Pablo Agüero, an african king in Buenos Aires.

Solidarity networks, slavery and power in an afrodescendant overarching organization at the end of the 18th century

Abstract

This paper addresses the controversial figure of the African-born Pablo Agüero in late-18th-century Buenos Aires. Agüero, a businessman with contacts among the urban commercial elite, was also commissioned by the colonial government to capture escaped slaves and to control the slaves’ gatherings or tambos. I reconstruct and reread his actions through the lens of scholarship on African and Afro-descendant organizations in other parts of Latin America and Africa. Making use of various sources from the Archivo General de la Nación (Argentina), I show that following his traces illuminates the possible presence of an African “King of Kings” or King of Congo in the city, as well as the existence of an overarching [or “umbrella”] organization that brought together Africans and Afro-descendants in networks of assistance, solidarity and control, which may have survived at least until the first decades of the nineteenth century.

ARK CAICYT: https://id.caicyt.gov.ar/ark:/s16688090/6niiab2i2