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HOW ARGENTINA ERASED ITS BLACK PEOPLE:
President of Argentina from 1868 to 1874, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, undertook a ‘covert genocide’ that wiped out the Afro-Argentinean population to the point that by 1875, there were so little Black people left in Argentina that the...
President of Argentina from 1868 to 1874, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, undertook a ‘covert genocide’ that wiped out the Afro-Argentinean population to the point that by 1875, there were so little Black people left in Argentina that the...
Government didn’t even bother registering African-descendants in the national census. During his term, Sarmiento instituted highly oppressive and deadly policies to eradicate Black people. He segregated the Black community from European descendants, placing them in squalor...
...with no descent infrastructure and healthcare. This became a death sentence when cholera and yellow-fever outbreaks ravaged this community with no adequate measures to prevent or treat the illnesses. Sarmiento’s genocide also constituted...
... “the forced recruitment of Afro-Argentines into the military, mass imprisonment for minor or fabricated crimes, and mass executions.” Sarmiento also enlisted Afro-Argentinean men in the army to fight the Paraguayan War of 1864. Allegedly, Sarmiento knew that Argentina...
Wouldn’t fare well in the war, sending thousands of Afro-Argentine men to their deaths. The war impacted the gender balance so severely that Afro-Argentine women were “forced” to have children with white or mixed Argentinean men...
The endeavor was pushed by Argentinean leaders and intellectuals, who wanted to erase the Afro-Argentine presence from all parts of Argentinean life, including culture. The Tango is Argentina’s most prized cultural export but according to early art relating to the dance...
It has African origins through the influence of Black Argentineans. The Tango has deep roots in the former African kingdom of Kongo and is currently considered one of the world’s most beautiful dance forms. Legendary white Tango dancer Carlos Gardel actually had Black composer...
And poet, Gabino Ezieza as his tutor, which shows an Argentinean dedication to not associating the Tango with any form of blackness. The Kikongo word for sun is ntangu”, Thompson writes, and the movements of the ntangu through the sky inspired dance forms...
...on Earth that were eventually Creolized with Spanish and Italian influences in Buenos Aires as tango, which means, literally, “‘moving in time to a beat.’
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