Afro-Baliscans

Afro-Baliscans (Baliscano: Afro-baliscano), also known as Black or Brown Baliscans (Baliscano: Marrón-baliscano), historically known as ‘’Maroons’’ are an ethno-racial group in the Baliscan Confederation. Consisting of residents of Balisca of full or partial African descent. According to the 2016 Baliscan National Census, people solely identifying as Afro-Baliscans constitute roughly 30% of the Baliscan population. However, when taking into account the number of people identifying as “mulatto” or “pardo”, this proportion rises to 45%. Thus, depending on the definition, Afro-Baliscans are arguably the largest ethno-racial group in the Baliscan Confederation. According to census data from Balistat, African migrants generally do not self-identify as Afro-Baliscan. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities (≈95%).

The Afro-Baliscan population constitutes the largest concentration of African-descended people in the Americas, surpassing that of Brazil, Carolina, and the United States, numbering over 55 million Baliscans. While the vast majority of Afro-Baliscans are descended from slaves forcibly brought to the Americas from West Africa in the Colonial Era, a sizable population are more recent immigrants from Sub-Sahara Africa and the Americas who arrived following the Maroon Settlement Act of 1841, which set aside the Araucaria Territory as an autonomous state for Afro-Baliscans. Today, a majority of Afro-Baliscans reside outside of Araucaria, and in turn make up around 54% of the region’s population. Due to complex racial Beginning in the 1960s, the Baliscan government discontinued the use of the Spanish and Portuguese term (negro) for black people due to its historical derogatory use, instead using the more acceptable ‘’Marrón’’ (meaning “brown”, but having a broader meaning of “darker”). Marrón was chosen as the official term in Baliscano by the Association of the Baliscano Language in 2012, and has since then broadly replaced. However, a majority of Afro-Baliscans continue to refer to themselves as Black.

Afro-Baliscan history begins with the introduction of the first slaves to Balisca by the Aranese in the early 16th century, which gained substantial pace following the Portuguese takeover of Balisca. Slave revolts and conflicts with the Portuguese plagued the Baliscan colonies for much of its early history. Slavery was abolished in 1810 at the advent of the Baliscan Wars of Independence, in which slaves were being freed en masse in exchange for their pledge to fight. Ethno-racial tensions following the Baliscan Civil Wars led to several failed attempts at the reparation of Afro-Baliscans back to Africa, eventually resulting in the Maroon Settlement Act of 1841 and the relocation of millions of Afro-Baliscans to Araucaria. In 2018, Andrea Palacios became the first Afro-Baliscan to be elected President of the Baliscan Confederation.

Colonial Balisca
The first African slaves arrived at the Aranese colony of Port Monserrat in 1524. The importation of African slaves rapidly picked up pace as the demand for sugarcane and brazil wood grew in Iberia and the rest of Europe. Under the Aranese, slaves were treated more as indentured servants, and were able to gain their freedom after a certain amount of time or through payment. They were allowed to retain their culture, religion, and language, and were not denied education, The 1530 Decree of Mascon, pushed by Cathar figures in the Aranese Council, banned slaveowners from mistreating their slaves, and established a basic system for slaves to seek emancipation in the case they were abused. Over 35,000 slaves gained their freedom through this system.

At the outbreak of the Reaper’s War between Aranese and Portuguese settlers of Balisca, the Aranese governor freed all slaves that were willing to take up arms to fight alongside the settlers. Thousands answered the call, and were extensively utilized by the Aranese to shore up their numbers. The Aranese leaders resorted to extensive fear mongering, brewing hatred of the Portuguese amongst the slaves and settlers, which greatly contributed to the brutality of the war. The war quickly descended into a stalemate, and after dragging on for eight years the two sides signed the Treaty of Santayi.

The Portuguese had a much harsher approach regarding slavery, and abolished education for the slaves, and sought to eliminate their culture. With the Portuguese takeover, thousands of Aranese settlers fled south, abandoning their homes, property, and arms. Slaves that had fought alongside the Aranese disappeared into the jungles and marshes in the hopes of avoiding capture and continuing to fight the Portuguese. Many sought shelter with the Amerindians, whom aided them in their struggle. They launched deadly ambushes on the settlers, burning crops, killing slaveowners, and destroying their property. The Portuguese quickly began to fear them, and they began to refer to them as “Maroons” (from the Spanish ‘cimarron’, meaning “untamed” or “wild”).

