Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events

[Yehuda]

Black women advance at the social level, but still lag behind at work and politics

At the present rate, it will take 80 years to achieve income equality

15/04/2018 2h00
Angela Pinho
São Paulo

Black woman, college educated, has a good job at a multinational corporation and, due to her efforts and talent, is recognized inside and outside of her career. This information tells the the story of Lisiane Lemos, 28, but not the whole story. She herself highlights this: "Don't take me as the rule. I had a lot of opportunities, I am the exception".

From the time Lisiane was a child to the time she became a solution specialist at Microsoft and ended up on Forbes magazine, black women in Brazil had considerable progress in social indicators, especially in education.

Leticia Silva, 22, a law student from the periphery of São Paulo, is the first generation of her family to access higher education. Keiny Andrade/Folhapress/Folhapress

Leticia Silva, 22, a law student from the periphery of São Paulo, is the first generation of her family to access higher education. Keiny Andrade/Folhapress/Folhapress

Lisiane Lemos is a black solution specialist at Microsoft and activist for a greater integration of black professionals in companies. Keiny Andrade/Folhapress/Folhapress

Lisiane Lemos is a black solution specialist at Microsoft and activist for a greater integration of black professionals in companies. Keiny Andrade/Folhapress/Folhapress

Leticia Silva, 22, a law student from the periphery of São Paulo, is the first generation of her family to access higher education. Keiny Andrade/Folhapress/Folhapress

Equality, however, is still far from being achieved in universities, the labor market and in politics. For instance, a black woman's income is 42% that of a white man. At the last 25 years' rate, it will take more than 80 years for it to be equivalent.

The discrepancies gain prominence at the time Geledés — Instituto da Mulher Negra, a landmark in the debate about gender and race, turns 30 years old. The entity came about after the identification of a lacuna, states its president, Maria Sylvia Aparecida de Oliveira.

"Neither the black movement nor the predominantly white feminist movement had answers for the violation of black women's rights", she says. "In spite of the progress in recent years, they are still underrepresented in the public and private spheres."

ADVANCEMENTS

Education concentrates a large part the advancements, according to a comparison made between a set of indicators from 1992 and 2016 from IBGE — Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics.

The most recent ones are part of the report about Gender Statistics that was recently published by the institute and made from the PNAD Contínua — Continuous National Household Sample Survey, with monthly surveys. At Folha's request, the oldest ones were tabulated by the institute based on the National Household Sample Survey which, at the time, was still annual.

The two surveys consider self-declared preta and parda women black (negras). The difference in timing might produce some statistical variance, but they show clear tendencies.

The most positive ones are among children. In 1992, only 77% of black girls in the elementary school age were enrolled in this stage. Almost 25 years later, this happens with almost all of them (97%).

The illiteracy rate, although it still has room for improvement, fell from 26% to 9% among them (aged 15 and more), a little higher than the national average.

When it comes to the university level, however, inequality shows that it is more persistent.

The completion rate for higher education of black women, although it has improved a lot (more so than black men's completion rate), was still 15% in 2016, just a little higher than white women's completion rate a quarter-century ago (white women reached 32% in 2016). The indicator considers the 27–30 age group.

A resident of the periphery of São Paulo, Leticia Gabrielle Silva, 22 years old, says it was in college where she started paying attention to her blackness, in classrooms where she could count with one hand classmates with the same skin color.

A student at a private institution, on a scholarship given by the Educafro organization, she realized how, for instance, in high school, the black man was always portrayed as a slave. This observation was important for her career decision — she wants to work in the third sector, acting in favor of diversity.

"I know I lose opportunities for being a black woman", she says. "But, just like how there were black slaves, I know there are black people who make it."

SLOW PACE

"Making it" is hard especially for black women in politics and the corporate world, according to data from other sources.

Representatives such as Marielle Franco (PSOL-RJ), assassinated a month ago, are just 5% of the candidates elected for the Municipal Chambers in 2016, according to the Supreme Federal Court. They have only 3% of the prefectures. White women are also considerably underrepresented, with only 8% of both positions.

If politics are still overwhelmingly masculine, the top of the corporate world is still predominantly white.

According to a 2016 survey from Instituto Ethos, black women in that year occupied only 0.4% of executive positions in the country's biggest companies.

For Lisiane, more significant changes in leadership profiles in the private sector should appear in ten to 15 years. According to her, however, it is already possible to notice some progress, and the main thing is that never before has there been so many discussions about this topic.

Technology companies like hers have created committees of black employees and policies for promoving more diversity, and there are programs in other sectors, such as the banking and investment sectors.

"We must bring people who never pictured themselves in the corporate world, young people who know they can become their company's chairman and know that other people can help them, like they helped me", said Lisiane.

Black women advance at the social level, but still lag behind at work and politics

 

[BigMan]

whats the differencce between preto vs. negro in iBrazil

 

[Yehuda]

The aesthetics universe and African healing in Bogotá

"Being a black woman in Bogotá means having the power of wisdom", says the leader of a Kilombo.

Karen Villadiego and Malle Beleña, two afrodescendant women who reclaim the political and aesthetical use of afro hair in a big city context. Foto: Sara Castillejo Ditta / Unidad de Datos

By: Ginna Morelo/@GinnaMorelo | 10 May 2018, 10:40 a.m.

Malle and Julitza have two things in common: their cabello chontudo (afro hair) and the fact they resort to the kilombos to cure their physical ailments. The ancestral wisdom of afrodescendant culture has taken on many corners of Bogotá and it has left a particular stamp, giving meaning to the city inhabited by over one hundred thousand afrodescendants.

This meaning is primarily collective.

Both women's accent, smile, the colors of their clothes and their carefree way of walking are purely Pacific. The Afro-Colombian community entered the soul of Bogotá and all of its identity expands in emotion and beauty through the localities.

The art of hairstyling

"I like the fact Bogotá makes you believe in the illusion that here you can make all your dreams come true and, although it's not true, the very belief in this determines the attitude we need to have in order to live in this city". This phrase comes as a surprise to Malle Beleño Potes, an Afro-Colombian woman born in a town that wants to be remembered for its value and not its pain: Bojayá, Chocó.

