La (in)visibilidad afro-latina y el decenio internacional afrodescendiente Bilwi, Nicaragua: 15-16-17 August 2017 Our inaugural Network meeting was held at Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe Nicaragüense-URACCAN. 50 Afrodescendant scholars, activists and practitioners attended a workshop in Bilwi, Nicaragua to discuss the challenges facing the Afrodescendant community, their struggles against racism, discrimination and exclusion and opportunities afforded by the UN Decade. In addition to three UK participants, participants came from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Brazil and Colombia. We were able to reach the general public in the region though engagement with local broadcast media. Our event was covered in depth on television (TV7 and Canal 5) and on radio (Radio Caribe). We also co-authored a Declaration on the UN Decade aimed at the UN, national governments and the NGO sector. Politics and Poetics of Afro-Latin Visibility Edinburgh, Scotland: 2-3 November 2017 Our second Network meeting invited activists, practitioners and academics to consider how film and media intervene in debates of cultural and political recognition. This two-day gathering of talks, discussions and film screenings conducted in both Spanish and English had contributions from a range of invited international speakers, intellectuals and activists. In particular, it focused on how Afrodescendant film and media from Latin America intervene in debates of cultural and political recognition and articulate connections between aesthetics and politics. It included a a lecture lecture given by Juliet Hooker, Professor of Political Science at Brown University, Rhode Island, USA, who delivered the keynote talk, “Frederick Douglass and Central America: US African-Americans’ Hemispheric Visions of Black Freedom and Multiracial Democracy”. Foro Mediático: Visibilización e invisibilidad de los afrodescendientes Medellín, Colombia: 4-5-6 April 2018 Our final Network meeting in Medellín focussed on how we can improve our capacity to share strategies and strengthen Afro-accented media and film throughout the region. Around 60 Afrodescendant mediamakers, artists and intellectuals (along with the three University of Edinburgh researchers) attended a forum held in Medellín, Colombia, to continue conversations initiated in Bilwi, Nicaragua and Edinburgh, UK on the challenges facing the Afrodescendant community, their struggles against racism and discrimination and the role played by film and media in challenging this state of affairs. The event covered a number of key topics around the question of visibility including Afrodescendant inclusion and exclusion in the media industries, the role played by national censuses, and multimedia strategies to reach Afrodescendant youth and participation of Afrodescendant women. The event also served to strengthen the Wi Da Monikongo Collective created in September 2017.
