Many Afro-Colombians have been displaced from their lands due to over 50 years of conflict between the government and other armed groups. This conflict has cost untold civilian lives and the Colombian government has done little to protect Afro-Colombians who attempt to stay on their lands in the face of violence. In short, Afro-Colombians got their 40 acres and a mule and their government is doing everything to take them back. In Colombia, signing a free trade agreement would effectively give the Colombia government the US seal of approval to continue to make economic decisions that do not account for the rights or livelihoods of Afro-Colombians. Despite the known impacts on Afrodescendants across the Americas a few Congressional Black Caucus Members have endorsed a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia. Passing a Free Trade Agreement despite the discriminatory practices of the Colombian government reveals the truth of the US government's policy: lip service to the protection of human rights but not at the detriment of US corporate interests or free market practices.
The intensification of ethno-racial protest in Latin America has led to the adoption of targeted legislation for Black and indigenous populations, signaling a new moment in race politics in this region. Existing literature has failed to account for this shift either because it held that race was not salient in Latin America, or it presumed that racial hierarchy existed, but that the obstacles to Black mobilization were insurmountable. Argues that the literature must contend with this new reality of “Black politics” in Latin America.
Marable,Manning (Author) and Agard-Jones,Vanessa (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2008
Published:
New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
366 p, Includes Brian Meeks's "Reinventing the Jamaican political system"; Joseph Jordan's "Afro-Colombia: a case for pan-African analysis"; Ricardo Rene Laremont and Lisa Yun's "Mutual inspiration: radicals in transnational space: The Havana AfroCubano movement and the Harlem Renaissance: the role of the intellectual in the formation of racial and national identity"; and Asale Angel-Ajani's "Out of chaos: Afro-Colombian peace communities and the realities of war";
