RECONSTRUCCIONES IDENTITARIAS EN EL PROCESO BOLIVARIANO: LOS AFROVENEZOLANOS (1998-2008)

Abstract

Venezuelan black organizations have advanced in a profound process
of identitary reconstruction, structuring new social movements in the
context of hegemonic struggle and political-institutional change in the
country since the late 1990’ decade. This process is beyond the
traditional defense of the right to cultural diversity to set a new ethnopolitical
discourse aimed at the decolonization of the state and nation
project under the Bolivarian revolutionary process. Our paper attempts
to make an approach to the analysis of the main factors which have
influenced in the identitary construction of “African descent” in the
period 1998-2008 in Venezuela. It is based on interviews with leaders
and members of Afro Venezuelan organizations, and reviewing
literature and various documents which were produced and
disseminated by their activists.