The black witch as an abysmal otherness of the slave power: Cartagena de Indias, 1618-1622

Abstract

This article analyzes the regional formation of otherness in Cartagena de Indias as a result of the articulation between race, capital and patriarchy from the inquisitorial process on witchcraft charges made by the Holy Oice of the city in the early XVII Century against four enslaved women who came from the Gulf of Guinea. It concludes that through slave power, the representation of the black witch was deined by a theological-political approach of the government concerning the uprising of enslaved women.