A/HRC/42/59/Add.2 third wave of arrivals, from the 1990s onwards, consisted of immigrants from the Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Their arrival was due to economic reasons, combined with fears of political persecution. People of African descent also arrived from Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras and Peru during this phase. 1 8. The harbour in Buenos Aires, at one time capital of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata, was the main entry point for Africans brought over as enslaved labour during the period of the transatlantic slave trade. As such, in 1810, black people represented one third of the population of Buenos Aires.2 In Tucumán province, they represented 64 per cent of the population; in Santiago del Estero, 54 per cent; in Catamarca, 52 per cent; in Salta, 46 per cent and in Córdoba, 60 per cent, while recent studies show 40 per cent in Santa Fe. 3 By 1887 (during the intervening 77 years no municipal censuses recorded information on race), the process of disappearance was well advanced. By that year, Afro-Argentines had dropped to a mere 8,005 out of a total population of 433,375 or less than 2 per cent. 4 The decline is generally attributed to the wars during the period that marked the country’s independence and protracted civil wars in the region; miscegenation; low birth rates among Afro-Argentines coupled with high mortality marked by a yellow fever epidemic in 1871; and the decline in the arrival of enslaved Africans following the abolition of the trade in enslaved persons. 9. However, such narratives have sought to perpetuate the long-standing invisibility and persistent structural discrimination against Afro-Argentines, people of African descent and Africans to the present day. The history and the contributions of people of African descent to Argentine society has been for the most part forgotten. As indicated by the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance on his mission to Argentina in 2016, the history of discrimination and xenophobia in Argentina can be traced back to the country’s beginnings in the construction of Argentine identity, built on the negation or subordination of minority groups (A/HRC/35/41/Add.1). As the great influx of European immigrants from the last quarter of the nineteenth century followed, the crime of the trade in enslaved Africans during the colonial period was erased from the institutional memory of Argentina. Few remember that people of African descent were at the forefront of the wars of independence and in the period immediately after. Furthermore, people of African descent worked tirelessly on the farms to grow the economy of Argentina. Enslavement was not fully abolished in 1813, as freed people were required to serve in domestic jobs or in the army for several decades. Research indicates that they had to wait until 1853 – and in Buenos Aires until 1860 – for abolition to bring to an end, at least on paper, centuries of slavery and servitude.5 10. Enslaved Africans and their successive generations have maintained collective cultural practices that have prevailed over time. Despite prohibition and stigmatization, those cultural manifestations, for a long time confined to the private sphere of AfroArgentine families, such as musical expressions and dances including the candombe, tango and milonga, are yet to be recognized fully as their contribution to culture and national identity.6 11. The invisibility of people of African descent is being addressed at the policy and institutional levels, as the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses undertook a census 1 2 3 4 5 6 4 See Gisele Kleidermacher, “Africanos y afrodescendientes en la Argentina: invisibilización, discriminación y racismo”, Revue Interdisciplinaire de Travaux sur les Amériques, vol. 5 (2012). See Ministry of Education and Government of Buenos Aires, Bicentenario 1810-2010: Memorias de Un País (2010). Georg Reid Andrews, The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800-1900 (Madison, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press, 1980). Ibid. See Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación, la Xenofobia y el Racismo y Ministerio de Justicia y Derechos Humanos, “Argentina tambien es Afro”, ch. 1, available from http://inadi.gob.ar/contenidos-digitales/producto/argentina-tambien-es-afro/. Ibid.