Blacks in Argentina What Happened to Them After Enslavement?

[BabaYaw]

From: Runoko Rashidi
Subject: Blacks in Argentina: Disappearing Acts




http://www.africana.com/DailyArticle...x_20020402.htm
Blacks in Argentina: Disappearing Acts
By Hisham Aidi


When songstress Josephine Baker visited Argentina in the 1950s she asked
=
the
biracial minister of public health Ramon Carillo, "Where are the =
Negroes?"
to which Carillo responded laughing, "There are only two =17 you and I."
=

Scholars have long pondered the "disappearance" of people of African =
descent
from Argentina, long considered South America's "whitest" nation. A 1973
article in Ebony asked, "what happened to Argentina's involuntary
immigrants, those African slaves and their mulatto descendants who once
outnumbered whites five to one, and who were for 250 years 'an important
element' in the total population, which is now 97 percent white?"=20
One history book calls the country's lack of self-identifying black =
people
"one of the most intriguing riddles in Argentine history," while another
notes that "the disappearance of the Negro from the Argentine scene has
puzzled demographers far more than the vanishing Indian." Was the
Afro-Argentine community annihilated by disease and war, or absorbed =
into
the larger white community?=20
Of course, whiteness itself is relative. Many Argentines who proudly
consider themselves white come to America and are shocked to find that =
in
American racial discourse they are considered "Latino," "Hispanic" or
vaguely "Spanish," and not white. Says Paula Brufman, an Argentine law
student and researcher, "Argentines like to think of themselves as a =
white
nation populated by Europeans. I was surprised when in the US, people =
=17
especially Latinos =17 told me I was not white but Spanish."=20
Today in Argentina, there is a growing interest in the country's African
past and Afro community, "la comunidad Afro," as it's called. The past
decade has seen black clubhouses, religious institutions and dance clubs
crop up in the capital, Buenos Aires. A group called Africa Vive (Africa
Lives), made up of Afro-Argentines, has spearheaded the campaign to =
raise
awareness of the country's Afro-culture and history. At the Durban UN
Conference on Racism, Africa Vive presented a widely circulated study =
about
the socio-economic situation of Afro-Argentines. The report documented =
the
high unemployment and difficulties with naturalization that many blacks
=
in
Argentina encounter.=20
"Minorities in Argentina =17 indigenous, Afro, etcetera =17 suffer from
=
a
problem of invisibility and poor organization," says Mercedes Boschi of
=
the
Buenos Aires City's Human Rights Commission, who worked with Africa Vive
=
on
the aforementioned report, as part of the municipal government's "Right
=
to
Identity" initiative.=20
So, how many people in Argentina today can claim African ancestry? The
numbers are themselves difficult to calculate, says Alejandro Frigerio,
=
an
anthropologist at the Universidad Catolica de Buenos Aires. "People of =
mixed
ancestry are often not considered black in Argentina, historically, =
because
having black ancestry was not considered proper. Today the term 'negro'
=
is
used loosely on anyone with slightly darker skin, but they can be
descendants of indigenous Indians, Middle Eastern immigrants. People in
Africa Vive say there are a million 'afrodescendientes' in Argentina.
Although many people are not aware that they may have had a black
great-grandmother or -father, I think that this is an overestimation. I
would estimate that there are 2 or 3 thousand Afro-Argentines, =
descendants
of slaves, 'negros criollos,' 8 to 10 thousand in the Cape Verdean
community, most born in Argentina, and I'd add another 1,200 Brazilian,
Uruguayan, Cuban and African communities."=20
Created in 1996, Africa Vive has reached out to Afro-Argentine leaders =
with
the aim of creating an organization that can battle poverty in =
Afro-Latino
communities. It has single-handedly brought media and the mainstream's
attention to the plight and legacy of Afro-Argentines.=20
"Different groups have emerged, including Grupo Cultural Afro and SOS
Racismo, but Africa Vive is probably the most important group that has
rekindled interest in things African in Argentina," says Frigerio. "It =
is
the main group composed of Afro-Argentines, descendants of the original
Afro-Argentine population. Africa Vive has successfully drawn the =
media's
attention =17 they organized a conference against discrimination at the
University of Buenos Aires in 1999, and were written up in an eight-page
article in the daily Clarin. The article was significant because for the
first time in almost thirty years, the term 'Afro-Argentine community' =
was
used, instead of 'black' community."=20
Frigerio continues: "Last September, these black groups, led by Africa =
Vive,
convinced a national deputy to organize a ceremony in memory of black
soldiers who died fighting for Argentina's independence. The event took
place in one of the traditional halls of the National Congress and was
