Abstract

LAO-MONTES, Agustín. Cartographies of the Political Camp of Afro-Descendents in Latin America. univ.humanist. [online]. 2009, n.68, pp.207-245. ISSN 0120-4807.

This article lays out, in general terms, what it calls the political camp of Afro-descendents in Latin America. After establishing a series of theoretical and methodological criteria for the historical analysis of black movements in modernity and the Afro-American movements in particular, the article focuses on the emergence of afro-descendant movements in Latin America during the last part of the 1980s. One of the principal arguments is that in the 1990s a political camp of afro-descendents starts to emerge in the region of Latin America based on a series of developments, including the emergence of new social movements that included ethno-racial movements of Afros and indigenous people, events of regional importance like the contra-celebration of 1492 in 1992, the World Conference against Racism 2001 in Durban, South Africa, and the effects of the neoliberal pattern of globalization. The political camp of Afro-descendents is composed not only of social movements, but also of state actors and transnational actors (such as the World Bank and the Ford Foundation). The article concludes with an analysis of the challenges and perspectives of Afro-American politics in general and of Afro-Latin movements in particular considering the current crisis of the modern/colonial world-system.

Keywords : afro-descendents; political camp; anti-systemic movements.

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