The Quest for a Counter-Space in the Colombian Pacific Coast Region

Abstract

It has become commonplace today to argue that African descendant populations have emerged as new political actors in the Americas over the last decades. Many countries in Latin America have rewritten their Constitutions to include notions of multiculturalism and recognize the role played by so-called ethnic minorities in the nation-building process. This has at times been accompanied by the granting of concrete rights to hitherto marginalized or excluded population groups. Most notably, perhaps, new territorial regimes have been created that held the promise of alternative territorialities for black communities, such as has been the case in Colombia. Undoubtedly, the passing of Law 70 in 1993, which granted collective land rights to black communities in the Pacific coast region, has been a major achievement for Afro-Colombian political mobilization. Yet, the reality on the ground today is undermining these achievements, as rural black populations are forcibly displaced in their thousands from the very lands they have acquired collective legal titles over. Whereas much academic work has focused on this relatively recent phenomenon of forced displacement, one crucial aspect has often been ignored: the very differential interpretation of Law 70 by the social movement of black communities and Colombian government agencies, respectively.