"Malle's brown eyes are hypnotizing", this is the comment of a black barber who runs his salon on Avenida Caracas and 40A. She is happiness and also hope. She went to college in Cali and now she's dedicated body, soul and hair to reclaiming African beauty.

Yescenia Rosero and Malle Beleña show off their hairstyles on a Las Chontudas-friendly hair salon in Bogotá. Foto: Sara Castillejo Ditta / Unidad de Datos

In places such as Kennedy or central Bogotá there is an abundance of hair salons specialized in treating afro-textured hair, and they not only follow a fashionable topic, there is clearly a political interest in reclaiming the Afro-Colombian ethnic identity.

Malle belongs to a collective of afrodescendant women named "Las chontudas". "We have this name because in the Pacific there is a palm tree: the chonta, its fronds look like our hair", she explains. And she goes beyond by indicating that the art of hairstyling developed by Afro-Colombians, raizales and palenqueros is one of the traditions that more strongly carry implicit the African footprint.

"In the hairsyles there is the secret of the escape plans in the days of slavery. The braids drew out what could not be said aloud, the elders told us", states Malle.

She has organized with other girls to teach the art of hairstyling, which they learn almost naturally. Nevertheless, there are techniques and types of hairstyles with particular names such as: trenzas, duenzas, tropas, cangas, the gusanillos and nudos bantú. All of them steal the glances of anyone in the capital's streets due to the precision, the shape and beauty with how they're elaborated.



Cells of the "chontudas" have spread to Cartagena, Buenaventura, Medellín and Cali. In the capital of the Valley, the Association of Afro-Colombian Women (Asociación de Mujeres Afrocolombianas — Amafrocol) champions the fight for the rights of afrodescendants. "And here in Bogotá, with a group of serious women who love community service, we are going to work with the women in Engativá and Usme", says Malle.

The art of hairstyling has led to the organizing of a small scale industry for the care of afro-textured, curly and wavy hair. The secret is that the products are elaborated with plants from the Pacific like the cupuazú and cacay, sacha inchi, coconut, chontaduro and camu camu oils.

When Malle talks about how the collective seeks to generate jobs, her eyes light up. "We want to evaluate and let the world know the traditions of the most stigmatized groups of our country regarding how we relate to our bodies, without running over nature and without removing anyone from their land. We want to generate economic value in the communities where our raw materials are cultivated and transformed".

Her empowerment is contagious. She is convinced that the cosmetic industry does not recognize African beauty and therefore she works hard to change this reality. "Bogotá has helped me give shape to what is now my life project. Here I found what I need to set up our challenge to service the economies of our territories", she says.

The art of healing


In Bogotá there are eight kilombos; places where the ancestral Afro-Colombian medicine is practiced. There not only black communities are served, but the general public as well.

The kilombos are another tradition that lump together wise women and midwives who are dedicated to curing the ills of their equals. In the local victims health center, Rafael Uribe Uribe of 22 sur street, the kilombo Yumma operates, directed by midwife Julitza Mosquera. There are a total of eight kilombos in all of Bogotá and there are two more about to open, according to Eddy Bermúdez Marcelín, subdirector of Ethnic Affairs of the Government Secretariat.

Julitza is the district counselor for the black communities, was born in Quibdó and left her city appalled by the violence. "Leaving the territory leaves a mark on us, but it is a challenge to represent what it means to be a black woman from Chocó in the city", she says.

And she moves ahead by giving another answer to the question: "being a black woman in Bogotá means having the power of wisdom", she ensures.

Yulitza Mosquera, midwife of the Yumma kilombo. Foto: Sara Castillejo Ditta / Unidad de Datos

The displacement of the afrodescendant people of the Colombian Pacific made wise women and midwives go to Bogotá. The space that receives them is hostile, distinct. "They were dying of sadness. Once they got here they dedicated themselves to doing what they knew". The women of Yumma know midwifery and disease prevention. Various treatments are done through 'chirimioterapia': healing through dancing. "With dance, we can cure pain and sadness", says Yulitza.

The Kilombo is like the think tank of the afrodescendant. In the site there are natural plants, marimbas, chirimias, typical objects of the afrodescendant culture, as well as photos of the most representative exponents of black culture. There work a wise woman, a midwife, a chief nurse, a manager and an environmental technician specialized in medicinal plants. They are open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

List of kilombos in Bogotá

• Antonio Nariño - San Cristóbal
• Ciudad Bolívar – Tunjuelito
  
• Engativá
  
• Fontibón - Bosa
  
• Kennedy - Puente Aranda
  
• Santa Fe - Candelaria
  
• Suba - Usaquén
  
• Usme

Information provided by the District Undersecretariat of Ethnic Affairs

Malle and Julitza love themselves the way they are. They don't lower the tone of their voice when speaking and don't allow themselves to take a picture without applying lipstick. "Being afrodescendant in Bogotá is different. Sometimes it's hard because yes, there is discrimination, but a lot of it depends on us conquering these spaces", says Malle. "Being afrodescendant in the city means bringing a piece of the Pacific to the cold mountain and above all valuing this difference", says Julitza.

The aesthetics universe and African healing in Bogotá

 

[BigMan]

Isn't bogota like 1% black

 

[Yehuda]

Isn't bogota like 1% black

Yes they implied this.

 

[Yehuda]

whats the difference between preto vs. negro in iBrazil

My bad I didn't see this before, generally there is no difference other than some people might think preto(a) is more emphatic; for Black activists preto(a) is the literal color black and negro(a) is a Black person, like carro preto and homem/mulher negro(a) (black car and black man/woman).

 

[Yehuda]

Afro-descendants will be counted in the 2022 census

18 May 2018

In order for the Chilean afro-descendant category to be incorporated in the 2022 National Census, the Arica y Parinacota Senator José Miguel Durana met with the national director of the National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística de Chile, INE), Guillermo Pattillo, together with regional councilor Ximena Valcarce and the director of Communication and Public Relations of the NGO Oro Negro, Marco Llerena.

In the meeting attended by assistant director of operations Elssy Sobino and the assistant technical director María Jería, the upper house of parliament explained that in the previous administration it refused to include the category in the 2017 census, therefore, four years before the next measurement, it is making the necessary arrangements.

