Challenging silence: Afro-Argentine identity and recognition in Argentina's educational narrative

• In Event: Protest, Activism and Education

Proposal

Objectives and purpose of study
In 2022, Argentina conducted its official census, during which the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (INADI) launched a campaign known as "Reconocernos" (recognizing ourselves). The primary goal of this campaign was to increase awareness about the importance of acknowledging historically overlooked minority groups in the country. It was a historic moment as, for the first time, the census included specific questions about Indigenous descent, African descent, and gender identity beyond the sex assigned at birth (unfortunately, the official results have not yet been released). Through the “Reconocernos” campaign, INADI encouraged people to speak up and disclose their real identity.
After years of struggle and protests by Afro-Argentine communities seeking recognition in the country, the inclusion of these questions in the census was a significant milestone. This step marked progress in providing the marginalized Afro-Argentine community with the visibility and representation it rightfully deserves (Argentina.gob.ar 2022a; 2022b; Herman, 2022; Hoffman, 2022). However, it is essential to recognize that the fight for true recognition, representation, and equality is far from over. Even with the acknowledgement of Afro-Argentines in demographic statistics, further efforts are needed within institutions, like the education system, to ensure full recognition and inclusion of Afro-Argentine peoples in society.
Despite the continuous efforts of academics (Andrews, 1990; Grimson, 2014; Kleidermacher, 2016; Quijada, 2004), social movements (Fundación África Vive; Consejo Nacional de Organizaciones Afros de la Argentina; Instituto de Investigración y Difusion de las Culturas Negras; Casa de África en la Argentina; Unión de Africanos en el Cono Sur; Movimiento Afrocultural; Grupo Cultural Afro; among others), and even governmental institutions (INADI, that was founded in 2005) to make Argentina society aware of its ethnical diversity and the presence of its African roots, the official discourse continues to be that Argentina is a mainly white and racially homogeneous society. The homogenization of Argentina’s population over the past century consisted of eliminating Black and indigenous peoples through assimilation, and it was strengthened by the country’s efforts to encourage and prioritize immigration from Europe. These processes culminated in eliminating its Black history and roots and claiming that “there were never black people in Argentina” (Kleidermacher, 2016, p. 3; author’s translation). As they assimilated, Africans ceased to exist and became Argentinian citizens through the processes of ‘mestizaje,’ which sought to erase the most typical features of African peoples and hide their origins to make them more accepted in society (Andrews, 1990; Kleidermarcher, 2016). In 1778, enslaved Africans represented 30% of the population. Surprisingly, the 1895 census established that more than 80% of the population was white and from European origins, and only 20% represented other minorities, inlucidng indigenous peoples and individuals of African descendant (Kleidermacher, 2016; Quijada, 2004).
Argentina’s educational strategies and goals have continued to reinforce the status quo of a predominantly white country, being designed mainly for white Western students. Even though the country has focused in the last decades on decolonizing the education system by promoting inclusion, fighting discrimination, xenophobia, and racism, lack of awareness of the presence and influence of diverse cultures in the building of the country is a great obstacle to these goals being truthfully achieved.
With the aim of engaging in the conversations surrounding the decolonization of education systems, that emerged from the struggles and protests of underrepresented and neglected groups (such as Afro-Argentines), this study seeks to address the following questions: How are the discourses that perceive non-white individuals as the "other" deeply embedded within Argentina's education systems? Additionally, how do these discourses influence the perceptions of Argentinians regarding people of African descent and their presence and role in the country? By investigating these aspects, the study aims to shed light on the entrenched discourses and their impact on how individuals of African heritage are perceived and depict within the educational context in Argentina.
To achieve its objective, the study employs two qualitative methods: first, it involves collecting and analyzing memories of childhood in the school setting to unveil how people from African descent are represented in schools and recollected by Argentinian young adults (equal number of Argentinians of African and non-African descent will be included). Second, the study includes the analysis of history textbooks utilized in the country’s schools, syllabus, curriculums, and resources promoted by the ministry of education, to understand how African and Afro-Argentine peoples are depicted in schools and society.

Theoretical framework
The theoretical framework used in this paper is decolonial theory within pluriversal politics, which is concerned with how to deal with forms of existence that homogenize and exploit the world and move towards a new ‘world of worlds’ (Escobar, 2020), a world that recognizes, values, and builds itself upon different ways of existence. By including the voices of Afro-Argentines into the discussion and having a deeper understanding of what the process of forceful assimilation into a Western and white perspective has meant to them, the study hopes to contribute to revealing this world of worlds.
Decolonization, as Mignolo (2014) points out, “originated in the Third World and was enacted by actors wanting liberation from Western Europe” (p. 22). Similarly to what Escobar (2020) argues regarding pluriversal politics needing new non-Western tools, decolonization strategies cannot emerge from the Global North, as they cannot “offer at once to the rest of the world both oppression and liberation” (Mignolo, 2014, p. 22). Decolonization challenges the European and Western universes of meaning and proposes new ones. In other words, it changes the idea of being and thinking. This idea comes from the belief that there is no external independent world to be known from outside, but the world consists of a multiplicity of encounters between different observers and the reality they see or experience (Mignolo, 2014). In this sense, decolonization acknowledges and works towards a pluriverse of realities.
This theoretical framework is ideal for this study, as its goal is to contribute to Afro-Argentine communities and protesters objective to assert their presence and contributions in a country that claims to be homogeneous, white, and occidental.

Author

• Victoria Desimoni, Arizona State University