Country: Venezuela

Group: Afro-Venezuelan (Afrovenezolano)

Date: 4/4/20

Team: Erika Walker (lead), Vianney Mancilla, Colleen Clauss

          During the 18th century, African populations were enslaved and forcibly brought to Venezuela to work on cocoa plantations (Minority Rights Group, 2017). Current Afro-descendant communities in Venezuela commonly lack recognition as a distinct ethnic and cultural group as a result of racial prejudice and were not able to self-identify as Afro-descendant in the national census until 2011 (Minority Rights Group, 2017). This lack of official recognition of their identity can fall under our definition of ethnocide because of potential impacts on Afro-Venezuelan culture and communities. Evidence of a pattern of encouraged cultural assimilation to the dominant Creole culture in Venezuela was also found (Marquina, 2019). This process may be partially motivated by antiblackness in Venezuela, leading to loss of Afro-Venezuelan culture (Mosquera, 2019). Data quality on Afro-Venezuelans in general is good, including peer-reviewed sources and organizations like Minority Rights Groups, but because information specifically on ethnocide was not widespread it is rated as 2.

Sources

  1. Marquina, C. P. (2019, May 24). Afro-Venezuelan Culture and Resistance: A Conversation with Ines Perez-Wilke. Venezuelanalysis.Com. https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14506
  2. Minority Rights Group. (2017, December). Afro-Venezuelans. Minority Rights Group. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/afro-venezuelans/
  3. Mosquera, N. M. (2019). The ghost of the plantation: Race, class, gender and popular culture in Venezuela [Doctoral Dissertation, University of Sussex].