Saya (art form)

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The Saya is a music and dance that originated in Los Yungas-Chicaloma Bolivia. The artform's name comes from the Kikongo term nsaya, which means communal work led by a singing voice, akin to a work song.^{[citation needed]} The Saya's instrumentation and dance also reflects the influence of traditional Andean music.

Enslaved Africans were taken to South America to work in a range of industries. Their customs, music, was merged with the native cultures gave rise to mixtures. The specific history of many of these practices has disappeared, but many authors have worked to identify cultural survivals in Afro-descended groups throughout South America.^[1]

Many dances have been derived from the Saya. Caporales was based on these dances, created and presented to the public for the first time in 1969 by the Estrada brothers who were inspired in the Afro-Bolivian Saya character of the Caporal.^[2] This character was, in turn, inspired by the foreman on the haciendas of the Yungas.

In the present day, Afro-Bolivians have used the Saya in their struggle to reclaim their rights within Bolivian society. In this movement, the Saya has functioned both as a way of expressing and solidifying Afro-Bolivian identity among black Bolivians, and as a way to express their identity in the context of national social movements based on ethnic identities.^[3][4]

Many festivals where the dance is performed have a prominent religious aspect. One supposedly dances for The Virgin Mary and promises to dance for three years of one's life.