Launch of the digital report Regimes of Anti-Blackness and Movements Against Anti-Black Racism in Latin America and the Caribbean, by Agustín Laó-Montes, as the first publication of the Malunga Network
- Agustín Laó-Montes, writer and academic, presents a report that examines the patterns of anti-Blackness and the forms of Afro-descendant resistance in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- This is the first editorial publication of the Malunga Network, under the seal of the Afro-Diasporic Studies Center (CEAF) of the Icesi University, with the support of the Ford Foundation.
- The launch includes a multilingual virtual conversation, available in Spanish on the YouTube channel of the Malunga Network (@RedMalunga).
- The publication is available for download at:
Bogotá, October 16, 2025 – The Malunga Network: Network for Global Justice and Against Anti-Black Racism presents its first digital publication: Regimes of Anti-Blackness and Movements Against Anti-Black Racism in Latin America and the Caribbean, prepared by Agustín Laó-Montes, professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and member of the Network.
The text, published under the seal of the Afro-Diasporic Studies Center (CEAF) of the Icesi University and with the support of the Ford Foundation, offers a profound reflection on the systemic violence and the historical legacy of racism against Afro-descendant peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean. Laó-Montes analyzes anti-Blackness as a global, structural, and persistent phenomenon, linked to colonialism, slavery, and capitalism, whose expressions range from mass incarceration and statelessness to territorial dispossession and migratory violence.
In the author’s words:
“The text we published was initially conceived as a document to guide the workshops we had in 2023 in Brazil and the Dominican Republic, to assess whether we wanted to organize a global network for integral justice and against anti-Black racism. It fulfilled that objective very well, and we are pleased that it remains firm as an analysis of both the regimes and practices of anti-Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as a kind of general mapping of the intellectual and political initiatives to study and combat racism in the region while promoting integral justice in a decolonial key,” comments Laó-Montes.
The prologue, written by Aurora Vergara-Figueroa, sociologist, writer, and member of the Network, highlights that this work makes an urgent call for restorative justice and recognition that the legacies of slavery and colonialism continue to shape the present of Black communities.
For his part, Yoseth Ariza, director of the CEAF, points out:
“In this report, Professor Agustín Laó-Montes shares key ideas with us to answer two central questions. On the one hand, how do anti-Blackness regimes operate in Latin America and the Caribbean? And on the other, what movements have challenged these structures from the margins and the center? Starting from recognizing that anti-Black racism is at the base of racial capitalism, this report presents, from a regional perspective, some clues to identify mechanisms that, with contextual adaptations, deepen and perpetuate injustice.”
Laó-Montes proposes an integral reading that not only documents the multiple expressions of anti-Blackness, but also reinforces the central principle of the Malunga Network: the need to build transnational networks between academics, activists, and communities that promote research, the exchange of knowledge, and the articulation of global strategies against anti-Black racism.
The publication is available for free download at www.malunga.org. Likewise, the Network invites you to consult the recording of the multilingual conversation held as a prelude to the launch, available in Spanish on the YouTube channel of the Malunga Network (@RedMalunga).
About the Malunga Network
Malunga is a global network that brings together activists, the intellectual community, academics, educators, artists, the public sector, and strategic allies with the aim of combating anti-Black racism and promoting anti-racist actions aimed at global justice. The name “Malunga” comes from Congo-Bantu and means a large ship (symbolizing collective journey), collective suffering (remembering the wounds of the past), Black solidarity (strengthening unity), and travel companions (representing mutual support).
The network arises as a response to the structural racism that has generated historical injustices from the transatlantic slave trade to contemporary violence. Malunga celebrates Black cultural values while seeking to build equitable societies through a solid agenda for racial, ethnic, social, gender, and ecological justice.
About the CEAF /ICESI
The Afro-Diasporic Studies Center (CEAF) is a research unit attached to the Faculty of Human Sciences of the Icesi University. It is a diverse and multidisciplinary community, committed to ethnic-racial justice from an intersectional perspective, which studies the histories, cultures, politics, and forms of knowledge production of the African diaspora. Its work is oriented towards the co-creation of applied research, the development of processes of social appropriation of knowledge, and public advocacy.
The CEAF will be the host institution of the Malunga Network for the next five years.
About Agustin Laó-Montes
Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where he is also affiliated with the graduate program in African American Studies and is a researcher at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He considers himself an activist intellectual on various fronts, both in the political sphere and in the intellectual field in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
His main areas of research and teaching include: decolonial critique, historical-world sociology, cultural studies, political sociology (especially issues of State and social movements), critical race and ethnicity studies, feminist critique and politics, and urban studies. He is a member of the Network-Institute for Global Democratization (NIGD), the Inter-American Observatory for Monitoring the Rights of Migrants (OCIM), the Hemispheric Council of the World Social Forum, and the Coloniality/Modernity/Decoloniality collective.
He is currently working on two book projects: a co-edited volume entitled Global Constellations of Power and Insurgent Futures, and a manuscript entitled Afro-Latin Diasporas: Black Movements and Ethno-Racial Politics in the Americas. His most recent publication is the book Diasporic Contrapoints: Political Cartographies of our Afro-America.
Press and communications contact:
comunicaciones@malunga.org
Alpha Orozco