The fighting escalated into the First Maroon War. The Maroons fought the Portuguese to a draw, with skirmishes breaking out across the Baliscan archipelago. Freedmen, armed with their education and arms provided by the Aranese, led several slave revolts, forcing the Portuguese to devote substantial forces to combat them. Of these revolts, the most famous was led by Elijah Afolabi at the town of Sarrento. The rebellion rapidly spread across the town, with slaves stealing arms and burning down plantations. Afolabi then led the rebels on a Two Hundred Mile march across Northern Balisca, raiding settlements and freeing slaves wherever they were found. Afolabi’s Army later escaped to the South, where they established the settlement of ‘’Campo de Sampa’’, the first town established in what would later become the territory of Araucaria.s.

Liberation, integration and separatism
Despite the official abolishment of slavery at the Independence of the Baliscan Confederation, Afro-Baliscan were still subjected to slave-like conditions and were not afforded equal political rights. Led by the Formosans, several Baliscan regions introduced racial policies aimed at reducing the demographic threat posed by Afro-Baliscans in their jurisdiction. The Baliscan Articles of Confederation, which specifically banned any forms of discrimination based on race, could not be effectively enforced due to the lack of a strong central government to confront the regions. The first of these policies, ‘’branqueamento’’ (literally “whitening of the skin”), was introduced in Maceio in 1826. The policy encouraged miscegenation between Afro-Baliscans and white Baliscans, with the goal of reducing the overall proportion of Afro-Baliscans in the population. Similar policies rapidly spread throughout the Confederation, and the Cordovan regions became the last to impose these policies, introducing impallidire (literally “to pale”) in 1828.

The first generation of children born out of branqueamento were not considered by the state to be either black or white, instead being labelled as ‘’pardo’’ (“part”), or mixed race. The population of people with a ‘’pardo’’ background rapidly grew; their numbers increased from 220,000 in 1826 to 510,000 in 1828. Pardo

With the end of the Baliscan Civil Wars, whitening policies continued to be enforced; sometimes with even more support from the regional governments. The overwhelming majority (≈95%) of Afro-Baliscans fought for the Federalists

Maroon Republic
Afro-Baliscans were blamed for the setting in motion the crisis that sparked the Baliscan Civil Wars. Despite the new Federalist government’s laws granting them equal political and cultural rights, the wars remained fresh in the populace’s mind and many felt a sense of hostility and mistrust towards their fellow Baliscans. The government eventually passed the Maroon Settlement Act of 1840, setting aside the largely unexplored territory then known as Araucaria for Maroons to rebuild without fear of discrimination and violence, while granting citizenship for all freed slaves on Baliscan soil. The government offered each Maroon willing to leave their homes and resettle a fifty dollar pension and a plot of land. The Act was almost immediately controversial. Violence against Maroons spiked in the weeks following the law’s introduction, prompting the uprooting and resettlement of even more Maroons. The movement of entire communities was drastic: in the census of 1840 the proportion of Black people in Formosa dropped from 66% in the last census to 13%, and similar numbers were recorded across the country.

For Maroons that remained in their home regions, they faced increasingly large difficulties. Following the Maroon Settlement Act, and encouraged by the increasingly authoritarian nature of President Valentín, the regions grew increasingly hostile towards Afro-Baliscans. Under persistent pressure, the Confederal Congress relented and passed the Emblanquecer Lei (“whitening laws”) in 1842. The laws effectively gave the regions free rein in achieving the assimilation of non-European (mainly indigenous and African descended) people to establish a more homogeneously European population. The Baliscan Supreme Court, in its Reyes v Azalea case, rejected in a 5-4 vote the argument that the laws violated the rights of non-Europeans on that grounds that they: a) made no specific reference to any racial group and b.) did not apply to residents of the Araucaria Territory. The ruling effectively legitimized the practice of whitening, silenced remaining opposition to the practice, and signaled a doubling of emblanque efforts.

