Columbian Maroons: African Culture Alive in San Basilio de Palenque

One of the places I have to see in this life is a region about 60 km from Cartagena, on the Caribbean in Columbia, called San Basilio de Palenque.  This amazing place has maintained a vibrant african culture in South America despite attacks from the outside and social isolation.  The people of this region are actually Cimarrons or Maroons, descendants of fierce escaped slaves that fought to remain free in the 1600s.   Something really interesting about this area besides the fact that descendants practice african drum, dance and many other practices that are clearly old world in origin, but the people of this region actually speak their own tongue, Palenquero. It’s a language that is said to be the only Spanish creole found in Latin America.  It’s known locally simply as Lengua (tongue) and is so distinctly different from the local Spanish that those outside of the 3000 remaining speakers, hardly understand a word.   The language shares aspects of the  Kongo-Angola region of Africa’s language as well as Portuguese influences given their role in bringing slaves to South America.   Despite being a very impoverished and isolated culture that apparently faces a great deal of prejudice , especially surrounding language differences as well as cultural and ethnic, the people of this area have maintained a beautiful and rich tradition passed on from their ancestors that continues to tell the story of all they’ve been through and survived.

Here is a sweet video of some dance in the area of Cartagena by folks from this region

Dance Atlanta- Uhuru Dancers and Sekhou Senegal

From Darkness must come the Light…

Since moving to Georgia about 1.5 years ago to have another baby and take a break from globetrotting, I’ve been reminded of what an extensive African/Moorish dance and drum scene exists in the Atlanta Metropolitan region.  When living in Oakland in the Bay Area of California, I had the opportunity to learn a diverse array of dance forms.  The Bay is known for its Haitian and Afro-diaspora dance scene.   In the past I lived in Atlanta and definitely had some dance experiences, but now it’s becoming a hub of its own.
On any given day one can go to a classes with the longest running and very popular

UHURU Dancers.  Founded by elder dancer in the community Tony Young, who is a joy to dance with, this group has spent 23 years spreading the invigoration and beauty of African dance to those young and small.  Their website is here:

http://www.uhurudancers.com/13.html

Check them out for a good time.  They provide classes every day of the week…

One of my old teachers, Ouseynou Kouyate from Senegal, the country my husband is from,  has a twin brother that teaches a popular class in the Atlanta area at the same place as UHURU, the Clarkston Community Center.

His website is here:  http://www.sekhousenegal.com

Here is Ousyenou and his twin Assane’s group at their annual Nuit de Bazin event.  It’s a lovely event with beautiful Senegalese and West African griot or geewul dance, drum and song.