television perched atop a tall display cabinet. Nothing about the royal family speaks of self-importance. Their humility has earned them well-deserved respect in the community.

According to the latest Bolivian census in 2012, more than 23,000 people identify as Afro-Bolivians. But taking into account people of mixed backgrounds, that number is probably more than 40,000, according to Medina. While the Afro-Bolivian diaspora has spread all over the country and the world in the last few hundred years, its roots and its king are here in the Yungas.

There are likely more than 40,000 Afro-Bolivians, and the diaspora has spread around the world


Pinedo is the first of the kingdom’s monarchs officially recognised by the Bolivian state. This recognition came during a broader acknowledgement of Bolivia’s minority ethnic groups when Evo Morales became the country's first indigenous president in 2006. Three years later, the country officially changed its name to The Plurinational State of Bolivia, and a new constitution was approved acknowledging 36 Bolivian nationalities (including the Afro-Bolivians) following a historic referendum that gave more power to the country’s long-marginalised indigenous groups.

The powers of the Afro-Bolivian king are similar to those of a traditional chief. Pinedo does not collect taxes or have a police force. “My title [as king] is mostly symbolic,” he said. “I’m not like these rich kings of Europe, but I represent the Afro-Bolivian community, and this is a huge responsibility to me.”

Pinedo's grandfather, Bonifacio, was crowned king in 1932


Larrea added, “If there is a conflict between two Afro-Bolivians they can come and ask him for advice.” She then explained Pinedo’s legendary lineage. “His ancestors were kings in Africa. That’s how it all started.”

According to Pinedo, when his ancestors arrived in the Yungas in 1820, one of his relatives named Uchicho was bathing in the river and his African companions saw that his torso had scars reminiscent of members of a tribal royal family. Uchicho turned out to be a prince from the ancient Kingdom of Kongo, and was acknowledged as such by the other enslaved people.

Pinedo reached for an old identification document from one of the cabinets. “This was my grandfather, Bonifacio, who became king in 1932,” he said of his predecessor. The document showed a photograph of a man wearing a vest and a kerchief tied around his neck. It said that he was born in 1880, with the address Hacienda de Mururata and that he was a labrador (farm worker). King Bonifacio only had daughters, so one generation was skipped, leaving the kingdom without a king for 38 years until Pinedo was crowned in 1992 by the community. In 2007, as Morales’ government expanded the acknowledgement of Bolivia's ethnic minorities, Medina successfully lobbied to hold an official crowning ceremony for Pinedo in La Paz.

In 2007, La Paz's governor crowned Pinedo and his wife at an official ceremony in the capital


As news of Pinedo's official recognition by the Bolivian state spread, so did the awareness of the nation's Afro-Bolivian community. “[A Bolivian production company] filmed a documentary about us and invited our family to travel to Uganda to see the land where our ancestors [are likely] from,” Pinedo said. He explained that in the few times he had left Mururata, he was aware that he was a minority in his own country. But by seeing so many black people who looked like members of his own family in Uganda, he became much more aware of his roots.

Look out from anywhere in Mururata and you'll see the green of laurels, arboreal ferns and other tropical trees covering the hills. On top of one of these hills is the Royal Cemetery, sadly in a state of neglect. Similarly, the premises of the old Hacienda Mururata, only a few minutes’ walk from the village's newly repaired main square of the village, are abandoned. But while some remains of the past are slowly disintegrating, the future of the kingdom is taking shape.

Pinedo and Larrea have a son, Prince Rolando. At 26 years old, he is studying law at the Universidad de Los Andes in La Paz, and his prospective role as king is central to his ambitions. “I would like to keep pushing forward to make the Afro-Bolivian community more recognised and visible, the way my father has done until now,” he said.

Mururata is surrounded by the Yungas' steep hills and filled with dense ferns and tropical trees


The wall next to where Pinedo likes to sit in his home is decorated with framed official documents, a family photograph and calendars that show his crowning ceremonies. “And where is the crown now? Can I see it?” I asked.

True to his humility, Pinedo went upstairs and came back with his crown tucked away inside a cardboard cookie box.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
×