The Observatory of Justice for Afrodescendants in Latin America (OJALA) as an initiative of engaged anthropology for the promotion and defense of human rights

Abstract In this essay, I write about the initiative of engaged legal anthropology that led to the formation of the Observatory of Justice for Afrodescendants in Latin America (OJALA), housed in the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center (KG-LACC) at Florida International University (FIU). I have been delighted to serve as OJALA’s main coordinator and founding director since February 2018. This piece’s intent is to explain the foundation of OJALA, out of an interest for understanding how the Latin American multiculturalist state “functions” in the concrete relations it threads with its Afrodescendant citizens, and particularly and most importantly, what the state’s justice system does, or doesn’t do, in the courts of law, with the legal instruments the “new Latin American constitutionalism” brought, when the time comes to defend Afrodescendants’ rights. This led us to engage in careful comparative ethnographic work on specific litigations filed by Afrodescendants in the justice systems of various Latin American countries. Ultimately, the ethnographic knowledge of Latin American justice systems “at work” will be useful for the enhancement of the public acknowledgement, protection, and defense of Afrodescendants’ rights.