In this regard, the Senator mentioned that this is a historical aspiration of the afro-descendant people to have national recognition, besides the relevance of the census data which make it possible to create public policies for the Afro-Chilean population.

"The Bill for Recognition of the Afro-descendant Chilean Tribal People was adopted by a large majority in the Chamber of Deputies and is now on the Senate Committee on Human Rights, so, in addition of supporting this legal initiative, I will vote for them to be counted", said Durana.

For his part, the director of Communication and Public Relations of the NGO Oro Negro, Marco Llerena, noted that, in view of the refusal to include them in the last year's census, a campaign was created on social media calling for people to write afrochileno in the "other" category with the purpose of setting a precedent.

At the end of the meeting, it was agreed to plan a joint work of the INE with the different organizations of afro-descendants for the 2022 census, which should began by the end of 2018, when the delivery of all the information regarding the 2017 measurement has been completed.

Afro-descendants will be counted in the 2022 census

 

[Yehuda]

"Africa Mía", a tourism plan with roots in Esmeraldas

18 May 2018 - 00:00

People visiting the afro-descendant community can learn about the ancestral cuisine by elaborating dishes, like encocado de pescado/cangrejo. Handicrafts or typical dresses from the region of Esmeraldas are also available for sale. Photo: William Orellana / EL TELÉGRAFO

This work done by women residing in the neighborhood of Nigeria, Isla Trinitaria, evokes the traditions, customs and roots of the afro-descendants in Guayaquil.

The Nigeria neighborhood, located in Isla Trinitaria, is stereotyped as a violent place where the law of the jungle predominates. 90% of its inhabitants are originally from the Esmeraldas province.

This is the stigma "Africa Mía", a tourism project created by the Afro-Ecuadorian women residents of this community, seeks to change.

In this space in Southern Guayaquil, Sonnia España has been working for more than 20 years with Asociación Mujeres Progresistas (Association of Progressive Women), a community movement born out of the necessity of ending family and gender violence and discrimination.

The green-eyed activist from Esmeraldas remembers that they began in 1999 with 83 women who started a common pot where they would contribute $ 0,25 each week. This was due to the lack of adequate access to bank loans.

In spite of the problems they managed to raise funds to create loans for local enterprises.

"Over the years their contribution represents a capital of $ 4.000", says Sonnia.

The group has transformed into the Centro Empresarial de Mujeres Emprendedoras (Business Center of Women Entrepreneurs), and its aim is to capitalize on its members' skills and thus leave the economic dependence on their spouses.

To start the microcredit loans, the women carried out community mapping which avoided the proliferation of similar businesses.

The businesses diversified, including the sales of plantain with cheese, handicrafts, manicure services, among others, the same ones which converted into the stores, bakeries and hair salons of the neighborhood.

Up until 2015, 256 business ventures have been created, in addition to workshops on economic management, self-esteem and leadership. This was done through agreements with universities.

The members of the group in this process also work to recover their ancestral roots as well as their afro-descendant heroes: Alonso de Illescas, María Chiquinquirá, Juan Gracia, among others.

"The music that comes from the marimba, the songs and the dances are some of the cultural expressions of the Afro-Ecuadorian people and this is demonstrated by the afro-mestizo group Candente", says the promoter.

In 2015, UNESCO declared these activities Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

"It should be understood that, regarding afro-descendants, although we live surrouned by sadness, we live happy", says España.

This perseverance motivated them to continue promoting their ancestral roots through their clothing, cuisine, hairstyles, handicrafts and other folclore expressions, all of this by way of package tours.

Social activities

España mentions that the visitors go on a walk along the Del Muerto and Mogollón estuaries accompanied by local tour guides who tell the history of the variety of names the area has had which has gone from being named Isla de los Condenados to Independencia II to Nigeria.

The social activist points out that so far they have been visited by more than 300 foreigners and they have never had security problems.

Accommodating their guests and having their own canoes are some of the things the women group seeks to achieve, but for now — due to limited resources — are impossible.

The tour includes songs, a wake and legends based on their view of the souls of the dead, a belief brought from Africa. This takes place while the bass drums resonate and the women sing.

The cuisine is highlighted by fish, shrimp or crab tapao or encocao, among other dishes. These typical dishes are consumed by the locals on a daily basis.

In this coastal area there are also dishes prepared with plantains such as: patacones, empanadas, bolas and bolones de verde, etc.

The package tour costs $ 35 per person and starts from the Perimetral beltway, where the adventure travel offered by the afro-descendant community of Guayaquil begins. (I)

"Africa Mía", a tourism plan with roots in Esmeraldas

 

[Yehuda]

Afro-descendants and the Dutch disease

By: Jesús Chucho García | Sunday, 22 April 2018 06:30 PM

The reality currently lived in Venezuela is harsh and above all has reached the bottom of the social sectors some statistician arbitrarily classified as D or E, that is, those who have little purchasing power. The oil rentier model, as Domingo Alberto Rangel and other specialists have once said, was an illusion... or how poet Andrés Eloy Blanco would say... "Those were vapors of fantasy; they are fictions that sometimes give the inaccessible a proximity of distance".

Recently I was invited by the rigurous Venezuelan historian Miguel Tinker Salas to go to Pomona College in Los Angeles to talk about the topic of Afro-descendants and neoliberalism in Latin America and the issue of the Venezuelan crisis and the imperialist harassment could not be left aside. The negative social hypertrophy caused by the rentier model over the last century and the distrubution of oil revenue for the top five percent of society lasted almost a century until president Chávez changed the unequal distribution of oil revenue to less favored sectors, translating it into a social agenda that even with the ongoing crisis the Venezuelan people continue putting its hope in its resumption, for which it is necessary to dismantle the rentier state model that partially deformed the good intentions of the Bolivarian process. Within this process of income distribution, the Afro-descendant men and women, as a result of the active participation of the Afro-Venezuelan movement WITH ITS OWN AGENDA, were benefited from said distribution as never before in the history of our country and if we compare it with current neoliberal countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, the social indicators of the Afro-descendants in those countries made clear the levels of exclusion, racism and lack of access to decent housing, for example. However the oil rentier illusion and the State paternalism that had dragged on since the fourth republic were hardly surpassed. Today with the fall of oil prices the reality is different, because it reveals that the means of production and the self-development once present in the majority of Afro-descendant communities have been transformed into the oil rentier culture, the detachment from the land and the production, and today this should be a topic of discussion: it is not enough to offer a certain amount of money, loans for agricultural or socio-productive development, but it is clear that some rethinking must be done on the basis of the ruins of a rentier state model that had also generated an oil identity which still lingers, marked by a shameful cultural alienation. Doctor Tinker Salas, as a specialist in the oil sector and one of the most profund scholars on the relationship between oil and society in Venezuela, recognizes "The capacity of the Chávez government to recover and establish control over PDVSA", however he makes clear in the conclusion of his book The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture and Society in Venezuela (Duke University Press, 2009) that "there is a new chapter that has not materalized and it is not clear the shape it will take. Although the economy and the government continue to rely excessively on the oil industry, the reality is that in contemporary Venezuela, oil no longer functions as an irrational symbol of identity".

