Pope Leo denounces suffering of African enslaved people during Peru visit

Catholic Pope Leo XIV has denounced the “suffering and humiliation” endured by African enslaved people during a visit to the historic Afro-Peruvian city of Zaña.

The United States-born Leo’s own family tree includes both enslaved people and slave owners. The city is a UNESCO-recognised memorial site for slavery and a centre of the Afro-Peruvian community today.

"The fact that the Pope also has African ancestry is a source of pride for Zaña, because Zaña identifies with people of African descent," said Felipe Gutiérrez, an Afro-Peruvian descendant.

The city is part of Leo’s former diocese of Chiclayo, and the former Robert Prevost came here often to pray before the relics of a 16th-century saint, including the night before his ordination as a bishop.

He knows the city and the history of African-descended Peruvians well, and the continued discrimination that Afro-Peruvians face today.

In remarks to the community Saturday, Leo said Zaña “preserves the memory of generations of Africans who were torn from their homes and subjected to slavery”.

Zaña is also home to the sanctuary of St Turibius of Mogrovejo, the first archbishop of Lima.

He is revered there for having denounced abuses against Indigenous and enslaved people by Spanish colonisers, and Leo has made clear on this trip that he modelled his ministry on Mogrovejo’s example.

An estimated 100,000 African slaves were brought to Peru and their descendants have struggled to advance in the more than 170 years since emancipation.

Speaking to the community in Zana on Saturday, Leo said he was pained at the thought of those who continue to experience discrimination and holds them in his prayers.