Identidad, Cultura y Cimarronaje en la Insurgencia/emergencia del Pueblo Afroecuatoriano: 1980-2011

For more than five centuries of victimization on the American continent, first with the Western conquest and then with the creation of the nation-state, a homogenizing discourse has been promoted, forcing everyone to recognize themselves as part of a single cultural reality. In this context, the people of African origin have been denied by the hegemonic white-mestizo power, their right to exist, with their identity and deepest humanity, coming to be considered a people without culture; good only to be at the service of those who considered themselves ontologically superior. However, the people of the African Diaspora never conformed to the oppressive and enslaving mentality of the colonizers of the time, rather, since their arrival on American soil until today, thanks to their insurgent and rebellious spirit, they have been able to keep alive the memory of their own cultural heritage. In the last thirty years, the Afro-Ecuadorian people have managed to become active and organize themselves in a more stable way against racial and cultural discrimination, gradually promoting the construction of identity processes as a social strategy to affirm themselves as political subjects and demand respect for their economic, political, social and cultural rights. At present, the Afro-Ecuadorian people have several organizational expressions present at the national level, both in civil society as well as in the academic, state and religious world; this shows that their maroon spirit is still alive and rebellious.