IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 94

intended to contribute to the 2010 Census’s crafting and the training of census takers. The presentation of the entire Afro issue based on a census of only part of the population should be seen as a sample, and not as part of the census itself. Even if this is clear in the INDEC publication, some researchers (Bidaseca 2010, Frigerio and Lamborghini 2011, Carniero 2013, Maidana, Ottenheimer and Zubrzycki 2014) and Afro activists simply the matter and overestimate their importance, since it equates Forms A and B, and celebrates a novelty where there was none: a census is not the same as a census sample. The 2012 National Census only should have used Question 6 to poll descendants of people who were enslaved in the national territory or, if it appropriate, as Argentines. This would have worked well with Question 5 about belonging to original peoples, since it considered only those who lived here prior to the European invasion, and not the occasional residence of people belonging to other American ethnic groups. The final results quickly imply that all of the peoples polled are from Argentina.6 (Tomo 1: 272-291). Had the State seriously consider the international commitment to discover the quantitative dimension of the Afro population to efficiently understand its needs 7 (Campbell Barr 2010: 4), the 2010 Census would have been exemplary and Misibamba would not have found itself needing to create a census, using its own resources, so that the citizenry could have coherent statistics. Evidently, empowered social movements, even with their shortcomings and defects, tend to do a better job with these issues than the State and bureaucracy, and their lack of knowledge and opportunism. The small universe of 112 Afro-Argentines of Colonial Origin who were polled due to their own initiative, and with the collaboration of an anthropologist (one of this text’s co-authors) shows that it is possible to help change the perception that there are no descendants of enslaved Africans from the colonial period, who did come by ship, but not voluntarily. Let us hope that the next National Census acts responsibly, after our miniscule contribution, and with inner knowledge. 94