How Argentina Eliminated Millions Of African After Slavery – An Important History
November 17, 2020 2177
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The history of the world can never be told completely without giving concise and credible accounts of slavery of Africans. Over 50 million Africans were taken into slavery in America and Europe, while over 12.5 million were taken into slavery in the Arab world.
Of the over 50 million that
survived the "middle passage" on ships to America and Europe, tens of
millions of them found themselves in Brazil. Today, it is a known fact that
roughly half of Brazil can trace their lineage directly to Africa.
But the same cannot be said for
Brazil's neighbor, which is Argentina. Just like Brazil, hundreds of thousands
of African slaves were sold and taken to Argentina, at the time. Yet, the
African presence in Argentina has virtually vanished from the country's
records, oral history, and consciousness.
According to historical accounts,
Africans first arrived in Argentina in the late 16th century. They were dumped
and sold in the region now called the Rio de la Plata, which includes Buenos
Aires. Primarily, just like the African slaves in America, they worked in
plantations and as domestic servants. By the late 18th century and early 19th
century, black Africans were numerous in parts of Argentina, accounting for up
to half the population in some provinces, including Santiago del Estero,
Catamarca, Salta, and Córdoba.
The neighborhoods of Monserrat
and San Telmo, in Buenos Aires, housed many African slaves. The African slaves
accounted for an estimated one-third of the city's population. This was
according to surveys taken in the early 1800s.
Although slavery was abolished in
1813, many parts of North, Central, Latin, and South America, still practiced
slavery till 1853. At this point, slaves were now free to live their lives and
chase their destinies. But what was weird was that their numbers started to
decrease drastically.
This decrease in the number and
mass disappearance of Africans (blacks) was attributed to two major factors by
historians. One was the deadly war against Paraguay from 1865-1870, in which
thousands of black men fought on the frontlines for the Argentine military. The
second reason was the onset of yellow fever in Buenos Aires in 1871.
There were heavy casualties of
blacks, who were used in the frontlines. This resulted in thousands of them
dying, for another man's war - for a war they knew nothing of. And subsequently,
this death of so many African men left a huge gender gap among the African
population. This was a very trying time for the African community. More African
women were made to marry and mate white Argentines, and this diluted the color
and genes of the Africans who remained.
Because of the hostility, they
were faced with in Argentina, many of the Africans fled to neighboring Brazil
and Uruguay, which were considered more welcoming and conducive Africans. There
are those who have said that these were calculated by the white Argentines, so
as to eliminate the huge traces of the Negro amongst them.
It has been alleged that the
president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, sought to
wipe out blacks from the country in a policy of covert genocide through
extremely repressive policies. This included forcing the Africans to remain in
neighborhoods where disease would decimate them with healthcare withdrawn from
those areas
The president's seemingly hate
for the Africans could be captured in his Diary in 1848. He wrote: “In the
United States… 4 million are black, and within 20 years will be 8 [million]….
What is [to be] done with such blacks, hated by the white race? Slavery is a
parasite that the vegetation of English colonization has left attached to the leafy
tree of freedom.”
By 1895, the government of
Argentina did not bother registering African-descended people in the national
census, because they were so few in number.
It would not be an overstatement
to say that the Argentinians wanted to eat their cake and have it. They wanted
to use Africans for labor in building their country but didn’t want them to
share in the country they built with blood and sweat.
It was certain that the white
Argentinians saw a future where Africans would share equal rights with them in
all facets of society. And they couldn’t live to see that happen. So, something
had to be done. They had to reduce to the lowest number possible.
The CIA World Factbook currently
notes that Argentina is 97 percent white (primarily comprising people descended
from Spanish and Italian immigrants), thereby making it the “whitest” nation in
Latin America.
But one fact that still remains
is that Blacks of African descent did not completely vanish from Argentina, despite
the attempts by successive governments to eliminate them. Somehow, they remain hidden and hardly talked about part of Argentina.
“There is a silence about the
participation of Afro-Argentines in the history and building of Argentina, a
silence about the enslavement and poverty,” said Paula Brufman, an Argentine
law student and researcher, according to Planete Afrique.
But ironically, Argentina's most famous and celebrated cultural gift to the world, which is the tango, came from African influence. Deep down, they know it, and no amount of racial dilution can steal that fact from history.