This article deals with the policy of recognition that people of African descent claim in their international decade, proclaimed by the United Nations between 2015 and 2024. Beyond institutional recognition as “blacks” or “Afrodescendants”, organizations seek to legitimize identity Afro-descendant, as a political agency with greater cultural visibility in public policies and in legal mechanisms for overcoming poverty and citizen equality. The text discusses the epistemic, sociological and political considerations for self-determination of the Afro-descendant people category, which would lead to the Declaration of the Rights of Afro-Descendant Peoples, within the scope of the Decade.