The African Diaspora in the Northern Colombia: Traces of the African heritage in the national identity

Since the 1990s, scholars of Afro-Latin American history have highlighted the critical role of Africans and their descendants in shaping the narratives within colonial Latin American history. Slavery, an important element in the establishment of the different socio-cultural expressions found across the Americas has shaped the music of all countries in this continent, also, the processes of acculturalization and developing national identity through the alienation of influences can be traced mostly to the colonial era and rooted to earlier historic moments in civilization, are so importantly evident in the different successes that happened in the Caribbean region, including west indies and the northern peninsular part of South America, Columbus land, or the Great Colombia.

This article intends to present and compare those African influences, through time, on the cultural expressions and music of the Caribbean region of Colombia. This article also seeks to determine how big and important the impact of these African diasporas was during the colony, a time when the establishment of cultural roots of the actual Colombian identity, and modern societies in Latin America were developed. 

THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN COLOMBIA: BEGINNINGS

The "discovery" of America, "the new world", in 1492 meant (and still means today) for the Europeans a new continent and new possibilities for acquisition of resources, expansion, and imperialism. Many factors contributed to the process of the ancient African diaspora in America at that time.

Essentially, these factors were, an extended and accepted practice of slavery, the political tensions and trade relationships between European powers of that era, and the developed technologies that made navigation a reliable medium for inter-oceanic transportation, among others.

To be more precise, the Portuguese were one of the greatest maritime powers of that time. They were the main suppliers of African slaves to the Spanish in the first phase of the colonization of America. The Portuguese had at first a fundamentally commercial relation with the African reigns and practiced with them the slave trade on a commercial cooperation basis (through the exchange of goods), but the Portuguese not only got the slaves by the exchange of goods but also using violent strategies (slave hunting, submission, alliances with important figures in the political realm of the African reigns) to reach the number of slaves required by the Spaniards.

Native Americans were cruelly decimated in this process of conquest. For this reason, the importation of labor increased, notwithstanding the fact that this need was basically due to the following factor: the discovery of gold and silver mines in the American continent. For the crown of Castille, the discovery of the gold mines between the years 1590-1592 in the northern part of the present Colombian territory meant the solution to its critical financial situation. The royal gold was reduced, after the investment in the war against the Moors.

The Moors were black Africans of Libyan, Moroccan, Nigerien, Nigerian, and Senegalese origins, who by the way, had invaded and dominated Spain and the Iberian Peninsula from VII to XV D.C, obligating the Spanish to fight their territory. These several hundred years represented an important African influence over the Spanish territories and their culture and are considered in this way the first indirect impact of Africans over the Americas.

African slaves were brought to the south of the American continent through Cartagena de Indias. From this territory to the north of South America the slaves were transported to places in the south, even to Lima, Peru. The most coveted destinations to carry slave cargo were the gold and silver mines to be mined and natural resource lands. In Colombia, the slave trade had its execution in four main phases, mainly because the Spaniards retook the monopoly of the slave trade of the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and the English.

This political and commercial tension led to slaves from different regions of Africa being brought to Colombia. Thanks to some investigations (in colonial archives) we know that slaves were taken from regions such as Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry and Sierra Leone (1533-1580) Kongo and Central Africa (1580-1640), Benin, Togo, and Nigeria (1640-1713) and finally Ghana and Togo (XVIII XIV D.C).

At that time the African slaves were divided into different territories of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (what today includes the Colombian territory). The route was made from Cartagena de Indias to territories always more to the south and extended along the Magdalena and Cauca rivers through valleys and mountains of the central and southwestern regions of present Colombia. The Spaniards found gold-rich terrain, especially on the western border of the Pacific. This led repeatedly to new orders and requests for new slaves.

The knowledge in construction that the African slaves possessed were appreciated and coveted in a special way by the Spaniards. But they were awarded not only in construction work; Others were responsible for tasks such as livestock and agriculture, as well as domestic servitude. The gold mines contributed to a form of social organization that evidenced a standard along the Pacific coast: those slaves were organized in communities next to the mines.

The establishment of the colony demanded a new social order. The role of Christianity, especially that of the Catholic Church, influenced this social order in colonial life based on the adoption and acceptance of laws for the Americas, which defined the domination of Native Americans and African slaves. This contribution from the church began very early in the framework of missionary work (the missions), which functioned as a strategy of cultural invasion. In this way, new social and cultural values were introduced, which led to processes of acculturation and transculturation.

Thus, racism and discrimination became a "normal" practice and issue; This delimitation was necessary for the conquerors to maintain the social ladder through control and power (well below the African and Indian slaves, in the middle the mestizos and creoles, and well above the Spaniards). The Catholic Church's contribution to racism and discrimination through the demonization of original African ancestral practices such as dance, music, healing practices, and different expressions of sexuality was notable here. However, despite strong control mechanisms, Native Americans as well as African descendants did not passively accept this submission.

