IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 9 ENGLISH | Page 89

The Training School for Young Leaders
of
African
Descent
2016
"Afroidentifícate" [Identify Yourself]
was incepted with such spirit. It is an
intense training three-months program
that strengthens the abilities of
adolescent and young Afro-Peruvians in
their neighborhoods, organizations and
communities from Metropolitan Lima
and Callao.
The general goal is to actively
participate in the defense and promotion
of the rights of the Afro-Peruvian
population. The specific goal is to exert
influence on the political decision of
including the question about ethnic selfidentification in the upcoming National
Census (2017).
After the enslav ement and the most
serious crime against humanity in
history: the trans-Atlantic trade, official
data on Afro-Peruvian population and

its current socio-economic level are not
available. Without these data, the State
cannot fulfil in the best way the specific
needs of our communities, particularly
with public policies and programs that
reduce the inequality levels between
Afro-Peruvians and the rest of the
population.
In such historical situation, the AfroPeruvians represent about 10% of the
national population. They need better
tools to reinforce their identity. The
teens and young people of the school
are spokespeople and promoters of the
pride of our roots and history.
It was in this context that, on June 25, I
received the package shown below. It
contained several different copies of the
magazine Identities, with which Peru
Ashanti is already collaborating to share
projects.

The magazine was presented on
Saturday, July 9, at the school as part of
the training process in the second
module of the program.
Given the huge void of literature and
critical
apparatus
about
our
communities beyond the colonization
and slavery eras in Latin America and
the Caribbean, working groups were

formed to generate discussion about the
importance and the need for young
people to produce pieces of writing that
help visualize the reality and demands
of the African descent. We could also
compare the Afro-Cuban and AfroPeruvian realities from the perspective
of their cultural manifestations and
social demands.

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