Abstract

CUNIN, Elisabeth. Repairing Slavery in Colombia? Mobilization of Law in a Multicultural Context. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2021, vol.57, n.1, pp.49-69.  Epub Dec 28, 2020. ISSN 0486-6525.  https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472x.1176.

In Latin America, the abolition of slavery and access to citizenship go hand in hand. Descendants of slaves experienced an ambiguous integration process between formal equality and the permanence of socio-racial hierarchies. The “multicultural turn” of 1980-1990 emphasized the need to recognize differences and defined Afro-descendant populations as an ethnic group. In this context, what place do reparations for slavery occupy? This article studies two judgments of the Colombian Constitutional Court on reparations for slavery, focusing on three issues: the articulation between political and legal logics of action; the role of history in court and redefinition of past-present relations; structural racism in the judicial administration itself. The conclusion opens the reflection on the transformations of the multicultural framework revealed by the reparations.

Keywords : reparations; slavery; law; history; racism.

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