In the age of inclusivity, Argentina’s one-culture national team is bound to come under interrogation by those who have vast affective investment in sports, particularly soccer as Dr. Yusuf Bangura does in this piece
By Yusuf Bangura, PhD
It’s clear from the articles posted that there was a deliberate policy of transforming Argentina from a highly diverse society, in which blacks were well represented, into an almost all-white nation. In the 19th century 50% of the population in half of the provinces and 37% of the national population was black. Today, Argentina is the whitest country in Latin America, with 97% of the population identifying as white. Only 0.37% of the population now identifies as black or Afro-Argentine.
The policy of white supremacy advanced in the 19th century by President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento played a big role in the extermination of the black population and the whitening of the country.
Two policies stand out in the narrative:
(1) The overrepresentation of black people in the military (at one point 65% of the army was black). Black people were promised freedom from slavery if they enrolled in the army. In one of the country’s wars (against Paraguay in the late 19th century) there was a deliberate policy of sending black soldiers to the war front where most of them perished.
(2) The late 19th century yellow fever plague in Buenos Aires killed many blacks because of the segregationist policies of President Sarmiento. Sarmiento separated the black population from white immigrants and denied the black population health care and basic infrastructure. Black people were more devastated by the plague than whites.
What could be goin on?
There were two other developments that led to the decimation of the black population in Argentina.
(1). The whitening of the black population. It’s suggested that the death of many black men in the Paraguay war led to a gender imbalance, forcing many black women to marry white men. The offsprings of these marriages (métisse) further married white men or women, leading to a high level of whitening. Black women may also have been raped during slavery to lay the foundation for the emergence of the métisse as has been documented in the case of the US.
It’s reported that even though only 0.37% of the population identifies as Afro-Argentine, 7.5% (some studies even claim 10%) of the population has genetic links with Africa. White privilege and the devalorisation of blackness forces those with a drop of black blood but look white to identify as white.
(2). The migration of black Argentines to Brazil and Uruguay where conditions were perceived to be less hostile for black people.
The question that remains is why there’s no black Argentine in the national team even though 150,000 Argentines identify as black or Afro-Argentine. Is it the case that black Argentines don’t play football, the easiest route out of poverty for disadvantaged groups everywhere?
After all there was a famous black player in the Argentine team in the 1920s: Alejandro de los Santos.
3 Comments
Abdullah Musa
Racism against Black people is nearly global.
It reached alarming proportions in Latin America.
How many did the Spaniards kill to establish their colonies?
Where the color is same, as in Nigeria, ethnicity comes to the forefront in forming the national team.
When Portugal trounced Nigeria 4-0 in a friendly, an aggrieved Northerner said Southern Nigeria was defeated, for no single Northerner was deemed qualified enough to make it to the ‘national’ team.
Europeans are doing their best to fight racism. Blacks are doing next to nothing to fight tribalism, ethnocentricism.
Mohammed Abbas Makamn Zazzau
Mr. Abdullah, pardon me if I say that even the ethnocentrism mostly experienced within and between Africans is actively promoted and even financed by the same Europeans and America in order to make it easy for them to keep pillaging African resources and keep Africans “in check”, meaning under subjugation..!
John Elusiyan
“The question that remains is why there’s no black Argentine in the national team even though 150,000 Argentines identify as black or Afro-Argentine.”
I don’t think it makes any sense to link the lack of black players in the Argentine team to any current racism in that country. Sure, we can debate about how much effect segregation of the past has, but I’m willing to bet that there is no Argentine law that discriminates against black people.
Even if the Argentine coach is a racist, why would he spoil his chance of winning by not picking a black player who is very good? As Dr Thomas Sowell once said, “A white person may prefer white people to black person, but he still prefers himself more than any other person.” A coach will put his own interests in winning above any prejudices he might have.