Black Social Movements in Latin America

Transcription

1 Black Social Movements in Latin America

2 Black Social Movements in Latin America From Monocultural Mestizaje to Multiculturalism Edited by Jean Muteba Rahier

3 BLACK SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN LATIN AMERICA Copyright Jean Muteba Rahier, S o f t c o v e r r e p r i n t o f t h e h a r d c o v e r 1 s t e d i t i o n All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the World, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. I S B N I S B N ( e B o o k ) D O I / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Black social movements in Latin America : from monocultural mestizaje to multiculturalism / edited by Jean Muteba Rahier. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN (alk. paper) 1. Blacks Latin America Politics and government. 2. Blacks Latin America Social conditions. 3. Ethnicity Political aspects Latin America. 4. Identity politics Latin America. 5. Multiculturalism Latin America. 6. Latin America Race relations. I. Rahier, Jean, 1959 F1419.N4B dc A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Integra Software Services First edition: June

4 To Afrodescendants everywhere in Latin America, who are still struggling to enjoy equal opportunities.

5 Contents List of Figures and Tables Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: Black Social Movements in Latin America: From Monocultural Mestizaje and Invisibility to Multiculturalism and State Corporatism/Co-optation 1 Jean Muteba Rahier Part I Setting Up the Stage 1 Afro In/Exclusion, Resistance, and the Progressive State: (De)Colonial Struggles, Questions, and Reflections 15 Catherine Walsh 2 International Organizations and the Human Rights of Afro-Latin Americans: The Case of UNESCO 35 Pierre-Michel Fontaine Part II A Focus on Central America 3 Garifuna Activism and the Corporatist Honduran State since the 2009 Coup 53 Mark Anderson 4 The Afro-Guatemalan Political Mobilization: Between Identity Construction Processes, Global Influences, and Institutionalization 75 Carlos Agudelo Part III A Focus on the Andean Region 5 The Quest for a Counter-Space in the Colombian Pacific Coast Region: Toward Alternative Black Territorialities or Co-optation by Dominant Power? 95 Ulrich Oslender ix xi

6 viii CONTENTS 6 Multicultural Politics for Afro-Colombians: An Articulation Without Guarantees 113 Roosbelinda Cárdenas 7 The Afro-Ecuadorian Social Movement: Between Empowerment and Co-optation 135 Carlos de la Torre and Jhon Antón Sánchez 8 Does Still Relatively Invisible Mean Less Likely to Be Co-opted? Reflections on the Afro-Peruvian Case 151 Shane Greene 9 Interview with María Alexandra Ocles Padilla, Former Minister, Secretaría de Pueblos, Movimientos Sociales y Participación Ciudadana, Ecuador 169 Jean Muteba Rahier with Mamyrah A. Dougé-Prosper Part IV A Focus on the Brazilian Experiences 10 State and Social Movements in Brazil: An Analysis of the Participation of Black Intellectuals in State Agencies 185 Carlos Benedito Rodrigues da Silva 11 From the Black Councils to the Federal Special Secretariat for the Adoption of Policies that Promote Racial Equality (SEPPIR): New Identities of the Black Brazilian Movement 201 Joselina da Silva 12 Interview with Maria Inês Barbosa, Former Vice-Minister, Secretaria Especial de Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial (SEPPIR), Brazil 213 Jean Muteba Rahier References 225 Notes on Contributors 243 Index 247

7 Figures and Tables Figures I.1 Locations in Latin America referred to in this volume (Map by Paul Pugliese, General Cartography, Inc.) The Pacific coast within Colombia s National Geography (Map courtesy of Ulrich Oslender) Land distribution in the Pacific coast before and after the adoption of Law 70 (Map courtesy of Ulrich Oslender) María Alexandra Ocles Padilla during her interview in Miami, Florida, in February 2011 (Photograph by Jean Muteba Rahier) Maria Inês Barbosa in Washington, DC, in August 2011 (Photograph by Jean Muteba Rahier) 214 Tables 7.1 Social indicators by ethnicity, Ecuador Afro-Ecuadorian leaders working for Rafael Correa s government State secretariats or councils that deal with the issue of race and racism, Brazil Municipal secretariats or councils that deal with the issue of race and racism, Northeastern states, Brazil 210

8 Preface and Acknowledgments This book is the product of a collective reflection. It emerged out of the international conference I and the African & African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) organized at Florida International University (FIU) on February 24 and 25, The conference was entitled Afro Latino Social Movements: From Monocultural Mestizaje and Invisibility to Multiculturalism and State Corporatism/Co-optation (see casgroup.fiu.edu/africana/events.php?id=627). The project to organize such a conference came to me, progressively, following my reading of graduate student doctoral dissertation research projects for different funding agencies, and also after listening to some colleagues and friends in Latin America and in the United States. Both US-based graduate students and some of my Latin American friends reproduced a discourse in which the invisibility of Afro Latinos in contemporary Latin America was reaffirmed, suggesting that no major change had occurred since the 1970s when national identities tended to be imagined in terms of ideological and hegemonic mestizaje (see the Introduction to this volume) as if what many scholars have called the Latin American multicultural turn had not occurred, beginning in the 1990s. Perhaps, we should see in this continued reproduction of the discourse of invisibility an attempt to suggest that these changes have not really transformed the plight of Afrodescendants. What follows is certainly one of the most up-to-date conversations about the realities of black social movements in Latin America at the beginning of this new decade. I am very grateful to everybody who attended the conference and participated in our discussions. I am particularly thankful to the colleagues who presented a paper but who for different reasons werenotabletocontributetothisvolume.theyaremaxrameau,luz Marina Becerra, Juliet Hooker, Odile Hoffmann, Mamyrah Dougé Prosper, Victor Uribe, and Percy Hintzen. My gratitude also goes to the individuals and units at my university, Florida International University, that provided considerable support, without which neither the conference nor this book would have seen the light of day. They are the College of Arts & Sciences; John Stack, the director

9 xii PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS of the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA); my colleagues in the African & African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS) and in the Department of Global & Sociocultural Studies (GSS); Cristina Eguizabal and Liesl Picard, respectively, the director and the associate director of the Latin American & Caribbean Center; and all our AADS and GSS graduate students. My profound gratitude of course goes to Rosa Henriquez and Cheryl Johnson, in the AADS office, with whom I have shared the running and caring of AADS since I became its director in July Here as well, their energy has been very valuable. I personally thank Mamyrah Dougé Prosper, who was my graduate assistant when the conference was conceptualized and who also helped during its realization. Special thanks must also go to Christina Bazzaroni, for her careful and supportive help as my graduate assistant during the preparation of the volume for publication. Many thanks to everyone at Palgrave Macmillan who made this publication a reality. I am grateful to the anonymous reviewer for his or her thoughtful comments.