Racionalidad comunicativa afroancestral: praxis emancipadora y resistencia simbólica en las comunidades afrovenezolanas

Abstract

This article analyzes afro-ancestral rationality in Venezuela as an emancipatory communicative praxis against the hegemony of the Western modernity project. The study addresses the "semiotic invisibility" of the communities of Barlovento, Puerto Cabello, and the South of Lake Maracaibo, where traditional knowledge has been relegated to the realm of folklore by an instrumental rationality that prioritizes technical control. Through a theoretical triangulation integrating Popper's critical rationalism, Habermas's communicative action, Weber's comprehensive sociology, and historical materialism, it examines how the Afro-Venezuelan "lifeworld" (Lebenswelt) resists the bureaucratic "iron cage." The findings demonstrate that the drum, the rite, and structures such as the Cumbe and the Conuco are not merely aesthetic or economic expressions, but devices of intersubjective communication that sustain social solidarity and the reproduction of life against the accumulation of capital. Unlike the individualistic solipsism of technical reason, this rationality is grounded in a "rhythmic intersubjectivity" where understanding is achieved through corporeality and ancestral memory as validity claims. It is concluded that the decolonization of Communication Sciences in Venezuela requires the recognition of these sign systems as current paradigms. The proposal of an afro-ancestral communicative rationality thus offers a decolonial alternative for communicative sovereignty and historical justice, vindicating the right of communities to be subjects of their own discourse and social destiny in the 21st century.