Culture of resistance: Africa and Afro-descendants in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Abstract

The development of the capitalist system had triangular trade as one of its pillars. In this context, the slave trade, an essential component of it, determined that Africans were part of the formation of American and Caribbean societies. The Eurocentric conception, with its quotas of discrimination, racism, and civilizational vision, was the basis for concealing and justifying the intrusions and dispossessions of many peoples, where Afro-descendants and Africans hold a prominent place. In that scenario, the culture of resistance manifested itself as a daily activity in the preservation of values and ways of doing things, both in Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean. This work aims to expose some of the main manifestations of the culture of resistance of Afro-descendant communities in the Latin American and Caribbean landscape. At the same time, it explores the role of Africa towards these communities. The ultimate goal is to offer an insight into the main manifestations of the culture of resistance in the region and the interconnection between these and the originating continent. It is confirmed that, with their particularities, there have been expressions that have demonstrated transatlantic interconnection: for example, Pan-Africanism at the end of the 19th century and the Sixth Region in the 21st century.