Black Looks

Last summer whilst in Washington DC, I attended a meeting  on racism in Central and South America.    At the time I was aware of a large African population in  Brazil, Panama, Columbia and Belize and a smaller community in  Costa Rica. I did not realise that there were also considerable numbers of descendants of Africans in  Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Venezuela and Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Uruguay.  In fact 45% of Latin Americans are Black.

The reality for Blacks in Latin America is what occurred in Choco, Colombia, where Blacks are not even counted. With about 30 percent or more of Colombia’s population being African descent, it is a matter of time that Blacks in that nation and the rest of Latin America, where the Black population is about 200 million, rise up in a struggle that is unlike any that the Americas has known.

Listening to the women speaking about their lives in their respective countries was shocking.  The racism they talked about was like going back in time – a long time as far back as what I imagined life was like during the period of Jim Crow laws in the  US and maybe even further back than that.

African Americans in Latin America are amongst the most oppressed people in the world living in an environment of overt institutional racism that displaces them from their land, denies them  economic opportunity and  access to  decent housing,health care, education and participation in all levels of society. For example in Columbia where  25% of the population are of African decent, 74% of Afro-Colombians earn less than the minimum wage, and 82% have no access to public services.   

However there is more to racism in Central and South America.   In "Blacks in Argentina: Disappearing Acts", Hisham Aidi talks about the "silence" that surrounds Blackness.

"There is a silence about the participation of Afro-Argentines in the history and building of Argentina, a silence about the enslavement and poverty," adds Paula Brufman. "The denial and disdain for the Afro community shows the racism of an elite that sees Africans as undeveloped and uncivilized..

I would add to this the "forced invisibility" of African-Americans in Latin America.  In Columbia Blacks are not even counted in the national census, in many countries they are invisible in the media and in commerce.

"The killing of Blacks in Colombia goes unnoticed by the media, also unreported is the issue of displacing Blacks from their land," …….."The secret is out now because of so many Blacks being displaced from their farms and turning up in cities such as Bogotá, the Colombian capital. They have the worst education, and now they are at every stoplight begging and this is causing people to question why this is happening,"

The African American populations of Latin America are beginning to speak out about the racism and oppression they face.  In Columbia, Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN) was founded by Libia Grueso.

PCN, which is made up of 120 member organizations, is dedicated to increasing Afro-Columbian involvement in the political process, preserving the Afro-Columbian traditional way of life, and protecting the lands that are inhabited by Afro-Columbians.

Recently another Afro-Colombian activist, Orlando Valencia of the Community Council of Curvarado in the Choco region of Columbia (historically an Afro-Colombian region) was first detained by National Police and then kidnapped by para-military.  He remains "disappeared".   

Tags: Racism Latin America African Americans