Peru apologises to descendents of slaves

[Judi Lynn]

Source: ABC News (Australia)

Peru apologises to descendents of slaves
By Richard Reynolds in Montevideo and wires

Posted 23 minutes ago

The government of Peru has formally apologised to Peruvians descended from black slaves.

The authorities say they are planning a formal ceremony in the next few months, but did not say when or where it would take place.

It is often estimated that at least half of all South Americans are at least in part descended from African slaves, and more than 5 per cent of Peruvians consider themselves black.

In a formal statement, the government says it apologises for the "abuse, exclusion and discrimination perpetrated against them, from the colonial era until the present".

Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/29/2756618.htm?section=justin

[boppers]

1. Half of all South Americans?

This should be interesting.

:popcorn:

[Judi Lynn]

2. George W. Bush was stupid enough to be surprised there are black people in Brazil.

http://www.slaverysite.com.nyud.net:8090/Body/slave_trade_1650-1860_b%20-%20

[boppers]

3. Brazil has some of the coolest people.

Euro/Amerind/Portuguese/Spain/African folks, it's a huge melting pot, for the better and worse.

Beautiful art and festivals, tragic crime and poverty.

[struggle4progress]

4. Ever read Amado's Tenda dos Milagros?

The hero, Pedro Archanjo (modeled after Manuel Querino), has a pleasantly anti-racist theory of "hybrid vigor"

Footsteps | Salvador, Brazil
Echoes of Amado in the Dark and the Light
By LARRY ROHTER
Published: February 24, 2008
... Amado always felt a special affection for the more austere Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos because of its links to the historic suffering of the blacks who make up the majority of the city’s population. The church is at the foot of Pelourinho Square, where in colonial days slaves were flogged, and Amado .. never forgot that. “The church was all blue in the late afternoon, the church of the slaves in the square where the whipping post and pillories had been erected,” he wrote in “Tent of Miracles,” published in 1969. “Is that the reflection of the sun or a smear of blood on the cobblestones? So much blood has run over these stones, so many cries of pain rose to heaven, so many supplications and curses resonated on the walls of that blue church" ... http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/travel/24footsteps.html?ex=1361682000&en=4d52f58ffe158c63&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

"Brazil has two great glories: the bounty of its soil and the talent of the mulatto." - Manuel Querino
http://manuelquerino.blogspot.com/

[L. Coyote]

5. The Spanish enslaved the Native Peoples by the millions ....

We were liberating chatteled slaves in the late 60's in Peru, enacting the Agrarian Reform Law decreed by the Military Junta.