Life in the territory was hard in the first years of the settlement. Lawlessness and violence plagued vast reaches of the territory. Many settlers had to depend on subsidence farming to survive, and had little left to make a profit. Bartering was the common way of getting what one needed. However, fortunes changed drastically with the discovery of gold at San Martin in the northern region of the territory. The settlers were quick to take advantage of their luck, setting up the All Maroon League. Prices for plots of land skyrocketed, fluctuating almost daily. The population swelled, with new towns seeming to pop up over night. Slaves and indentured servants from far away places such as Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay were attracted to Araucaria with the promises of freedom and economic opportunities. The All Maroon League provided significant aid to these runaway slaves, leading to the establishment of what became known as the Araucarian Crescent, in which thousands of runaway slaves were secretly ferried by hundreds of Araucarian fishing boats from Brazilian ports across the Strait of and then transported overland to Araucaria, where they automatically gained citizenship, and the protection of the Baliscan government, under the terms of the Maroon Settlement Act.

The practice led to a severe diplomatic incident between the Baliscan and Brazilian governments: the Brazilians demanded an immediate halt to the ferrying, and the reparation of all of the runaway slaves that had been resettled in Araucaria. The Baliscan government agreed to put an end to the ferrying, but refused reparation of what it considered its own citizens, citing the Maroon Settlement Act as legal justification. The Confederal Congress passed laws that barred the Araucarian government from assisting in the transport of runaways in Balisca, and forced any runaway slaves that were already on Baliscan territory to settle and remain in that region only. The All Maroon League maintained its policy of assisting any enslaved person escape and resettle them in Araucaria, and resisted the Baliscan government’s attempts to suppress the practice. The Baliscan Navy was ordered to begin searching and seizing any ships that were found to be harboring runaways.

The Araucaria Crisis came to a head with the Occupation of Bayreut; Federal Baliscan troops were ferried from across the Straits of Fortuna and took over sites of importance. The city’s government was dismissed and replaced with a military governor, and the city’s port was shuttered with naval forces maintaining a tight blockade. Rioting quickly ensued, and the Araucaria government protested to the Confederal government that it’s actions violated the Maroon Settlement Act. On the night of ? ? 18?? A fire broke out. The fire rapidly spread across the city, ultimately destroying over 75% of its buildings and killing over 15,000 people.

20th-21st centuries
The Baliscan government came under immense pressure to begin easing the Emblanquecer Lei following the turn of the century. A rapid uptick in European immigration greatly shifted the ethnic scales in Balisca, introducing a variety of ethnic groups that were far less supportive of emblanquecer than the general population. European reformists, typically German (Austrian, Prussian, and Swiss) and Jewish migrants were at the forefront of the movement to abolish the laws. The Baliscan Supreme Court in its Robinson v Pacheco ruling reversed the decision of the court in ‘’Reyes v Azalea’’, and struck down the Emblanquecer Lei as unconstitutional. Beginning with the region of Pianura in 1921, successive regions repealed their emblanque policies. The Cerdanyan Assembly voted in April 1922 to end its racial policies with immediate effect, and extended equal political rights to all African-descended men over the age of twenty-one. Formosa became the last community to abolish these laws, doing so in August 1923 after the Baliscan Supreme Court ruled against it in the ‘’La Rosa v Formosa’’ case.

Social issues
Blacks hold far more liberal opinions on abortion, extramarital sex, and raising children out of wedlock than Baliscan society as a whole.[179] On financial issues, however, African Americans are in line with Democrats, generally supporting a more progressive tax structure to provide more government spending on social services.

Politics
Afro-Baliscans have been deeply involved in the Baliscan political scene, and have been instrumental in shaping the Baliscan nation. Emancipation of Afro-Baliscans was enshrined in the 1810 Baliscan Articles of Confederation, marking the first implementation of universal suffrage in Latin America. Another milestone was reached with the 2018 election of Andrea Palacios, the first Afro-Baliscan, and female President of the Confederation. Afro-Baliscans tend to identify with more liberal, left-leaning political organizations. This trend towards the left-wing begin with the Baliscan Social Revolution of the 1950s, and became especially apparent during the Lost Decade (1980s).

