Michael Abrahams | Why doesn’t Argentina have black football players?

We have been seeing black players in Brazil’s football teams for decades, the most famous being Edson Arantes do Nascimento, aka Pelé, considered by many to be the GOAT (greatest of all time). In this year’s FIFA World Cup, we see them in the teams from Uruguay and Ecuador. And we have seen them shine in other South American teams in the past.

Teófilo Cubillas played for Peru in the 1970s and 1980s and was selected as Peru’s greatest-ever player in an International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) poll. Colombia has, among others, Faustino ‘Tino’ Asprilla, who is one of their best-ever players. To find a black player on Argentina’s team, however, you have to go way back to the 1920s, when Alejandro de los Santos played for the country, assisting it in winning the South American Championship, the Copa América, in 1925.

So why are black players on the Argentina national team as rare as honest politicians (if they exist)? The answer is simple: demographics. Afro-Argentines make up less than one per cent of the country’s population, the lowest percentage of all Latin American countries. But why is it so low?

The first enslaved Africans arrived in Buenos Aires, via Brazil, in 1587, and were deposited on the shores of the Río de la Plata, the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River. The slave trade in Argentina was a thriving business, being the main commercial activity in Buenos Aires from 1580 to 1640. During that time, 70 per cent of the value of all imports arriving in that city were enslaved Africans.

By the end of the 18th century, one-third of the population was black. In some provinces, including Santiago del Estero, Catamarca, Salta and Córdoba, blacks accounted for half the population. Census data also reveal that Buenos Aires, Argentina’s most populous city’s African-descended population, had more than doubled from 1778 to 1836.

WHITE IMMIGRATION

In the 1850s, Argentine philosopher and diplomat Juan Bautista Alberdi promoted white European immigration to the country. So did President Justo José de Urquiza (1854-60), who incorporated them in the country’s first constitution, with Amendment 25 (which still stands today) stating, “The federal government shall foster European immigration.” Four million European immigrants responded to the government’s call to migrate between 1860 and 1914.

Towards the end of the 19th century, former President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento stated, “Twenty years hence, it will be necessary to travel to Brazil to see blacks.” Sarmiento had expressed similar sentiments regarding eliminating blacks from the Argentine landscape decades before he became president, writing in his diary in 1948, “In the United States… four million are black, and within 20 years will be eight million… What is to be done with such blacks, hated by the white race?” Those perspectives persisted into the late 20th century as another Argentine president, Carlos Menem, who led the country from 1989 to 1999, declared, “In Argentina, blacks do not exist; that is a Brazilian problem.” Yes. A “problem”.

SIGNIFICANT PLUNGE

Concomitant with the increase in Argentina’s white European population, the country saw a significant plunge in its Afro-Argentine citizens. Historians agree that one of the major factors contributing to this decrease is wars. On paper, slavery was abolished in Argentina in 1813, but many Afro-Argentines were still held as enslaved people. Until 1853, the law stated that slave owners must cede 40 per cent of their slaves to military service. There was a disproportionate amount of Afro-Argentines fighting the country’s battles.

For example, two-thirds of General José San Martín’s Army of the Andes consisted of black men. Of the 2,500 black soldiers who participated in the Crossing of the Andes during the War of Independence, only 143 survived and made it back to Argentina. Manumission after five years of service was promised to those who would fight for the country in its wars. The promise was rarely kept, and many perished on the frontlines, while many others deserted, reaching as far north as Lima, Peru. The war against Paraguay from 1865-1870 (in which thousands of blacks fought) also had a devastating effect on the country’s black population.

The resulting gender gap resulting from the loss of black men who died in battle led black women to mate with white men, further diluting the black population. At the same time, some fled to neighbouring Brazil and Uruguay, which were less oppressive to them. The onset of yellow fever in Buenos Aires in 1871 also took a toll. By 1895, the black population had dwindled so precipitously that the government did not register African-descended people in the national census.

Unsurprisingly, many Nazis, including the infamous Dr Josef Mengele (the ‘Angel of Death’), who later moved to Paraguay, and then Brazil, initially sought and found refuge in Argentina after World War II. Nazis were not only tolerated, but encouraged to migrate, and were even smuggled into the country, as President Juan Perón sought to recruit those with particular military and technical expertise that he believed would be of value to his nation. It has been estimated that as many as 5,000 Nazi war criminals relocated to Argentina, more than any other South American country, justifying its reputation as a Nazi haven.

The decimation of Argentina’s black population did not occur naturally but, rather, by design. The narratives and actions of its leaders reveal a deliberate attempt to embrace European culture and ‘whiteness’ and attenuate its African history and any remaining evidence of it.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on Twitter @mikeyabrahams.