Woman once sold into servitude now Paraguay cabinet member

[Judi Lynn]

Woman once sold into servitude now Paraguay cabinet member
Posted on Mon, Aug. 18, 2008

ASUNCION, Paraguay -- An Indian woman who says she was captured in the jungle and sold into forced labor as a girl became a member of Paraguay's Cabinet on Monday, pledging to improve life for the South American nation's indigenous population.

Path-breaking President Fernando Lugo formally named Margarita Mbywangi minister of indigenous affairs as the former Roman Catholic bishop began setting up his government following his inauguration on Friday, which ended 61 years of rule by the Colorado Party.

The 46-year-old Ache chief, a mother of three who is studying for her high school diploma, becomes the first indigenous person to oversee Indian affairs in Paraguay following a career as an activist defending the lands of her people, a group of several hundred who until recently were nearly all hunter-gatherers.

''We are immediately going to help colleagues from different communities who are experiencing a difficult situation due to lack of potable water, food and clothing,'' she told the Channel 2 television.

Mbywangi said when she was 4 years old, ``the whites kidnapped me in the jungle and I was sold several times to families of hacienda owners.''

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/647013.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Paraguay: Former slave gets cabinet position

Paraguay: Former slave gets cabinet position
Margarita Mbywangi becomes first indigenous person to oversee ethnic Indian affairs in the country
Lee Glendinning and agencies guardian.co.uk, Tuesday August 19 2008 09:49 BST

~snip~
She said her masters told her she was an Indian and began to seek her origins "until I found my people in the community of Chupapou".

The most vocal opposition to Mbywangi's appointment has come from other Indian leaders, who fear she will side with her own people in disputes over land, but she has promised to meet with those who opposed her appointment to ease their concerns.

"We are immediately going to help colleagues from different communities who are experiencing a difficult situation due to lack of potable water, food and clothing," she told the television station.

She said she would begin to work on legalising Indian titles to lands that sometimes have been claimed by outsiders, as well as to conserve the forests.

"For the Indian, the forest is his mother, his life, his present and future," she said.

According to government figures, about 90,000 Paraguayans say they belong to one of the country's 400 Indian communities.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/19/paraguay?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront



Margarita Mbywangi