Afrodescendant Resistance to Deracination in Colombia: Massacre at Bellavista-Bojayá-Chocó

This book provides a socio-historical analysis of the 2002 massacre at Bellavista-Bojayá-Chocó, Colombia. The author examines how the concepts of forced displacement and migration could be formulas for historical erasure. These concepts are used to name populations, such as the survivors of this massacre, and are limited in their ability to contribute to the demands for reparation of the affected populations. Instead, based on an ethnographic study of the pain and suffering generated in the survivors, the book proposes the concept of deracination as a tool to study land dispossession. It captures both the complex local specificities, the global linkages of this phenomenon and the strategies of resistance used by the people of this community to channel what seems as an impossible mourning. Preface 6 Acknowledgements 7 Contents 10 List of Figures, Maps and Photos 11 List of Tables 12 Introduction 13 Chapter 1 Beyond Sociology of Forced Migration 27 Abstract 27 Why? 27 How? 29 Annex 49 References 49 Chapter 2 The Region: Emptied Spaces and Geographies of Death in Colombia 53 Abstract 53 Deracination and Diaspora as Concepts and Methods 58 Resisting Deracination Denying the Displaced Status 59 Developing an Analytics and a Method to Study the Question of the Deracination of Colombia 60 How Do These World-Historical Emptied-Spaces and the Subjects of Violence Form? 61 Historicizing Deracination: Land Acquisition and Territory-Making in the Atrato River Region 62 World-Historical-Emptied-Spaces: Thinking About the Bases of Contemporary Processes of Deracination in the State of Chocó-Colombia 63 Spaces for Exploitation: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Reports About the Chocó Region 63 On the Trajectories of Territorial Settlement and the Patterns of Land Acquisition 68 On the Forms of Land Tenure 70 On the Forms of Land Acquisition and State Formation 71 “Developmentizable” Spaces 73 Spaces for Deracination 74 References 77 Chapter 3 They Kill Us, Therefore We Exist? 79 Abstract 79 Máxima and Family 81 Cerafina and Family 86 Rosalía. Cerafina’s Mother 88 George and Family 90 Mayito and Family 91 Chapter 4 Suffering While Black. Resistance Amid Deracination 95 Abstract 95 Politics of Spirituality: Reparation of the Soul 104 References 106 Chapter 5 Final Remarks: For an Afrodiasporic Feminist Sociology of Land Dispossession 107 Abstract 107 The Use of Time 112 The Use of the Relation Between Time and Space 112 The Use of Geographical Categories 112 References 115 References 117 Index 144 This book provides a socio-historical analysis of the 2002 massacre at Bellavista-Bojayá-Chocó, Colombia. The author examines how the concepts of forced displacement and migration could be formulas for historical erasure. These concepts are used to name populations, such as the survivors of this massacre, and are limited in their ability to contribute to the demands for reparation of the affected populations. Instead, based on an ethnographic study of the pain and suffering generated in the survivors, the book proposes the concept of deracination as a tool to study land dispossession. It captures both the complex local specificities, the global linkages of this phenomenon and the strategies of resistance used by the people of this community to channel what seems as an impossible mourning.-- Provided by Publisher This book provides a socio-historical analysis of the 2002 massacre at Bellavista-Bojaya Choco, Colombia. The author examines how the concepts of forced displacement and migration could be formulas for historical erasure. These concepts are used to name populations, such as the survivors of this massacre, and are limited in their ability to contribute to the demands for reparation of the affected populations. Instead, based on an ethnographic study of the pain and suffering generated in the survivors, the book proposes the concept of deracination as a tool to study land dispossession. It captures both the complex local specificities, the global linkages of this phenomenon and the strategies of resistance used by the people of this community to channel what seems as an impossible mourning Front Matter ....Pages i-xxxii Beyond Sociology of Forced Migration (Aurora Vergara-Figueroa)....Pages 1-26 The Region: Emptied Spaces and Geographies of Death in Colombia (Aurora Vergara-Figueroa)....Pages 27-52 They Kill Us, Therefore We Exist? (Aurora Vergara-Figueroa)....Pages 53-68 Suffering While Black. Resistance Amid Deracination (Aurora Vergara-Figueroa)....Pages 69-80 Final Remarks: For an Afrodiasporic Feminist Sociology of Land Dispossession (Aurora Vergara-Figueroa)....Pages 81-90 Back Matter ....Pages 91-123 Aurora Vergara-figueroa Includes Bibliographical References (pages 91-117) And Index.