Synopses & Reviews
This collection of essays explores the transformations of the political landscapes within which black social movements in Latin America have been operating since the end of the 1970s. Evaluating black social movements in their various national contexts, the essays reveal that these transformations have mostly consisted in the passage from state-sponsored ideological 'monocultural mestizaje' to state-managed multiculturalism and corporatism or co-optation. As the contributions to this volume show, black personalities and leaders of social movements were incorporated within the apparatus of the state. These new situations have rendered Afro-Latino political struggles more complex, at times even heightening the antagonism they encounter.
Review
"A landmark study that provides a model for future research in a historically marginalized field. Highly recommended." -
CHOICE
"An excellent and up-to-date overview of black social movements in Latin America. The chapters give detailed insight into the complex and contradictory relationships of these movements with diverse levels of the state, illustrating some of the gains made since the 1990s and highlighting how much further there is still to go in the face of powerful forces of cooptation, continued marginalization and, in some cases, outright violence." - Peter Wade, University of Manchester, UK
"This book is a critical intervention in current history, charting the consequences of advancing neoliberalism for Latin American identity politics and documenting the transition from mestizaje, or cultural and 'racial' mixing, to the emergence of multiculturalism in the region's national imaginaries, state structures, and forms of governmentality. The editor and contributors locate the struggles of Afrodescendant groups for rights and recognition in sophisticated approaches that simultaneously consider the material and ideological as well as the national, regional, and international levels of cause and consequence. And they do so with a clear vision and without romanticizing the new ostensibly inclusive multicultural discourses. As such, this book provides a crucial guide to the current scene." - Kevin A. Yelvington, University of South Florida, USA, editor of Afro-Atlantic Dialogues: Anthropology in the Diaspora
Synopsis
Drawing from a wide spectrum of disciplines, the essays in this collection examine in different national contexts the consequences of the "Latin American multicultural turn" in Afro Latino social movements of the past two decades.
About the Author
Jean Muteba Rahier is Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University, USA, where he is also Director of the African and African Diaspora Studies Program.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: Black Social Movements in Latin America: From Monocultural Mestizaje and 'Invisibility' to Multiculturalism and State Corporatism/Cooptation; J.M.Rahier
PART I: SETTING UP THE STAGE
2. Afro In/Exclusion, Resistance, and the 'Progressive' State: (De)colonial Struggles, Questions, and Reflections; C.Walsh
3. International Organizations and the Human Rights of Afro Latin Americans: The Case of UNESCO; P.M.Fontaine
PART II: A FOCUS ON CENTRAL AMERICA
4. Garifuna Activism and the Corporatist Honduran State since the 2009 Coup; M.Anderson
5. The Afro-Guatemalan Political Mobilization: Between Identity Construction Processes, Global Influences, and Institutionalization; C.Agudelo
PART III: A FOCUS ON THE ANDEAN REGION
6. The Quest for a Counter-Space in the Colombian Pacific Coast Region: Towards Alternative Black Territorialities or Cooptation by Dominant Power?; U.Oslender
7. Multicultural Politics for Afro-Colombians: An Articulation 'Without Guarantees'; R.Cardenas
8. The Afroecuadorian Social Movement: Between Empowerment and Cooptation; C.Torre and J.A.Sanchez
9. Does 'Still Relatively Invisible' Mean 'Less Likely to be Co-opted'? Reflections on the Afro-Peruvian Case; S.Greene
10. Interview of María Alexandra Ocles Padilla, Former Minister, Secretaría de Pueblos, Movimientos Sociales y Participación Ciudadana, Ecuador; J.M.Rahier and M.Prosper
PART IV: A FOCUS ON THE BRAZILIAN EXPERIENCES
11. State and Social Movements in Brazil: An Analysis of the Participation of Black Intellectuals in State Agencies; C.B.R. - Silva
12. From the Black Councils to the Federal Special Secretary for the Adoption of Policies that Promote Racial Equality (SEPPIR): New Identities of the Black Brazilian Movement; J.Silva
13. Interview of Maria Inês Barbosa, Former Vice-Minister, Secretaria Especial de Políticas de Promoção da Igualdade Racial (SEPPIR), Brazil; J.M.Rahier