attended by the commander-in-chief of the army and the head of state. =
The
national deputy spoke in honor of the fallen black soldiers and then =
awarded
honorary degrees to the heads of several black organizations. It was =
quite
remarkable that such an event could take place in Argentina."=20
War heroism, in fact, is one reason Argentina lags so far behind in
recognizing its people of African descent. Even after the official =
abolition
of slavery, many blacks were still slaves and were granted manumission =
only
by fighting in Argentina's wars, serving disproportionately in the war =
of
independence against Spanish rule and border wars against Paraguay from
=
1865
to 1870. Blacks were also granted their freedom if they joined the army,
=
but
they were deliberately placed on the front line and used as cannon =
fodder.
Historian Ysabelle Rennie notes that the government deliberately placed
=
as
many blacks as possible in "dangerous military service" and were sent =
into
batte, "where they got killed off fighting Indians (another race =
Argentines
were interested in exterminating.)"=20
Argentine sociologist Gino Germani chalks up the "disappearance" to =
racist
immigration policies, saying that the nation's "primary and explicit
objective" was to "modify substantially the composition of the =
population,"
to "Europeanize the Argentine population, produce a regeneration of =
races."
Marvin A. Lewis, author of Afro-Argentine Discourse: Another Dimension =
of
the Black Diaspora, concurs, saying that "there was an official, =
concerted
effort to eliminate the blacks from Argentine society."=20
Many have argued that people of African descent simply "disappeared" by
mingling into the waves of thousand of European immigrants. Argentine
historian Mariano Bosch wrote in 1941 that Italian men had "perhaps an
atavistic preference for black women: body odor led them to matrimony =
and
the blacks accepted them as whites," or rather, "almost whites, because
=
the
Italian has much African in him, and his color is a dull pale."=20
"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....The poverty in the Afro community was terrible. Although
slavery was abolished in 1813, the death rate of freed blacks was always
higher than that of white people and of slaves. Why is that? Because in
Buenos Aires, slaves were very expensive, so the masters took real good
=
care
of them. Once a black got his freedom, his living standards collapsed =
even
further."=20
The past few years, however, have seen a growing interest among young
Argentines of all backgrounds in Afro-Argentine culture =17 in tango, =
the
dance and music with such strong West African roots, and other dances =
such
the milonga, the zamba and the malambo. For this, many thank immigrants
=
from
other parts of South America.=20
"Afro-Uruguayan and Afro-Brazilian migrants to Buenos Aires have been
instrumental in expanding black culture =17 teaching Afro-Uruguayan =
candombe,
Afro-Brazilian capoeira, orisha and secular dances to white Argentines,"
says Frigerio, who has written of various Afro-Argentine cultural =
movements,
including dancing saloons owned by blacks, carnival societies and black
newspapers. One such dancing saloon, "The Shimmy Club," was founded in =
1922
and lasted until 1974.=20
Frigerio believes the newfound interest in Afro-Argentine culture is not
only the result of immigration but also of a new state policy. In the =
1970s
and '80s, Argentina was ruled by a succession of military juntas who
suppressed and almost eradicated black culture. "The military =
dictatorships
from 1966 onwards prohibited or severely constrained the gathering of =
people
in the street or in closed spaces =17 a practice which certainly =
negatively
influenced carnivals, which almost disappeared; tango dancing, which =
died
out until it was revitalized in the 1990s; and also black dance clubs =
such
as The Shimmy Club. All genres of popular culture severely suffered =
during
the dictatorships and many almost disappeared, but began resurfacing in
=
the
1990s."=20
Still, he cautions against too much optimism regarding race in =
Argentina.
"The new laws and institutes help celebrate ethnic diversity and help =
groups
like Africa Vive emerge and operate," Frigerio says, "but they have not
undermined the dominant national narrative of racial homogeneity and
whiteness." While the racial situation is much better today than it was
=
half
a century ago =17 when a review of Josephine Baker's performance wrote =
of her
"monkey rhythm" =17 Frigerio says that "today blacks are more exoticized
=
than
stigmatized.... What scholar Livio Sansone said of Brazil, we can say of
Argentina: there are hard and soft areas of racism, or areas in which it
=
may
be advantageous or disadvantageous to be black. In Buenos Aires, being =
black
is advantageous in finding a girl/boyfriend, but less so for finding a =
job,
unless the person is a musician or dance professor."=20
First published: April 2, 2002=20

[Ozellh20]

i'm not surprised by the argentinas....their us. massa have come to roast them through money so they better operate as unity because once the sign comes--its on...