Cofan People and History
If you do an internet search for the Cofan Indians, you may come up with a few results. Unfortunately, the name that these people have given themselves would yield nothing. The slightly difficult to pronounce, "A'i" is the word that is used to self describe a people who live at peace with themselves in the jungles of eastern Ecuador… the upper Amazon Basin. "A'i" means "people." If you are not A'i, you are not of common blood. Your skin may be white or you may be from another part of the forest, where the birds sing a different song.
For the sake of ease I will furthermore refer to my friends as the "Cofan," the name given to them by Spanish explorers. The Cofan Indians are native to the forests of the upper Amazon basin. They make their home in one of five villages, separated by rivers, forest and colonist's plots. Since 1994 I have spent time among these amazing people, and after earning their trust I carefully consider every individual or group who may wish to join me and meet them.
From Randy Borman:
"The culture and people known to the outside world as Cofan were first contacted by Europeans in 1536. The Cofan territory encompassed four river systems extending from their cloud forest headwaters on the eastern slopes of the Andes to their confluences with larger rivers farther out on the Amazon floodplain."
The Cofan language was remotely related to the Chibchan family." A'ingae, or "people's tongue" is extremely unique and bears no similar linguistic relatives currently in existence.
"Their numbers were between 15,000 and 20,000 people. If they had a memory of ever living elsewhere, it has not been recorded either in Spanish records or in their own verbal histories and legends. They were a canoe people, with large villages and towns and had both warlike and commercial relations with their neighboring tribes. They made beautiful stone tools and used bows, slings, and hardwood swords in addition to spears and blowguns for both hunting and war.
They called themselves simply A'I, meaning "people." Further identification was based on the river where one lived; hence, when the Spaniards asked, "What people are you?" The community first contacted answered, "Cofa Na'esu A'I, and the name for the whole Cofan people came into use. The Cofa Na'e is now known as the Aguarico (river) and is located in the northeastern corner of present-day Ecuador."
Prolonged contact with Europeans occurred in the late 1500's as a result of Spanish attempts to colonize the area. Though many Cofan people died during this time, eventually the Spanish gave up and left.
In 1602 a Jesuit missionary made his way into Cofan territory seeking converts. His peaceful endeavor lasted about ten years but ended in bloodshed when the Cofans rebelled.
"The following centuries saw scattered forays by Roman Catholic missionaries and various traders, gold hunters and colonists. No large scale military venture was ever again attempted, there was no need." The introduction of European diseases caused the Cofan population to suffer many losses. Malaria and Tuberculosis continued to effect fatalities among the Cofans and by the 1930's there were probably no more than 300-350 Cofans alive. "A survey done by a Colombian anthropologist in the early 1940's includes a census which lists approximately 400 people, and describes them as healthy, sensible, and potentially valuable citizens for Colombia. Professor R.E. Schultes, (then a) botanist at Harvard, visited the groups on the San Miguel and was deeply impressed by their knowledge of plants and medicines. But no attempt was made by either Ecuador or Colombia to bring the Cofans into the mainstream of their national existences.
"The 1930's and 1940's were a time of increasing isolation for the surviving members." Trade routes via the Napo River into the Amazon basin were closed off in 1941 when Peru claimed its Amazonian border. The Cofans perhaps saw an outside trader once or twice a year. They dedicated themselves to hunting, fishing, subsistence agriculture, artisan work, shamanism and family life. The Cofans' nearest neighbors, the Siona, shared areas of this vast forest in peace until the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company arrived to the area in 1945.
"The Cofans made long journeys to see the amphibious airplane used to bring equipment to the area. …The ways of the outsiders were considered. It seems never to have occurred to the Cofans in these years that they had any rights to defend in the face of this invasion.
Shell pulled out in 1949. Prices of oil were low, the government was demanding both a trans-Andean pipeline and a bigger share of the profits than what Shell thought fair, and the company cut its losses and left for blacker fields. For the Cofans, this was affirmation that the outsiders never really came to stay. It was also the beginning of a breathing period which allowed the Cofan people to gain sufficient abilities to be able to survive the next onslaught of Western expansion."
In 1954 missionaries with linguistic skills arrived to the Cofan territories and established contact. They gathered rudimentary word lists and developed plans to translate the New Testament into the Cofan language. "On one hand, a small indigenous culture of Amazonia…on the other hand, representatives of the huge American culture of the idealistic post-war years. In the years that followed the first meeting from the Summer Institute of Linguistics missionaries, some cultural changes began to occur. The Cofans were faced for the first time, with values and ideals of another people. In March 1955, Bub Borman was able to take up residence in the Cofan village of Doreno and be began to learn the language.
The chief at the time, Guillermo Quenamá may have assumed that there was a good chance for fair dealings with this outsider. "For the Cofans of present-day Doreno, the decade beginning in 1955 was a golden age when the river still belonged to them, the vast forests teemed with game, the mestizo traders were still bringing the trade goods from down river, access to the outside was available via the SIL airplane, beads and cloth were abundant, and life was good.
The population began to grow as Western medicines were added to the already extensive catalogue of forest medicines. The specter of a different world ahead was hazy. The need for skills very different from those of their ancestors was not a concept easily understood by the people."
A more extensive account of the Cofan's history can be found on the web at: www.cofan.org
Randy Borman, the author of the quoted material above, was born into the Cofan culture in 1955. I, Tour Operator of Jaguar Eco Tours, met Randy in 1994 and came to know him in the years since. My initial visit to the Cofan territory was by chance. The second one was by choice, a few years later. The Cofan people were robbed of their native territory with the exploration for and the exploitation of crude oil in the 1970's. I investigated this topic for several research papers throughout my undergraduate years at the University of Washington. In order to not 're-invent' the wheel, I focused my field work in Ecuador on Ecotourism. The Cofans had some wonderful opportunities to host tourists in the 1990's. A floating hotel, owned and operated by Metropolitan Touring out of Quito, brought and hosted tourists to the wildlife reserve within which the Cofans live. This reserve is known as Cuyabeno. Cuyabeno, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, has allowed a relatively small amount of visitors since it became a reserve. Prior to becoming a reserve, very few people other than Spanish conquistadors and military personnel had explored the area.
Since 'Flotel Francisco Orellana' and Metropolitan Touring left the area in the late 1990's, Cuyabeno has become very restrictive. There is no longer an exclusive contract for tourism in the area. The Cofans do not experience regular visits from outsiders. The Cofans simply live on the land that they are entitled to protect.
The Cofan people have defended this territory as their own since I have known them. Their autonomy and cultural preservation is of utmost importance to them.
At present, one Cofan boy lives in Seattle Washington where he attends school. At the ripe old age of 22, I advocated for his right to travel outside of Ecuador. A month later he held my hand and walked aboard an airplane headed for the United States. He is due to finish high school in June 2006.
A handful of youths live in urban areas attending Ecuadorian schools in the Spanish language. Most Cofan children have extremely limited access to education and some do not attend school at all. School costs money; most Cofans have none.
Randy Borman
Randall B. Borman, son of Summer Institute of Linguistics missionaries Bub and Bobbie Borman, was born in 1955 in the rain forest of eastern Ecuador. He grew up and continues living and working as a member of the Cofan culture. He and his wife Amelia, live with their three boys at the Cofan Survival Foundation in Quito, Ecuador. They keep a home in the jungle but are currently bridging the Cofan world with the urban life. Quito is not home, but temporarily fosters an environment for their children's educational endeavors which may ensure future autonomous success of the Cofan people.
