Arhuaco people

The Ika or Arhuaco are an indigenous people and live on the southern side of the Sierra in Colombia. Together with their neighbors the Arsarios (also Malayo or Wiwa ) and the Kogi amounts to its membership to an estimated 20,000.

Way of life

The Ika live from the cultivation of maize, cassava, plantains, and various fruits. Spanish settlers have coffee, sugar cane, wheat and cattle introduced what is now also used as food.

The Ika call themselves " elder brothers " because they assume that they have a greater understanding about the world than other people, who therefore referred to as " younger brothers." The men wear a conical white hat, symbolizing the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra.

Problems

The Ika are a peaceful people. Many of them however, have been killed as a result of temporarily held battles between the army, leftist guerrillas and paramilitaries. The land of Ika is occupied since the 80's by settlers who use the area for the cultivation of marijuana and coca.

The field of Ikas was occupied since 1693 by Capuchin missionaries who were referred by a freedom movement of Ika in 1982 of the country.