The Black Diaspora in Western Andalusia from a historical-anthropological perspective

Andrea Rueda Herrera (U Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla), WOC lecture series, 5 November 2024, U Bremen

Until the middle of the 20th century, there were small groups of people known as “negra” (black) or “morena” (brown) in several towns in Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). Both socially and academically, their existence has been linked to the trade of enslaved black Africans in the Early Modern period, which relates these populations to the Black Diaspora in the Iberian Peninsula. My doctoral research has been conducted in one of these towns, Gibraleón, where many of these “morenas” and “negras” families live today. Through archival and ethnographic work, I have been able to create a genealogy as well as delve into the social, economic and cultural dynamics of the town to understand the structures and strategies that help us to understand the existence and persistence of this very specific social phenomenon in Southern Spain.

In this lecture, I will present the preliminary findings of my research, focusing on the historical and anthropological dimensions of the Black Diaspora in Western Andalusia. I will discuss how these Afro-Andalusian communities have navigated processes of racialization, social marginalization and cultural resilience over several centuries, and how their lived experiences shed light on the complex legacies of the transatlantic slave trade in the Iberian context. By centering the voices and perspectives of these understudied populations, I aim to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of Spain’s entangled histories of race, migration and belonging.

Andrea Rueda Herrera is a doctoral candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain. Her research focuses on the historical and contemporary dynamics of Afro-descendant communities in Western Andalusia. She has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the town of Gibraleón, exploring the social, cultural and economic strategies employed by these populations to navigate processes of racialization and marginalization. Rueda Herrera is a member of the research group “Diversidad, Interculturalidad y Desarrollo” (Diversity, Interculturality and Development) and has published several articles on Afro-Iberian studies.