A ‘política do lugar’: a Comuna afrodescendente Playa de Oro, Esmeraldas - Equador

Abstract

The ‘politics of the place’: the Playa de Oro Afro Commune, Esmeraldas - Ecuador Abstract The article deals with the territorial arrangements of the Playa de Oro Afro Commune, located in Esmeraldas, near the Colombian-Ecuadorian border. Located on the banks of the Rio Santiago, in the limits of the Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve, Playa de Oro has emblematic paradigms in land management, which point to other cultural models about ‘nature’, its uses and reserves. Through a reflection on the “prospects of inhabiting”, the goal is understanding the ecology of life, which deals with these crucial processes of historical commitment to the landscape. This proposal seeks to understand the conceptual frameworks operated by the local inhabitants in the land management, translated into a an active political ecology. These efforts are significant to comprehend the processes performed by the Playa de Oro inhabitants to reverse the invisibilization logic of the Afro-descendants in Latin America and restrain the usurpation of their natural resources.

Keywords

• Playa de Oro
• Afro-Ecuatorians
• territorial arrangements
• politics of place
• territoriality