Ancestral Land + Black Consciousness = Afro-Latino Survival
Posted on May 20, 2008

In my travels throughout Latin America, the biggest political challenge I have observed facing many Afro-Latino communities is the issue of losing land.

Africans have settled communities in Latin America as far back as the 1500s, many formed by men and women escaping slavery. The ownership of these lands is now being challenged by outside developers who want to convert them into resort hotels or condominiums. The problem is further exacerbated by youth moving into urban areas because of lack of opportunities in these mainly rural areas.

Garifuna communities in countries such as Honduras and Nicaragua are losing their land because of their inability to produce written property titles and lack of access to legal assistance. Many of these communities are self-sufficient through the fishing industry and agriculture. But land is being lost because of a variety of unscrupulous practices and false promises. The same occurs in Colombia, Ecuador and other countries where Black populations are concentrated.

The land issue must become intimately tied to development of Black community consciousness. There is a historical parallel that is occurring in Latin America with what occurred in the United States with the industrialization of northern states in the early part of the 20th century.

African Americans in the South, in many instances, practically gave away their land to migrate to industrial cities to the north such as Chicago, New York, Cleveland and Philadelphia. In retrospect, if African Americans had been able to hold on to the land they owned, it could have served as a massive transfer of wealth from generation to generation, to leverage economic self-sufficiency.

It becomes a life and death proposition for an Afro-Latino who is fully race conscious to speak truth to White landed gentry in many of these countries. I have personally witnessed race consciousness of Afro-Latinos being described by members of the existing power structure as being synonymous with being racist or unpatriotic. Martin Luther King Jr. was accused the same things when he advocated for the civil rights of Black Americans as a means to address the legacy of slavery.

These communities are not asking for separate homelands, but only to remain in those areas they have resided in for centuries. Many Indigenous communities are undergoing similar hardships.

With increased urbanization and industrialization, Black youth are leaving these communities for employment opportunities in cities at a high rate. There is a massive brain drain, leaving these communities without the prospect of future leaders advocating for land reform. The drug trade is attracting many young boys in places where unemployment rates range anywhere from 40 percent to 60 percent.

In countries like Brazil—which has the largest black population outside of Nigeria, but yet Afro-Brazilians make up less than 1 percent of the university population—this is an absolute travesty. The government has instituted an affirmative action program to increase Afro-Brazilian university enrollment to 10 percent.

Afro-Latinos have the opportunity to address this matter in a clear and intelligent fashion. International pressure must be applied to Latin American governments to make them accountable to these communities.

Many Afro-Latino settlements located near the South American and Central American coastlines have survived for hundreds of years with minimal support from their governments. Most U.S. foreign aid directed to these governments, which are earmarked for development projects, never reach these communities. Multilateral institutions such as the International Development Bank and the World Bank are now beginning to target development funds to these communities, but the process is slow and cumbersome.

However, Afro-Latino civil and human rights groups have been organizing to address these issues by participating in the political process and, in some cases, winning political office. But these communities will need to develop nation-building skills, such as legal expertise, engineering project management and financial management proficiency.

The key for future generations is for these communities to maintain their land and increase their capacity to develop. This can result in improved basic education, health and living standards.

The fantasy of economic opportunities in major urban areas is causing youth to abandon their birthright, their ancestral land. Young people are fleeing to cities where equal opportunity is a foreign concept. The issue of land will be paramount to the future survival of these communities.

Christopher Rodriguez is a lecturer, trainer and author of “Latino Manifesto: A Critique of the Race Debate in the U.S. Latino Community.” He can be reached at Latino.Manifesto@yahoo.com.