Tucked away behind Colombia’s lush green hills, and less than a two-hour drive from Cartagena, lies Palenque de San Basilio. Founded by escaped slaves in the 1600s, San Basilio was one of many walled settlements known as palenques. It is known as the first free town in the Americas and recognized by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The lore surrounding the town’s origin begins with Benkos Bioho, an enslaved African from Guinea-Bissau who escaped when the ship that transported him sank in the Magdalena River. He and around 30 Africans fled into the shallow valley of the Montes de Maria region of northern Colombia. The group quickly set up operations to free others from the slave port city of Cartagena. They were so successful that the Spanish colonizers attacked the settlement. Using the hills as a lookout, African drum beats warned of approaching soldiers, and the Africans could easily evade attack. Eventually, the Spanish offered them freedom in 1691.
Today, it feels a bit like being transported to a village in Africa. The sun-seared streets are also a living museum where the locals greet you not in Spanish, but in Palenquero, which blends a variety of African languages with Spanish and Portuguese. It is spoken nowhere else on Earth.
As our group walked through the village, the streets seemed empty, the locals were hiding from the scorching sun but that didn’t stop them from shouting greetings from inside their homes. Many of these homes are windowless, open to the street and painted in bright colours with murals depicting African culture, local history or inspirational phrases.
Then we were greeted by three “Palenqueras,” as they’re known, in full-length multicoloured dresses carrying baskets of fruit. I learn the image of the fruit-bearing women so often associated with Colombia, particularly in Cartagena, is actually from Palenque de San Basilio.
Drums that once warned of Spanish incursions centuries ago now play a different rhythm. At the Batata drumming school, a raw, wild and playful dance begins with a call and response of “mapale, mapale, mapale!” The drummers burst into a frenetic rhythm matched by the dancers, the women shaking and snapping their hips, pounding their feet as they circle the dance floor, their male partners trying their best to keep pace behind them as they flash playful, flirtatious looks at each other.
Keeping with the musical theme, our next stop was a visit to the home and recording studio of Kombilesa Mi, a group that mixes traditional African rhythms with modern rap. We met a few members of the group who showed off their handmade drums, maracas and a Marimbula, a wooden box with metal “tongues,” on which the players use their hands to produce sounds that swing from deep bass tones to sharp twangy notes.
The visit quickly turned into an impromptu jam session with members of the band passing around different instruments to try. Guests were later invited to leave their mark – no surface was off limits. Being one of relatively few people to visit such a unique place, I found it hard not to accept an invitation to leave something of myself behind, and left my initials on a small empty space of the studio wall.
Later, our guide stopped at a statue of one of the village’s modern heroes, Antonio Cervantes, Colombia’s first boxing champion. “Kid Pambele” came from humble beginnings. When he returned to Colombia as the WBA world light welterweight champion in 1972, the country’s president asked him what he wanted. Cervantes replied: “Water, light and roads for my people.” Many still credit Cervantes with bringing the plight of his hometown and its people to light, leading to investments in the town’s infrastructure.
Palenque isn’t well known to most Colombians, not even those who live in nearby Cartagena. The UNESCO recognition has brought some benefits, mainly tourism. Most of these visitors are of African descent looking to learn more about its valuable place in history.
Palenque de San Basilio’s recognition by UNESCO has brought many visitors of African descent looking to learn more about its valuable place in history.
