africans were already in central america before both cristobal or a slave trade arrived did you not have to read his letters and journals in school according to cristobal's journals he encountered africans when he traveled through panama and wanted to know how they got there apparently they had been trading with nativos for decades mirimba are from africa also the design for the nativo drum is the exact same as those of west africa most of the negrito population is mixed into the salvadorans like the nativo population which has disappeared