Reality does not have to be hidden, it has to be faced. Not all Afro-Venezuelan communities fell into the oil rentier trap, there are Afro-Venezuelan organizations that have verifiable community work that are producing with many limitations and they are not saying as many community councils say "we are going to produce" or how the agriculture sector says on TV shows "we are going to..." no, because this futuristic fantasy does not say anything anymore, it is embarrassing that those who three years ago said they were going to produce are now the same ones that are saying we are going to produce... even on television they announce the nonexistent as existent... like vapors of fantasies. It is time for the government to support the people who are producing with little input, like the Maroon women of Barlovento who are not "begging"; they are asking for loans to expand their production, the chocolate makers of Barlovento or Bahía de Cata, as well as the small farmers of Veroes, Yaracuy, Guiria, Macuquitas (Falcón) or Sur del Lago... but no one pays attention to the battles fought by these organizations corralled by oblivion and that occasionally are invited to some black-oriented TV show.

To end the rentier model one of the alternatives is to start with local production planning, so the communities sustain themselves like the Maroons did in colonial times under harsh conditions, worse than the reality that hits us today, however they left behind a model even the State forgot about. We must return to the agroecological Cumbes of the past with the technological advances of the present.

Observations

One of the few social production companies that survied the hypertrophy of the oil rentier model in Barlovento was the MAROON chocolate company Guillermo Ribas, BUT WHY AREN'T ANY OF THEIR CHOCOLATES or chocolate powders in the Claps' (Comités Locales de Abastecimiento y Producción — Local Committees for Supply and Production) boxes?

The rural community of Mango de Ocoyta as well as the town of Tapipa continue consuming unprocessed water

The International Decade for People of African Descent must begin, we repeat for the Bolivarian educational system, recovering the African presence in the curriculum, the elaboration of an Afro-Venezuelan library, retake the Afro-oriented direction of interculturality that has been stuck in the freezer and the Presidential Comission against racism in the Bolivarian educational system.

Minister Aristobulo and the Ministry of Women left as a chapel without a saint the bill of the Maroon Women of Barlovento; if you are ashamed, write them, give an answer to their projects cimarronasiempre@gmail.com

The next black youth meeting being promoted should address three big problems: migration, crime and unemployment... as an undeniable reality of Afro-Venezuelan youth.

Afro-descendants and the Dutch disease

 

[BigMan]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...male-pm-in-opposition-landslide-idUSKCN1IQ1N3

BRIDGETOWN (Reuters) - Barbados elected its first female prime minister as the opposition inflicted a crushing defeat on the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP), winning all the seats in the Caribbean island’s parliament, election results showed on Friday.

Mia Mottley’s victory in Thursday’s elections returns the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) to power on the island of some 285,000 people for the first time in a decade.

The Electoral and Boundaries Commission said the BLP had elected all 30 members of the parliament, delivering the first clean sweep in the history of the legislature. The DLP had previously held a slim majority with 16 seats.

“This victory is the people of Barbados’ victory,” Mottley, 52, told supporters outside the BLP’s Bridgetown headquarters early on Friday, calling the result a vote for a more inclusive and transparent kind of leadership for Barbados.


“This must be our legacy to the people of Barbados: to give you back your government and your governance,” said Mottley, a former minister and attorney general who was sworn in later on Friday.

The result means the Barbadian House of Assembly is without an official opposition, despite the fact that an unprecedented 135 candidates ran for office across nine parties.


Outgoing Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, who had served since 2010, congratulated Mottley, conceding that the DLP had suffered an “overwhelming defeat.”

“In campaigning, whenever there is success, success is shared by all those who succeed and by those with whom they are associated, but when there is failure, failure points to one man,” he told reporters at his party headquarters.

“I think that there was some hurt in the society in respect of some of the decisions that had to be made.”

The U.S. State Department issued a statement commending Mottley’s “stated intent to address fiscal transparency” and saying the United States looked forward to working with Barbados to enhance economic partnerships and private sector investment.


The Barbadian economy has struggled since a sharp contraction in 2009 after the global financial crisis.

Weak growth has put strains on Barbados’ public debt, pressuring foreign exchange reserves and helping to spark repeated downgrades of the island’s credit rating.

The DLP’s economic record dogged Stuart in the campaign. Many voters expressed frustration at the party’s failure to reduce debt and the cost of living even as their taxes rose.

 

[Yehuda]

Quotas were a silent revolution in Brazil, says specialist

May 27, 2018 — 8:15 AM
By Débora Brito

The chance of having a graduate diploma increased almost four times for the black population in the last decades in Brazil. After more than 15 years since the first experiences with affirmative action in higher education, the percentage of pretos and pardos who completed their graduation grew from 2.2% in 2000 to 9.3 in 2017.

Despite this growth, black people have not yet reached the white graduate rate. Among the white population, the current proportion is 22% graduates, which represents a little more than double the white graduates in 2000 (9.3%). The data are from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, IBGE).

The Higher Education Sensus elaborated by the Anísio Teixeira National Institute for Studies and Research (Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira, Inep) demonstrates the increasing enrolment of black students in undergraduate courses. In 2011, out of the 8 million total registrations, 11% were made by preto or pardo students. In 2016, the year of the latest Census, the percentage of black enrolled students jumped to 30%.

