Leonardo Reales is a Colombian of African descent. In 1993, while studying political science at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, he was one of only a handful of black university students among a total of 10,000. He remembers fellow students telling him: “You should feel proud of yourself.” Later, Reales joined the prestigious Battalion of the Presidential Guard. He was one of only three people of African ancestry in a company of 300.
On one occasion, when someone asked him a question about slavery, Reales was disconcerted by the realization that he didn’t know the names of many African countries. “I realized that we had never been taught African history or geography, neither in elementary nor in secondary school.”
Reales, who today is a representative of the National Union of Afro-Colombian Organizations in Bogotá, shared his experiences with 20 other Latin American and Caribbean leaders of African descent who were invited to come to Washington in July 2002 by the IDB’s Inter-American Institute for Social Development (INDES) for a course on the management of social development. Many of his comments were echoed by other participants. Alienation, stereotyping, insults disguised as sympathy, frustrated expectations for justice and progress—all seem to be part of daily life for millions of people of African descent in the region.
Estimates indicate that there are as many as 150 million people of African descent in Latin America and the Caribbean, but these numbers are far from being reflected in official census figures. The lack of information and scholarship about this segment of the population has acted like a smoke screen, making millions of people invisible from the standpoint of public policy. (See link at right, Invisible citizens).
A direct consequence of the underrepresentation—and, in many cases, the total absence—of people of African descent in censuses and government statistics is that they have been marginalized in the political agendas of their countries. For example, in 1993 the Colombian census reported 500,000 Afro-Colombians, whereas they actually number an estimated seven million. “This is reflected in the fact that we hold only a tiny portion of government or management positions and make up only 0.01 percent of all university students,” says Reales.
Getting started. “It’s a vicious circle that’s hard to break,” admits Mia Harbitz, a regional specialist at the IDB. “Eighty percent live in poverty. They have limited access to schools and health and education services.” Without the necessary resources, these marginalized groups cannot become a part of civil society.
INDES organized the management course for Afro-descendant leaders as part of the IDB’s strategy for combating social exclusion on ethnic or racial grounds. The first challenge was to find individuals who could participate in the course and subsequently bring about change to benefit their communities. Prior to organizing the course, the institute sent missions to three countries—Honduras, Ecuador and Brazil—with the goal of identifying leaders of African descent from organizations that were spearheading social development initiatives, and to learn about their principal needs and interests in the area of training.
The missions revealed that Afro-descendant communities have only recently started to identify themselves as such and to organize themselves for effective political representation. “Indigenous groups, by contrast, identify more closely with their culture,” says Harbitz. “They’ve been organized as peoples for at least 30 years. Afro-Latin Americans don’t have as strong of a common bond to unite them.”
Afro-descendants themselves recognized this situation during the workshops Harbitz organized in the three countries. Insufficient organization and a lack of documentation on their history have had a direct effect on the self-esteem of Afro-descendant communities. This has resulted in the absence of a distinct political identity and a kind of social invisibility. “If anything unites us, it is deprivation,” admitted an Afro-Costa Rican leader some time ago—“poverty, exclusion, invisibility.”
Experimental laboratory. Breaking this vicious circle requires Afro-descendant leaders who have the knowledge and background necessary to take part in development programs and influence local and national political processes.
For this reason, the INDES course had a deliberately practical focus. Learning to implement projects and write reports, design strategies, negotiate, listen, resolve conflicts, prepare budgets, and understand the decisionmaking process were among the topics addressed during the participants’ intensive month in Washington.
The stories 21 participants' stories shed light on a variety of largely unknown problems. The participants talked about the ethnic bias of education, the Eurocentric version of history, and the segregation between successful and marginalized people within the black community itself. “At the beginning of the course there was some tension; people asked tricky questions,” comments Harbitz. “Others seemed skeptical of the IDB’s true motives for organizing the course,” adds Karen Mokate, an INDES specialist and course instructor.
But the distrust soon disappeared, and everyone began to take part in a stimulating exchange. “This experience provided them with many of the tools they need for their strategies ,” says Mokate. “Everyone learned a lot. It was a very enriching experience.”
Isabel Cruz, a university professor in Rio de Janeiro, says the workshop helped her in two ways. “I acquired more training in social management that will enable me to increase the Afro-descendant presence in the processes of participation and decentralization, and that will help us to carefully target affirmative action policies that promote the development of our communities.” Fellow Brazilian Amauri Queiroz, director of the Palamares Institute in Brazil, adds that the course “has helped me to gain a new perspective with regard to our internal organization, to establish new paradigms, and to improve our relationship with the government. I’ve also become aware of the international dimension of our work. I feel like we’re a drop of water in the ocean.”
Having seen the positive results of this experience, INDES would like to continue offering this service to leaders from Afro-descendant organizations, but with several changes. “This may be the last time we hold a special course for Afro-descendants,” says Mokate. “If we really want them to take part in the political process in their countries, we have to start bringing them together to learn with other leaders from their societies. We can’t treat them once again like a separate case.” Mokate admits that, until now, social exclusion has been considered primarily from an economic perspective within INDES. But now, she insists, INDES is working on the political, cultural and linguistic dimensions of the problem, among other aspects. “Until now, we didn’t know how little we knew,” she says.