San Basilio de Palenque

Statue of Benkos Bioho , the founder of the place, in the main square in Palenque

San Basilio de Palenque is a so-called Palenque village belonging to the municipality of Mahates in the department of Bolívar in the north of Colombia with approx. 3,500 inhabitants. Administratively it is a corregimiento by Mahates.

It is believed to be the first free village in South America. Palenque refers to a settlement founded by runaway slaves. San Basilio de Palenque is the only one of these villages that still exists today. Its inhabitants are mainly Afro-Columbians , who are descendants of African slaves. Because of the isolated location, many old customs and traditions have been preserved there. This manifests itself in a musical culture of its own, to which the ceremonial drum pechiche , which only occurs here, belongs, which is played to accompany songs at funerals. A well-known music group that maintains this tradition is Sexteto Tabalá. Also Palenquero , the only Spanish-based creole language in Latin America, is still spoken there.

In 2005, the cultural area of ​​San Basilio de Palenque was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO , and in 2008 it was entered on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity .

Web links

• Site of the Palenque de Sao Basilio
• Maintaining Afro-Colombian Culture in San Basilio de palenque Global Voices, November 12, 2009, accessed May 5, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ^ HLA Genes in Afro-American Colombians (San Basilio de Palenque): The First Free Africans in America . In: The Open Immunology Journal, 2009, 2, 59-66 doi : 10.2174 / 1874226200902010059
2. ↑ Jende Ri Palenge-People of Palenque (2CD + DVD). amazon.de, accessed on May 5, 2012 . 
3. ↑ http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00011&RL=00102

Coordinates: 10 ° 6 ′  N , 75 ° 12 ′  W