Polls held in 2019 show that 76% of Afro-Baliscans would identify as “liberal” and 69% as “progressive”. On the other hand, only 11% identified as “conservative” and 4% as “very conservative”. In every regional election since the return to full democracy in 1948, Afro-Baliscans in Araucaria have voted in favor for the winning candidate. Araucaria has never had a right-wing Governor in its 180-year history. Most recently in the 2018 general elections, 54% of voting Afro-Baliscans voted for the Social Democratic Party candidate, Andrea Palacios, in the first round. She went on to win 91% of their votes in the second round and ultimately winning the election.

Maroon separatism and the issues relating to calls for reparations after nearly 300 years of slavery in Balisca continue to be controversial issues in Afro-Baliscan political circles. Organizations such as the All Maroon League simply argue for increased autonomy for the Region of Araucaria, while others such as the Free Maroon Party advocate Maroon nationalism and the separation of Aracauria from the Baliscan Confederation. Both issues have only found a support with a minority of Afro-Baliscans, but have gained traction in recent years, following recent global trends. Successive Baliscan governments have denied calls for reparation, instead making the argument that the dedication of the Araucaria territory constituted adequate reparation for the

In 2019, 51% of respondents said they would support Araucaria declaring independence from the Baliscan Confederation, up six percent since it was last asked in 2010; 46% said they would support a unilateral declaration of independence. 87% said they would support increased autonomy for the region.

Religion
Afro-Baliscans encompass dozens of religious groups, ranging from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and African American folk religions. In the 2016 Baliscan census, 24% of Afro-Baliscans were Catholic, 22% were Protestant, 17% where Muslim, and a further 15% were followers of a Maroon folk religion. The remainder did not express any religious preference, or identified as atheist/agnostic. A sizable community of Ethiopian Jews exists in the Axel Region of Araucaria.

Afro-Baliscans have reported lower numbers of church attendance than the rest of Baliscan society as a whole. Only 34% of Afro-Baliscan respondents reported attending a religious service at least once a month. 42% stated that they believed in God or a “some sort of higher spirit”, while 48% stated no belief whatsoever.

Culture
Afro-Baliscan culture is one of the most distinct sub-cultures in the Baliscan Confederation. As a result of many different factors such as geographical displacement, historical interactions with their environment and other ethnic groups, and Balisca’s unique cultural and political exchanges with the industrialized world, a colorful Afro-Baliscan culture has grown and flourished.

Afro-Baliscan culture is considered somewhat similar to Afro-American and Afro-Carolinian culture, but it differs greatly in the sense that Afro-Baliscans have maintained a more close connection with Africa, and have retained large aspects of African cuisine, dress, traditions, languages and religion. Many of these traditions combined with Maroon prosperity and wealth have led to the rise of highly visible, uniquely Afro-Baliscan sub-cultures, such as Iko.

Iko
Iko draws significant inspiration from West African traditions. It is sometimes compared to Afro-futurism, due to the two’s similar art and fashion styles. Iko is considered by many to be more than a simple trend, but more like a way of life. This belief stems from Iko’s origin as a largely Afro-Baliscan rejection of mainstream Baliscan society: it was largely anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist, while being strongly pro-humanist and environmentalist. It exploded in popularity throughout the early 2000s due to its anti-establishment tendencies. The influence of Iko can be seen in contemporary Baliscan architecture, urban planning, and fashion.

The Araucarian capital Bayreut is considered the birthplace of Iko, and maintains its status as the focal point of the sub-culture. In the 21st Century, Bayreuth has risen to become the fashion and music capital of the Baliscan Confederation. Iko has in recent years been used by the Baliscan government as a way to build ties with developing African countries as it expands its diplomatic presence in Africa. This has become known as the Ikonda (literally “Iko wave”, but also has a double meaning, with the Latin ‘’ikon’’ meaning “image” or “likeness”) reflecting its rapid spread throughout not only Balisca and the rest of the South Atlantic region, but the rest of Latin America, the United States, and Sub-Sahara Africa. Iko has become a source of pride for many Afro-Baliscans and Afro-latinos across Latin America alike.