The Latin American Identity and the African Diaspora: Ethnogenesis in Context
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The Latin American Identity and the African Diaspora: Ethnogenesi ...

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political odds with the native peoples they found in their areas of settlement. For this group of returnees, apparently, the intention that led them to promote a concept of ethnic differences was aimed at maintaining an identity for themselves apart from that of the national groups that were already established in the spaces they would share.

Would Latino returnees demonstrate a similar reaction? For those freed individuals who returned from regions of British and United States control, there was the perception that a hierarchical ethnic separateness would promulgate and sustain the presumed status associated with the acquisition of British and North American cultural habits and mindsets. Along with this, there is the outsider's view that subjacent in the attitudes of economic and social entitlement harbored by the returnees is an undeniable element of colorism. It is common knowledge that European and African miscegenation among the returnees and their descendants was a fait accompli, just as in the Americas (north and south), in Europe, and on the African continent. Latin America, however, has additionally been endowed with a recognized phenotypocracy where social and economic entitlements are exigent. Would this mindset carry over to resettlement in Africa?

Either because manumission was only theoretical or because their rebellious acts put them at odds with the authorities, in the nineteenth century, the abandonment of some Latin territories became a viable alternative for many ex-slaves. Lingering cultural traits, vivid oral histories for some, and personal memories for others caused the image of Africa to be relived with nostalgic longings and a yearning to return. There were areas, they felt, such as Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and the Gold Coast, which would now enable them to relive a dream of belonging. Consequently, the return to Africa became a reality. Today there are descendants of those returnees to Africa whose group or clan identity depends mainly on their ancestors’ sojourn in the Latin world. While these diasporic Latinos or Latino Africans have not been given a niche sui generis in the fictional imagery of Latin America's creative literature, their existence is both real and historic and merits consideration along these lines. If the aesthetics of artistic creativity have a strong foundation