IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 83

Afro-descendants in the 2010
National Census2
In considering solely the last six national
censuses, we see that their sociodemographic indicators sensitively vary
(Carnero 2013). The last one
incorporated a question about Afrodescendants, in order to get a census
sample: it was deployed only in homes
that received Form A (a broadened
form). Laura López (2006) analyzed the
reasons for this, which revealed that they
could be explained the State’s
commitment after debates held in the 90s
among
Afro
activists,
NGOs,
translational
and
multilateral
organizations (UNESCO, OAS, IDB,
WB, Ford Foundation, etc.) to
implement
positive
policies
for
acknowledgment
and
historical
reparation for the Afro-descendant
population. One of the policies was this
particular census sampling, which was
seen as an international demand by the
countries that participated in and
benefited from the slave trade. The
Santiago +5 Pre-Conference Against
Racism, Xenophobia, Discrimination,
and Intolerance, on December 3rd and
4th, 2000, in Santiago de Chile, was
decisive in this process. Four AfroArgentines
of
Colonial
Origin
participated in it, among them one of this
article’s authors: César Omar Lamadrid.
It was at this conference that the term
‘Afro-descendant’ be used to designate
descendants of enslaved Sub-Saharans.
The term spread at the World
Conference Against Racism, Racial
Discrimination,
Xenophobia,
and

Connected Forms of Intolerance (August
31-September 8, 2001), in Durban,
South Africa, in which Lamadrid and
two other Afro-Argentines. The Pilot
Study of Afro-descendants was the
immediate antecedent to the Afro subject
on the 2010 Census: it was carried out
between April 6-13, 2005, in the Buenos
Aires Monserrat neighborhood and Santa
Rosa de Lima neighborhood (in Santa
Fe) by the Tres de Febrero National
University with technical support from
INDEC,
consulting
by
Afro
organizations, and financing from the
World Bank. The study showed that 3%
of those polled considered themselves
Afro-descendants: 4.3% in Monserrat
and 3.8% in Santa Rosa de Lima (Stubbs
and Reyes 2006). Conceptually, those
who participated in the census should
have answered the question on both the
Pilot Study and the 2010 Census, given
that after the events of Chile and South
Africa the right to self-determination
was respected. The process’s Achilles
Heel resided in the fact that the strong
and secular process of invisibilization to
which State had subjected this
population
group
favored
selfconcealment in both instruments, and
even forgetfulness regarding being
descendants of slaves. It also constructed
so powerful a social stigma on the
category of ‘black’ that the recent and
complex term or category ‘Afrodescendants’ did not end up being as
accepted as had been expected. Even if
an awareness campaign was carried out
prior to the Pilot Study, by the time the
2010 Census came around not much

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