Uchicho | |
---|---|
King of the Afro-Bolivians | |
Coronation | 1823 |
Predecessor | Monarchy established |
Successor | Bonifaz Pinedo |
Born | Kingdom of Kongo |
House | Pinedo |
Uchicho was the first King of the Afro-Bolivians. He was captured and brought to Bolivia as a slave toward 1820. He was crowned as Afro-Bolivian king in 1832.
Uchicho was born in the Kingdom of Kongo into the royal family. He was captured and enslaved and brought to Upper Peru, a province of the Spanish Empire, toward 1820. [1] [2] He was enslaved in the mines of Potosí and then in 1823 by Manuel Ignacio de Pinedo y Bilbao la Vieja at the hacienda Santa Gertrudis in the region of Mururata. [3]
Uchicho bore tribal marks only held by royalty, and was therefore recognized by other slaves as a prince. [4]
Uchicho was crowned King of the Afro-Bolivians by the slave community in 1832. [2] [1] A year before in 1831 slavery had been abolished in Bolivia. Uchicho was succeeded as king by Bonifaz, who later adopted the surname Pinedo from the plantation owner. [1]
The Royal Order of Merit of Prince Uchicho, the Afro-Bolivian monarchy's official dynastic order of merit founded in 2012, is named after him. [5]