"The quotas policy was the great silent revolution implemented in Brazil and it benefits the entire society. In 2017, the number of black college students quadrupled, no other country in the world did this to its black population. This process shows that there are real changes for the black community", said friar David Santos, director of Educafro — an organization which promotes the inclusion of black and poor students in universities through scholarships.

Professor Nelson Inocêncio, who is a member of the Afro-Brazilian Studies Center of the University of Brasília, a pioneer in the adoption of racial quotas, also highlights the growth, but he ponders that it is necessary to discuss other policies to ensure some real catching-up between the education level of black and white students.

"I am hopeful that the quotas policy, even though it has its problems, will be successful in the end. That we will manage to make the black presence in these historically white spaces more significant", said Nelson Inocêncio — Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil

"Before we talk about racial equality, we must think about racial equity, which calls for different policies. If the quotas policy is not enough, even if it diminishes the gap between blacks and whites, we are going to need other policies. It's unacceptable that, after 130 years since the abolition of slavery, there is still such a huge gap between blacks and whites", highlighted Inocêncio.

Differentiate in order to include

15 years ago, the concept of affirmative action to include black people in higher education motivated an intense debate in academia. In June 2003, the University of Brasília decided to adopt the racial quotas in its selection process, paving the way for a paradigm shift in the access to higher education, until then strongly based on meritocracy.

The Target Plan for Social, Ethnic and Racial Integration approved by the Education, Research and Extension Center of UnB predicted that 20% of entrance exam places would be reserved for black students, whether pretos or pardos. The policy was adopted starting with the entrance exam of 2004, in all courses offered by the university.

The project creator, professor of the Department of Communication of UnB Dione Moura says the implementation of the system happened admist a lot of resistence and under criticism that the affirmative action policy could create a racial conflict in the country or bring down the university's ratings.

"The quotas project in UnB was one of the most challenging for me as a professional, citizen and a black woman", says professor Dione Moura, of the Department of Social Communication — Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil

One of the main challenges, according to the professor, was convincing media, society and academia itself that a specific policy for blacks — and not the poor in general — was needed. Even in face of the racial inequality numbers in education and the job market, questions emerged, especially in regard to the way of identifiying black people and the recognition of racism.

"Brazil had an idea of public policies as being universal, the concept of regional, gender and race public policies did not exist. The income slant was the only indicator recognized as legitimate for punctual actions. An affirmative action policy exclusively for the black population meant touching a nerve, it caused a huge stir", remembers Dione, one of the university's few black professors.

Other resistences were broken, such as the idea that high-income blacks should not be benefited, that quota holders would drop out of college or would have a lower performance than non-quota holders. "We can already see that these students are just as capable as the others or even manage to have a higher performance. In this sense, there is no doubt about the capacity of quota holders, because they already demonstrate this as revealed by researches", states professor Manoel Neres, coordinator of the Black Community Center of UnB.

Rewards

At 31 years old, anthropologist Natália Maria Alves Machado, part of the first class of quota holders in 2004, estimates that the adoption of the system was a milestone which made society reflect upon some rules and revise them in the name of justice and collective rights.

Natália was the first member of her family to go to a federal public university and says the experience was very challenging.

She says that in the beginning it was hard to deal with harassment from the press and, at the same time, adapt to the new routine and the responsibilities of the academic world, like finding resources for food, transportation and study materials. In order to support herself financially, she counted with student assistance from the university, she worked as an intern and did researches.

"The first class had few black people. We were diluted in there worried about the demands of the university space. What drew our attention the most was the harassment from the media, a lot of people approached us for interviews. Later, in a second moment, a lot of researchers were developing analyses about the policy. We knew we had a strong dynamic going on and it continued to grow."

Even if our presence is still miniscule in the academic space, it's thrilling to see more diverse colors and shapes, bodies, aesthetics, symbols and cultures. The campus became a much more rich and instigating space", says graduate student Natália Machado — Fabio Rodrigues Pozzembom/Agência Brasil

After graduating, Natália entered the job market autonomously, working as a consultant for social movements in the healthcare area. Today, she is working on her master's degree at UnB and does researches on the area of right to health, bioethics and accessibility.

After several years of sitting on the campus's benches, she says she is proud of seeing the aesthetic diversity in UnB's spaces and especially the way researches are carried out.

"The indigenous and black students who entered the academic space in the last 15 years brought a refreshment of methodological, theoretical and epistemological innovation without precedents, an expansion and deepening of knowledge, they brought forth more justice and truth", she said.

Changes

The perception of change in the university's visuals is shared by contemporary colleagues. Political scientist Derson Maia, 29 years old, says he was also the first member of his family to go to college. He passed the entrance exam in 2008 through the quotas system and says he notices the considerable increase in the number of black students in the recent years.

"Even with the quotas, you would see very few blacks on campus. In my political science class, it was only me and another girl. When I was about to graduate in 2014, I started to notice the campus was getting blacker, with people from other lower social classes, because before then it was very difficult. The black people I would be around throughout the course were foreigners", remembered Derson.

"Affirmative action brought something that is unheard-of in the universities, which is this diversified look inside the academy", assesses political scientist Derson Maia — Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil

The political scientist first heard about the quotas when he was in the first year of high school. A group of black college students visited the public school he attended to present the system to the future entrance exam takers. In the classroom, he was one of four blacks in a class of 40 students.

"I did not have that fear about what the university might be, because I had already seen other blacks talking about the quotas and how they would be an important path", he said.

After graduation, Derson did a master's degree on public policies and is currently a PhD student at UnB's Law School — a selective exam he passed through with the quotas system.

"If we want a higher education that produces scientific and technological innovation, we need to open up to diversity. This way, by including black people who came from another reality, a peripheral reality, you end up having new looks to the same problem and developing new solutions. I think UnB became a new institution", he stated.

A long journey

Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil

The approval of the project that instituted the quotas system in UnB was the result of a long process of articulation from members of the black movement, with specialists and representants of the public power.

One of the milestones that preceded the adoption of quotas in Brazil was the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban. The conference motivated black Brazilian personalities to reinforce the debate about affirmative action for blacks in Brazil, which became at the time a symbol for the commitment to combat all types of racial discrimination.

