The Mayangna are an indigenous group in the north of Nicaragua, living in small tributaries of the Chaco River, near Honduras. They are horticulturalists who also engage in hunting and fishing to supplement the products of their jungle gardens. While living quite remotely, they engage in the global economy through the sale of their frijoles (beans), sold off into international markets. When the Sandanistas came to power in the 80s, they attempted to nationalize indigenous lands, violently displacing the Mayangna and neighboring Moskito communities who then joined the US-backed Contras in order to fight for their land. They have since been able to move back into and rebuild their villages and have a degree of political autonomy.
They were only recently Christianized, during this time of violent displacement.
Mayangna
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Arang Dak: remote Mayangna village at front of wave of colono land theft
Expanded version of 29.03.2023 article in The Havana Times Settler invasion reaches core of Central American rainforest: Mayanga seek to protect land, avert violence Semi-autonomous Mayangna territories in the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve of northern Nicaragua, are experiencing a crisis of illegal settler land theft In the last 10 years, over 80 indigenous people have been […]
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Arang Dak: Photo exhibition at MPI EVA Leipzig: 1 July til 2 December 2022
Photos and Video Stills by Karl Frost Arang Dak is a Mayangna village in northern Nicaragua. It sits on the Lakus River in the semi-autonomous indigenous territory of Kipla Sait Disbaika, about 2 days boat ride from the nearest road access. Much of life centers around maintaining rotating fincas … forest plots which are cleared […]
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Coco and Bocay Rivers, Bosawas Nature Reserve, Nicaragua
Some photos from our trip to Bosawas Nature reserve in Nicaragua (December 2021). The purpose of the trip was primarily to visit the Mayangna village of Arang Dak on the Walak Was (Lakus River). Anthropologist Jeremy Koster has been visiting Arang Dak for many years, working with the Mayangna documenting their life. It is the […]
Quotidian Scenes
an exhibition of photographic anthropology by Karl Frost at the Max Planck Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig April 18 – July 30, 2019 Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig open hours 8:00 – 18:00 These photos and video stills were taken from the network of field sites associated with the Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and […]
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video collage from Arang dak (northern Nicaragua)
Arang dak is a small village in northern Nicaragua, near the border with Honduras, inhabited by members of the Mayangna indigenous community. Like many other indigenous villages, the people of Arang dak were violently forced to evacuate by the Sandinistas during the conflicts in that country in the 1980s. The Mayangna and Miskito fought the […]
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Portraits from Arang dak
Arang dak is a small village in northern Nicaragua, near the border with Honduras, inhabited by members of the Mayangna indigenous community. Like many other indigenous villages, the people of Arang dak were violently forced to evacuate by the Sandanistas during the conflicts in that country in the 1980s. The Mayangna and Miskito fought the […]