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.

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