Still in 2001, the Rio de Janeiro State University (Uerj) opened the way for the implementation of the system in higher education. In the following year, the state's Legislative Assembly enacted the law which instituted the selection system through quotas for all public universities.

In 2003, UnB was the first federal institution to officialize the system of quotas for blacks. Almost ten years later, in 2012, the federal government instituted the Law of Social and Racial Quotas for all of the country's universities and, in 2014, for public tenders.

Presence

Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil

Data from UnB show that, in the system's first year, 376 black quota holders entered the university. The amount of pretos and pardos that entered the institution through quotas grew each year. In 2011, for example, 911 black quota holders enrolled in undergraduate courses. From 2004 to 2018, 7,648 blacks entered the university through the racial quotas system.

As of 2013, under the federal law of quotas, UnB changed the distribution of the reserve of places. To comply with the percentage established by the Ministry of Education for social quotas, UnB reduced the racial quotas. The university currently reserves 50% of places for public school students and 5% more exclusively for black students, regardless of their economic condition.

Currently, the system goes through the challenge of perfecting the process of selection based on self-identification. UnB has investigated at least 100 cases of possible fraud. At the national level, the judicial system pronounced itself in favor of the establishment of commissions to ascertain the veracity of the candidates' declarations.

"Our assessment of these 15 years is very positive. We can see by the data the growth in the number of black students", said UnB's Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Sérgio Antônio Andrade de Freitas — Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil

Dean Sérgio Andrade believes the complaints will not affect the system, but they could lead to adjustments.

"Every process requires some refinement, any change we have in society demands a process of maturity among the people", said Sérgio Andrade.

Quotas were a silent revolution in Brazil, says specialist

 

[Yehuda]

Cuba's parliament now has three black vice presidents. How come that didn't make the news?

Posted 19 May 2018 9:51 GMT
Written by Sandra Abd'Allah-Alvarez Ramírez and Dulce María Reyes Bonilla

From left to right: Inés María Chapman Waugh, Beatriz Jhonson Urrutia and Salvador Valdés Mesa. Image made by the author with EcuRed images.

On April 19, 2018, the Republic of Cuba swore in former university professor Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez as its new president and the 9th Congress of the National Assembly of People’s Power—the country’s supreme body of government power—elected a new Council of State. But the euphoria and uncertainty surrounding a supposed “Cuba without Castros” and related matters have eclipsed another major development: the presence of four Black leaders who will be part of the new government through 2023.

Black Cubans make up 10% of the population, but their presence in the spheres of power has been very limited, in spite of ideals of equality after the revolution.

Before Bermúdez, the previous Congress had two Black men in senior positions: First Vice President Juan Esteban Lazo Hernández and Salvador Valdés Mesa, President of the National Assembly. With the selection of Inés María Chapman Waugh and Beatriz Jhonson Urrutia as vice presidents, Cuba has, so to speak, “added more color” to the government.

Before I discuss the two women, I want to spend a minute on Valdés Mesa and Lazo Hernández.

Valdés, who previously held the positions of secretary of the Workers’ Central Union of Cuba, Minister of Labor and Social Security, and Secretary of Agricultural Workers, among others, is not from the generation of “los históricos” meaning those who led the 1959 Cuban Revolution, and who have usually ceded power only when they’re ousted or have died. He is from the generation that followed, as is Lazo, who was elected President of the National Assembly in 2013 and will keep the position until 2023, when he will be 79.

Lazo has a long and varied trajectory in Cuban politics. He has been secretary of the Cuba Communist Party for the Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, and Havana provinces, a member of the Cuban parliament since 1981, and Vice President of the Council of State since 1992. Lazo has also represented Cuba’s foreign affairs with countries in the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. He was elected President of the National Assembly of People’s Power on February 25, 2013.

A new crucible of scrutiny

The two new women vice presidents are, by parliamentary standards, relatively young if we consider age in the Legislature—only about 13% of members are under 35.

Ines María Chapman Waugh hails from Holguín and is an engineer. She's currently president of the National Hydraulic Resources Institute and for Cubans she’s a household name. For some time now she’s been the face of the agency she heads, offering the public important information during hurricane season. She was a member of the National Assembly for the preceding Congress and has been a member of the Council of State since 2008. In 2011 she was elected to the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.

Beatriz Jhonson Urrutia is also an engineer. In 2011 she was elected vice president of the Provincial Assembly of People’s Power in her native province of Santiago de Cuba. She became President of this body in 2016. In the 7th Congress a decade ago she was elected to the Central Committee. She became a member of parliament in 2013.

Both Chapman Waugh and Jhonson Urrutia come from the grassroots and developed professional careers prior to or alongside their political ones. As Black women, they’ve had to work hard at getting their degrees and building their careers to this point. And these latest appointments don’t mean they have arrived. Now they enter another crucible, where they’ll be “tested” due to their blackness and subjected to racist scrutiny and the expectation that sooner or later they will undoubtedly mess up.

Silence is also racism

Why haven’t the Cuban and international press, and people in general, embraced and hailed these developments with enthusiasm? I find it suspicious, considering that in the current political scenario this is a bigger surprise than Díaz-Canel, whose appointment was expected. The media has now turned its attention to the first lady and other superficialities while continuing to ignore this key piece of news.

Making things invisible is one of the ways racism operates. At times silence says more than words ever could. What I think is at work here is a combination of fear of Black people with the neo-racism of everyday life. This includes the official notion, in Cuba, that speaking of Black people, racism, and racial discrimination divides the nation.

About this last point, I want to add that even among the most committed social and political activists and laypeople, the idea persists that considering racial issues in any way dilutes a vaguely defined “supreme goal”. It’s from this position that notions ranging from the term “Afro-Cuban” to whether there is structural racism in the country are challenged.

While it is fair to assume there’ll be no change to race-related policies, it’s worth pointing out that the arrival of these three Black legislators, especially the two women, speaks favorably of the drive towards inclusion. Or, at the very least, it hints that it has been taken into account in the highest spheres of power on the island.

We can assume that no one holding a seat in the National Assembly has an explicit anti-racism political agenda. That couldn't be expected from any member of the Cuban Parliament. And I see this as evidence of racism, along with the particularities of the Cuban electoral system and the intricacies of how one becomes a politician in Cuba. This is a country where independent activism falls outside of legitimatized spaces of power—which creates the anomalous situation where people completely lacking in political interests or public recognition can sit, for five years, in the supreme branch of government.

