Afro Argentine - Theories On The Decline of The Afro-Argentine Population

Theories On The Decline of The Afro-Argentine Population

Traditionally it has been argued that the black population in Argentina declined since the early 19th century to insignificance. However, the pilot census conducted in two neighborhoods of Argentina in 2006 on knowledge of their ancestors from Sub-Saharan Africa verified that 5-percent of the population were aware of their African ancestry, and another 20-percent thought that was possible but not sure. Given that European immigration accounted for more than half the growth of the Argentine population in 1960, some researchers argue that rather than decrease what they had was a process of "invisibility" of the population Afro-Argentine and their cultural roots.

Other researchers argued that there was a deliberate policy of genocide against the Afro-Argentine, which was openly expressed by many Euro-Argentines as Domingo F. Sarmiento and was probably implemented by using repressive policies during epidemics and wars as a tool of mass destruction. These theories argue that genocide may have been used to explain the decline in the population. Experts were pursuing similar arguments, but differ on the attribution of intent that was first attributed to the ruling classes.