Afro-Paraguayans are Paraguayans who have predominantly or total Sub-Saharan African ancestry. They can be found in Camba Cua outside Asunción; Kamba Kokue outside Paraguari, and the city of Emboscada.

The first African slaves arrived at Paraguay in 1556. The majority of the slaves were of Nigerian and Angolan origin, similar to other black slaves arriving in South American from the slave trade. According to Argentine historian José Ignacio Telesca, the slaves that entered legally came from the slave ports of Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Córdoba, while those that entered illegally came from Brazil. The Spanish explorer Pedro de Mendoza - who reached the Rio de Plata in the 16th century and was appointed its viceroy - brought enslaved Africans to Paraguay. According to the Telesca, more than 4% of the population were slaves in colonial times, keeping the same percentage in the 19th century after independence. However, according to the Kamba Cuá "Afro-Paraguayan Association", in 1782, the black population represented 11.2 percent of the total population of the then Province of Paraguay.

This population continued to increase according to Telesca, and by 1811 half of the Paraguayan population was of African descent, whether slave or free. So, several towns like Aregua, Emboscada (in English: "Ambush"), and Guarambare were established as black communities.

With the arrival of Artigas' also arrived, curiously, people of Kamba ethnicity, a Kenyan ethnic group, from Uruguay, who settled in Paraguay in the 1820s.^{[citation needed]} They arrived in a regiment of 250 spearmen, men and women, who accompanied General Jose Gervasio Artigas, the revolutionary leader of the now Uruguay, in his exile in Paraguay. The Kamba Cua were dispossessed of their land by General Higinio Morinigo in the 1940s. Of his 100 hectares, they stayed with 3 hectares.

A Free Womb Law was adopted in Paraguay in 1842. Most of the male slaves born before that were drafted into the army during the Paraguayan War and then killed in it. Slavery was finally abolished for all ages in 1869.

Although according to official estimates, the Afro-Paraguayan population accounts for 2% of the total population, the Afro Paraguayan Association Kamba Cuá, supported by the Department of Statistics, Surveys and Censuses (Dgeec) and the U.S. and state IAF, estimated the number of Afro-Paraguayan people at only 8,013, equivalent to 0.13 percent of the 6.1 million inhabitants of Paraguay. This census indicates specifically that there are 422 people in Kamba Cua, 385 people in Kamba Kokué, and more than 7,000 people in Emboscada: 2,686 in urban areas and 4,524 in rural areas and 58% of the total population are of African descent. So, of the total of African descent, 5.6 percent live in Kamba Cuá, 4.9 percent in Kamba Kokue and 89.5 percent in Emboscada.

The census also shows that they are virtually matched for sex and they have a predominantly young population: 63% at that time was under 30 years old. All those of African descent speak Guarani, like the vasty majority of Paraguayans. The illiteracy rate stands at 7.4%, and of that percentage, 58% are women. The number of people who have come to attend the first through to sixth grade accounted for 60% and those who have reached university level only 1%.

Note that the results are unofficial and incomplete since the census did not reach all residents, especially in Emboscada; additionally, some residents surveyed did not self-identify as being of African descent, separate from other groupings of Afro-Paraguayans and individuals of African descent throughout the country that were not included in the census.