Changing that would require convincing those in the corridors of power that racism is currently Cuba’s most urgent problem. It’s connected to many others, such as poverty, and it limits the enjoyment of basic and universal rights such as access to higher education.

The fear of tackling the issue is evident in the minimal impact that so many race-related publications, research and theses have had on Cuba’s decision-makers. I wonder what else is needed to prompt an open acknowledgement of this matter and everything it entails—and the ensuing public policy proposals to address racism.

Racial issues are not listed as topic or objective in any of the ten permanent working commissions of the National Assembly of People’s Power. I can think of at least three that are relevant to the issue of race: the Commission for the Attention of Childhood, Youth, and Equal Rights for Women; the Commission on Economic Issues; and the Commission of Education, Culture, Science, Technology, and the Environment.

There's no racism in Cuba, really?

If there’s a topic on which Cubans at opposite ends of the political spectrum agree, it's racial discrimination. Both supporters and opponents of the Cuban government assert wholeheartedly that “in Cuba, blacks and whites are the same.” For government supporters on and off the island, the situation looks good enough, including on this aspect. For opponents everywhere, things in Cuba are so terrible and everyone is so equally oppressed that racial discrimination is unworthy of special attention. These dynamics nullify the discussion and keep us from moving forward. Among some in the exile community, Cuban-flavored racism has even superseded anti-government animosity.

A screenshot from Facebook: “Diaz Canel is not the worst of it all. It’s the “N*****-load” left by [homophobic, racist, and xenophobic Cuban euphemism to refer to] Raúl Castro within inches of Power. The next Cuban government, and formed from exile, has to exclude Black candidates…no ties to the regime, witchcraft, laziness, theft, and mediocrities”

By now, we should have been implementing solutions, for example, to the problem of the overrepresentation of Black and mixed-race Cubans in the prison population. There should already be progress towards affirmative action on self-employment community projects.

Nevertheless, the fact that there are now more senior politicians representing Black Cubans, even if imperfectly, fills me with optimism. I do not ask anything of our three Black Vice Presidents that I wouldn’t ask of other legislators, but tackling racism and discrimination in Cuba requires the participation of all members of society, within the positions of power and privilege each one occupies.

This article appeared originally on the blog Negra cubana tenía que ser.

Cuba’s parliament now has three black vice presidents. How come that didn’t make the news?

 

[Yehuda]

How are afro-descendant and Pacific issues addressed by the presidential candidates?

Save for a few exceptions, they speak more about Venezuela and Maduro than these topics, which tend to be pushed to the side

By: Gabriel Pacheco | May 26 2018

The present article is a demonstration of the way in which the current presidential candidates treat the topics of interest for the Afro-Colombian community with territorial emphasis in the Pacific. This document does not intend to be a totalising or definitive analysis, it is rather an approach to the subject having as an indicator the Twitter accounts of the candidates. It goes without saying that Twitter is one of the social networks that generate the most content during political campaigns.

What we did was simply count the tweets published by each candidate about topics of interest for the Afro-Colombian community in the last 12 months, from May 1 2017 to May 15 2018, which resulted in an universe of 24,144 publications of tweets.



We believe that a period of 12 months is enough to assess the priorities of the candidates by the tweets they publish and we also determined that more than a year would not be adequate being that the candidates (Vargas and De La Calle) still had close relations with the current government and were not yet on the political campaign in a public and explicit way.

One of our most relevant findings was the fact that the candidates speak more about Venezuela and Nicolás Maduro than the Colombian Pacific or culture in general. Save for a few exceptions we will detail, the way afro-descendant and Pacific issues are addressed tends to be marginal and increased right after April 11 thanks to the debates in Buenaventura and Cali.

It is noteworthy that during a year not one candidate used the word étnico or étnica (ethnic) in their Twitter accounts, this is relevant because in the Constitution we are recognized as a multi-ethnic country and at least 20% of the Colombian populations belongs to one ethnicity.

In addition, problems that are very detrimental to the afro-descendant population and shameful for society as racism and discrimination are rarely mentioned in the Twitter accounts of the candidates.

An evidence of the marginality of ethnic issues in the language of the candidates is that, for example, the word afro has only been used 15 times among all candidates during a year. Similar to the word Pacifico (Pacific) which in the same period was used 58 times among all candidates. That was not the case with the word Venezuela which was invoked 268 times. In short, it would seem, at least by their Twitter accounts, that the candidates are more interested in the problems of their neighboring country than the issues of the Colombian Pacific and the black communities.

Municipalities from the Pacific such as Guapi, Timbiquí, La Tola, Juradó, Andagoya, Bahía Solano, Nuquí and Mangüí, save for a few exceptions, have not been mentioned by the candidates over the course of a year in their Twitter accounts. Other municipalities from the country's central region have been alluded to.

It should be said that the tweets about the municipalities of Tumaco, Buenaventura and Quibdó have been more frequent, for instance candidate Gustavo Petro is the one who has referred to Buenaventura the most with 28 occasions, while Iván Duque and Humberto De La Calle are the ones who mentioned Quibdó the most with 15 times each, Tumaco has been more alluded to by candidate Vargas Lleras with 18 mentions.

We were struck by the fact that allusions to the Pacific region, its municipalities and topics of interest were so few over the course of a year. We are talking about a region with poverty rates over 50%, with a weak and borderline nonexistent state, serious problems of legal and illegal mining, illicit crops and armed groups. We are also talking about this coast an immense environmental reserve and a region that has made definitive contributions to the country's cultural identity. It is striking, we insist, that this important region where Colombians and Colombians live protected by the Constitution, has little weight in the publications of the candidates in this social network.

On the other hand, and we see it as an advance, although it was only published once, two candidates, Humberto De La Calle and Iván Duque, mentioned Law 70 in their tweets. None of the four presidential hopefuls referred to the community councils or the afro-descendant collective territories. Only candidate Sergio Fajardo tweeted the word etnoeducación (formal education for ethnic minorities) twice.

