Text

theses

ETD doctoral

In this dissertation, I analyze the processes of implementation and application of Collective Titling as a policy that characterized rural Afro Colombian communities’ spaces and modified their property regimes, while being equally shaped by the political and economic contexts where black communities received collective land titles. This analysis examines the interactions between the actors involved in the implementation and application of collective land titling.

I conducted fieldwork and archival research in official and communal archives. I used an ethnographic approach to reconstruct the history of Collective Land Titling as a policy, and each community’s titling process. I also conducted participant observation and interviewed people associated with the implementation and application of the Collective Land Titling in the places where those processes happened and in the communities that I present in this dissertation as case studies: Medio Atrato and La Boquilla.

This dissertation attempts to contribute to the study of the formalization of property regimes as the most concrete expression of the ethnic recognition to Afro Colombian rural communities. The formalization of lands owned within customary regimes is immersed in a long-term marginalization of Afro Colombian rural communities and their spaces. The marginalization reflects a long history of maintaining racist ownership regimes that started in the colonial times, were reinforced later in history, and are reproduced in processes of Collective Land Titling. Studying the historical continuity of such regimes contributes to the understanding of our prevailing colonial mindset.

ETD_11182

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

doi:10.7282/t3-0pnt-b903

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