BLACK ERASURE IN ARGENTINA

Argentina is Blacker than it likes to admit. “Mexicans descend from the Aztecs, Peruvians from the Incas, but Argentinians descend from ships from Europe,” so goes an old saying that encapsulates Argentina’s perception of itself as a nation of White Europeans that never had Blacks. Afro-Argentines formed almost half of the population of Argentina in 1778, but an evidently systematically implemented anti-Blackness policy reduced them to 30% of the population by the time the country gained independence from Spain in 1816.

Several decades of racial politics and alleged extermination campaigns followed where they were slowly yet steadily wiped out and their rich Black culture erased from the nation’s collective consciousness. Today, statistics show Afro-Argentines form a paltry 0.4% of Argentina's total population, making it the Whitest country not just in Latin America but the Whitest country outside of Europe.

Evidently, there were no racially-oriented laws in Argentina, such as South Africa’s apartheid or the Jim Crow laws in the United States, but the country created a lot of obstacles that prevented Black people from accessing lands, the labour market and education. Over the centuries, Black and indigenous people chose to strategically increasingly mix with and pass off as White to escape marginalisation. Some of the country’s biggest stars can trace their lineage back to Black slaves. However, compared to other South American teams, the all-White, always-White roster of the soccer team must have piqued your curiosity.

This Whitening process was attempted throughout much of the Americas, in places such as Brazil, Uruguay as well as the United States, when the American Colonization Society set up Liberia as a home for freed slaves. What makes Argentina’s story unique in this context, however, is that it successfully pushed to build its image as a White country. Ex-president Domingo Faustino Sarmiento once said towards the end of the 19th century that it would be impossible to see Blacks in Argentina unless one travelled to Brazil. African Stream’s Brenda Mwai lays out the case.