To give an idea of the key importance of these issues for Afro-Colombians we can highlight that in the country there are 320 community councils which in most cases correspond to the same number of afro-descendant collective territories where an estimated 180,000 families — 1.5 million people — live.

Not to mention that the Constitution of 1991 consecrated us as a multi-ethnic and multicultural country and the Law 70 of 1993 established the afro-descendant collective territories as well as the community councils, the preliminary consultations and the seats for the Afro-Colombian communities in the House of Representatives. In conclusion, we can not talk about the destiny of Afro-Colombian without mentioning these issues.

Going further on the culture subject, no candidate mentioned during the year the festivities of "San Pacho" or the "marimba chonta", both on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, neither did they mention the "Petronio Álvarez" festival, the most important of the Afro-Pacific culture, or the ancestral midwifery of the Pacific, a heritage of the nation. There were no allusions to the viche, an artisanal and medicinal liquor of African origin that has been elaborated for centuries in this region, neither to the currulao and the bunde folk music traditions.

Candidate Gustavo Petro is the one who has most used the word afro with 11 occasions as well as being the only one who used the word raizal (the people of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina) on three occasions. Iván Duque used the word afrocolombiana once. No candidate used the word palenquero (the people from the village of San Basilio de Palenque). The Democratic Center's candidate is the one who most used the word "culture" on 79 occasions. In addition, Humberto De La Calle is the one who most used the word Pacífico on 17 occasions.

There is only one allusion to the municipality of López de Micay and it was the candidate Germán Vargas who made it.

This exercise, more pedagogical than political, seeks to highlight, at least on Twitter, the light weight that the Afro-Colombian community and the Pacific in general have in the language of the candidates, although, it must be said that there are relevant exceptions.

It should also be noted that the two debates in the Pacific were very important for the candidates to turn their gaze to this region and address its problems and needs. The mentions in their Twitter accounts after the debates grew significantly.

On May 21, two candidates mentioned the black communities from their Twitter account on the day of Afro-Colombians, they were Gustavo Petro and Sergio Fajardo. The others did not.

When focusing on the Pacific we do not believe that it is the only region with enormous needs in the country, the conclusions of this exercise also apply to the ethnic communities of the Caribbean, the Orinoquía, the Amazon, La Guajira or, for example, the rural communities of Catatumbo or Antioquia.

Finally, we consider it very important to weigh and reconcile the development model that the future president considers for the country with the needs of the ethnic and peasant communities as well as the preservation of their cultural heritage. Progress as understood in the big cities should not mean the displacement and impoverishment of the rural country.

The ACUA Foundation (Activos Culturales Afro, Afro-descendant Cultural Activities) has been undertaking productive projects for ten years with cultural content together with Afro-descendant communities, mainly women, in the Pacific and Caribbean regions of Colombia, as well as in Ecuador, Brazil and Peru. The Foundation also promotes political, social and academic reflection on the essential issues of Afro communities such as culture, gender, discrimination, racism and rural development with a territorial approach.

How are afro-descendant and Pacific issues addressed by the presidential candidates?

 

[Yehuda]

Bahia is declared the "Yoruba capital of the Americas"

10/06/2018 17:00

At a ceremony held in Salvador this Sunday (10), in the Barroquinha cultural space, Bahia was declared the Yoruba capital of the Americas by the Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, of Ile-Ife, a city located in the South West zone of Nigeria. The event had the participation of a delegation of political authorities, African priests and priestesses, heads of state secretariats for the Promotion of Racial Equality (Sepromi), Fabya Reis and Culture (Secult), Arany Santana, and representatives of the local communities of African descent.

The Ooni's agenda in Bahia aims to expand dialogue and project partnerships in several areas, such as government, universities and religious communities. This year, Brazil was chosen to kick off the official visits calendar, having Bahia as its center, a state that was one of the first to adhere to the actions of the International Decade for People of African Descent, declared by the UN.

"We recognize our historical ties to Bahia and this brave people, as well as the cultural protagonism of people of African descent who, throughout the last centuries, have been preserving the cultural, historical and religious values, especially within the Yoruba vision", stated the monarch Ogunwusi. For him, it is worth nothing the efforts made by baianos to recover the self esteem of generations of afro-descendants, in addition to government actions to promote "full citizenship, equal rights, political and economic emancipation of black people."

For Secromi's secretary Fabya Reis, the implemented dialogue brings the countries of the African diaspora closer together and strengthens ties to overcome inequalities. "The king's coming to Bahia, without a doubt, fills everyone with pride and reinforces even more our commitments for the continuity of the struggle, reparations for black people and the fight against religious intolerance", said the manager.

Bahia is declared the "Yoruba capital of the Americas"

 

[Bawon Samedi]

Bahia is declared the "Yoruba capital of the Americas"

10/06/2018 17:00

At a ceremony held in Salvador this Sunday (10), in the Barroquinha cultural space, Bahia was declared the Yoruba capital of the Americas by the Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, of Ile-Ife, a city located in the South West zone of Nigeria. The event had the participation of a delegation of political authorities, African priests and priestesses, heads of state secretariats for the Promotion of Racial Equality (Sepromi), Fabya Reis and Culture (Secult), Arany Santana, and representatives of the local communities of African descent.

The Ooni's agenda in Bahia aims to expand dialogue and project partnerships in several areas, such as government, universities and religious communities. This year, Brazil was chosen to kick off the official visits calendar, having Bahia as its center, a state that was one of the first to adhere to the actions of the International Decade for People of African Descent, declared by the UN.

"We recognize our historical ties to Bahia and this brave people, as well as the cultural protagonism of people of African descent who, throughout the last centuries, have been preserving the cultural, historical and religious values, especially within the Yoruba vision", stated the monarch Ogunwusi. For him, it is worth nothing the efforts made by baianos to recover the self esteem of generations of afro-descendants, in addition to government actions to promote "full citizenship, equal rights, political and economic emancipation of black people."

For Secromi's secretary Fabya Reis, the implemented dialogue brings the countries of the African diaspora closer together and strengthens ties to overcome inequalities. "The king's coming to Bahia, without a doubt, fills everyone with pride and reinforces even more our commitments for the continuity of the struggle, reparations for black people and the fight against religious intolerance", said the manager.

Bahia is declared the "Yoruba capital of the Americas"