From the beginning of the importation of slaves to America in the sixteenth century, these were revealed and fought for their freedom. In many cases, the captives successfully escaped slavery. Many escaped and formed autocratic "communities": palenques. But many others, most of them, failed to escape and remained under the control of the elites and served their elitist interests

Slavery in Colombia officially lasted until 1851. But the abolition of almost invisible slavery in New Granada (Colombia) did not serve, sadly, for the various ethnic minorities of African origin to be integrated into the nation-building project at that time. It has taken more than 100 years since the constitution of the Republic of Colombia in 1886 for the rights of ethnic minorities to be legally and officially recognized in the constitutional reform of 1991. This does not, in any way, mean that ethnic minorities in Colombia have been compensated, restored, and repaired, assuming them to be "victims of violence", despite the political efforts made in this direction. Contrarily, in Colombia, the myth of "racial democracy" has long reigned in the Colombian imagination, where the process of mestizaje would have achieved equative social conditions in which racism and discrimination would not exist. The emergence of an Afro identity, and long after an Afro-Colombian identity is subject to the influence of the historical processes such as the ones that are introduced in the following section.

COLOMBIAN MUSIC AND ITS AFRICAN ROOTS

Colombian music contains diverse genres that identify each region across the whole territory, this musical diversity was created in the fusion of races, peoples, and cultures that originated the present Colombian society and culture.

This folk language has very diverse origins, in fact, it was born of a mixture of several cultures, but essentially three: first, we have the American Indians or native’s culture, after the discovery of America we add the African, who arrived to the continent because of the Slave trade (working on coffee plantations and mines), and finally the culture of European, “whites” (Spaniards). It is also important to mention the influences of the Caribbean with Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica, and the culture of the Arabs and Africans (linked by the Spanish). So today, Colombian music is the result of a true cultural mestizaje. For human reasons, we must add the natural factor.

The Colombian landscape is very contrasted, with big physical barriers that made communication between regions complicated, until now. So, the exchange between different cultures and ethnicities was not easy, however, this allowed each region to maintain and develop its own musical culture, with its own instruments, that with time and growth generated a mixed identity.

 Colombia is made up of five natural regions: the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Andean, the Amazon, and the Orinoco or Llanos region. Each of these has several cultures on it and various types of music with diverse influences. Some regions developed music mixing influences, while others kept more traditional music.

The Atlantic, also known as the Caribbean region, where all the African influence came through, was the key as a point of contact and departure for conquering expeditions and trade promotion area. That is why, there are ancient and powerful cities like Cartagena, Santa Marta, Riohacha, Valledupar, and Mompós where indigenous people, Spaniards, and African slaves fused.

But before the mestizaje period, there were communities of African slaves that established a tradition that has survived for years, they are the “Palenqueros”, and one of those communities still strongly keeps the culture, music, language, and practices of those first few slaves that successfully run away from the oppression in Cartagena during the XVII century, these are people from San Basilio de Palenque[1].

BEFORE 1900

The village of Palenque de San Basilio has a population of around 4,000 people and is on the foothills of the Montes de María, southeast of the regional capital, Cartagena. The habitants are mainly Afro-Colombians who are direct descendants of African slaves brought by the Spanish during the Colonization of the Americas and have preserved their ancestral traditions and have developed also their own language; Palenquero.

In 1691, the Spanish Crown issued a Royal decree, guaranteeing freedom to the Palenque de San Basilio Africans, this fact is considered the beginning of the first free town in America. 314 years later, in 2005, the village was proclaimed Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, ending an era of marginalization, and gaining protection from international organizations that helped stop the negative impacts of the civil war fought in Colombia at the time.

Two of the most traditional and widely known genres orally transmitted and developed from the 1700s to the present day in San Basilio de Palenque are Bullerenge and Mapale.

The bullerenge is characterized by being a singing dance, where only women dance, and it is undoubtedly an African ancestor practice, detached from the ritual customs of Palenque de San Basilio, those that are part of the initiation acts of the young women to puberty.

The Mapalé is also a dance that represents a fish’s head moving erotically between the male and the female. The dancers move exalted and accelerated and they make jumps with great force, they also fall, and do movement of shoulders and hips in a constant confrontation between the man and the woman, following the rhythm of the music. These dances were typical of festivities related to fishing activities and the time of the year when shoals are abundant.

In its origins, Mapalé was a dance for the working time, executed at night and enlivened with touches of drums: yamaró and quitambre, hand palms, and singing. Subsequently, there was a transformation of his idea, attributing an emphasis on joy, with a more sexual character, and assigning Mapalé the frenetic evolution that it presents today.

Like most of the Afro-American early influences, Mapale and Bullerenge’s instrumentation is heavily drummed, with the basic alignment of 2 drums, a male and female, and wooden sticks. The male drum carries the ostinato rhythms while the female happily improvises. Also, the vocal accompaniment is responsorial and narrates usually a story of fertility.

