Afro-Venezuelans celebrate 150 years of the Abolition of Slavery
Commemorating 150 years of the abolition of slavery in Venezuela, the Afro-Venezuelan Organizations Network has announced a seminar at the Caracas Bellas Artes Museum on March 22-24 entitled: A Critical Review of the Historical Dimension of Slavery in Venezuela. The National Culture Council (Conac) is sponsoring the meeting.
Among the topics to be investigated are: how many are we, where are we and how are we (historical experience of census, and juridical advances of recognition of descendents of African slaves in Venezuela).
The black Education, Culture & Sports (MECD) Minister, Aristobulo Isturiz will open the event, along with other guests that include National Assembly (AN) indigenous deputy, Noheli Pocaterra, CONAC president and Deputy Culture Minister, Francisco Sesto, Venezuelan representative to UNESCO, Maria Clemencia Lopez and of course, Afro-Venezuelan Organizations Network leaders, Jesus Garcia and Jorge Guerrero.
The network says the Venezuelan State has a debt to the descendents of slavery and it's time for a new relation between the State, its institutions and the problems of its black population ... "we want a constitutional amendment to include recognition of Afro-Venezuelans from all perspectives ... currently, there is a folkloric vision of us and we want to be put on the same constitutional footing as indigenous peoples."
US African American Professor Sheila Walter from Spellman College, Atlanta will attend to direct one workshop on legal aspects.
The seminar will no doubt address the legacy of slavery and traces of racism in Venezuela, the latter vehemently denied by Venezuela's opposition. Others in Venezuela suggest that the lighter-skinned and richer portion of the population "red-line" and patronize their darker-skinned countrymen and women.
The term Afro-Venezuelan rankles in the opposition's ear but the term was coined years before President Hugo Chavez Frias came to power ... opposition intellectuals have not yet come to term with the changes.
In fact, Jesus "Chucho" Garcia is a pioneer in Afro-Venezuelan studies and instrumental in bringing about an appreciation of Africa's contribution to the Venezuelan majority-mestizo character.
Constitution of the