AFTER 1900

While it is true that the trade of African slaves began to decline in the eighteenth century and was stopped in the nineteenth century by the abolition of slavery, African culture continued to blend with the Spanish and in some sectors with the indigenous, until becoming one of the deepest roots of our Colombian modern culture.

This mestizaje made the Colombian territory so unique and full of variety and the 20th century saw the popularization of several music genres that were so influenced by the African tradition but also demonstrated the multiethnicity and social aspects of the communities, which by this time had become bigger settlements, towns, provinces, and cities such as a more modern Cartagena de Indias. Some of these genres were Cumbia, Vallenato, and Champeta.

The cumbia has elements of three cultural origins, mainly indigenous and African, and, to a lesser extent, Spanish; being the result of long and intense mestizaje between these cultures during the Conquest and the Colony. The researcher and writer Guillermo Abadía Morales in his “Compendio del folclor colombiano”, published in 1962, says that cumbia explains the origin in the conjugation of the word “zamba”, which fused the melancholy indigenous pipe flute or Millo Cane, from the Cuna and Koguis ethnic groups, and the joyful and impetuous resonance of the African drums.

The instrumentation is drums of African origin; the maracas, the guache, and the whistles of indigenous origin; and the songs and coplas, which are contributions of Spanish poetry, although these were adapted to the form later; the dresses used in these dances are also Spanish. Also, the presence of sensual movements, markedly gallant and seductive, is characteristic of African-origin dances.

From the 1940s, commercial or modern cumbia expanded to the rest of Latin America, after which it became popular throughout the continent following different commercial adaptations, such as the Argentine, the Bolivian, the Chilean, the Dominican, the Ecuadorian, the Mexican cumbia, etc.

The Vallenato on the other hand is a form of music originated from farmers who, keeping a tradition of Spanish minstrels (Juglares in Spanish), mixed also with the West African-inherited tradition of griots (African version of juglar), who used to travel through the region with their cattle in search of pastures or to sell them in cattle fairs. Because they traveled from town to town and the region lacked rapid communications, these farmers served as bearers of news for families living in other towns or villages. Their only form of entertainment during these trips was singing and playing guitars or indigenous gaita flutes, and their form of transmitting their news was by singing their messages.

The caja vallenata: a small drum held between the knees and played with bare hands. The African slaves used it. It is like a tambora drum.

The guacharaca: a wooden, ribbed stick like a sugar cane, accompanied by a fork that when rubbed together emits a scraping sound. It's about 18 inches (45 centimeters) long and 1 inch (3 centimeters) in diameter. The aborigines used it to imitate the song of the guacharaco, a bird from the region, to hunt and perform dancing rites.

The accordion: three-line button, German-origin accordion. It has three reeds per note and it comes in different tones, ADG, GCF, BbEbAb, etc.

The Champeta is a cultural phenomenon of social and musical type, this genre has an autonomous and local origin in the afro-descendant areas of the Colombian city of Cartagena de Indias, linked to the culture of San Basilio de Palenque’s village and influenced by genres of colonies from Euro-African as well as the African continental regions.

In its beginnings Champeta was diffused through powerful sound equipment, called “picks up”, a high-volume type of music, played in casetas, or local open-air bars, and dance festivities. Champeta is characterized by an outstanding rhythmic base, that prevails over the melodic and harmonic lines, turning it into a danceable musical expression in which overwhelming force and flexibility on dance movements predominate. The instruments used in the execution of this joyful and contagious rhythm are the voice, drums, electric guitars, bass, congas, and synthesizer, with added rhythmic effects.

With a popular language and full of improvisations, champeteros sing their experiences. Their lyrics, superimposed on African tracks or with original music, show the contested attitude of the discriminated Afro-Colombian sectors that react against social and economic exclusion or express their dreams of change and progress. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

And all these historical facts of slavery in Colombia demarcates the line drawn by which Afro-descendants have had to travel in this country to survive during socio-political tensions, between racism and discrimination, from the loss of social representation to the reunion with its cultural identity as an inalienable weapon that expands in all fields, political, social, economic, cultural ... including music.

And surely, the African heritage has shaped importantly what the Colombian Caribbean region culturally represents, not only to this region but also to reach the other cultural expressions and musical genres that are part of the Colombian territory; one of the elements that African music has remarkably developed is the expression of social ideas, revolution, as some most of the communities are still marginalized and fighting against issues such as poverty, inclusion, and acceptance.

On top of all the unfavorable panorama, groups such as ChocQuibTown had stood up and raised a voice, one that represents a reality of bad and good things, dreams, but also pride.

Attached are the original lyrics of one of their most representative songs: De donde vengo yo.

One other topic of research linked to this article is the evolution of and spread of the African diaspora in Colombian territory. Most of these modern movements of African descendent communities currently live in the Pacific region and have established a whole tradition, not far from their roots, San Basilio de Palenque, or Africa itself. This could be categorized as a double, or triple diaspora.

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[1] The word "palenque" means "walled city"