San Basilio de Palenque
Encyclopedia
Corregimiento
Corregimiento is a term used in Colombia to define a subdivision of Colombian departments. According to the Colombian Constitution of 1991 and Decree 2274 of October 4, 1991, Corregimiento is an internal part of a Department or province, which includes a population core...
in the Municipality of Mahates
Mahates
Mahates is a river town and municipality located in the Bolívar Department, northern Colombia. The town of Mahates was founded on April 17, 1533 by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Heredia....
, Bolivar
Bolívar Department
Bolívar is a department of Colombia. It was named after one of the original nine states of the United States of Colombia. It is located to the north of the country, extending from the coast at Cartagena near the mouth of the Magdalena River, then south along the river to a border with Antioquia.Its...
in northern Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. In 2005 the village was declared Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was made by the Director-General of UNESCO starting in 2001 to raise awareness on intangible cultural heritage and encourage local communities to protect them and the local people who sustain these forms of cultural...
by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
. Palenque is also considered the first free town in America
The Village
The village of Palenque de San Basilio has a population of about 3,500 inhabitants and is located in the foothills of the Montes de María, southeast of the regional capital, Cartagena. The word "palenque" means "walled city" and the Palenque de San Basilio is only one of many walled communities that were founded by escaped slaves as a refuge in the seventeenth century. Of the many palenques of escaped slaves that existed previously San Basilio is the only one that survives. Many of the oral and musical traditions have roots in Palenque's African past.The village of San Basilio is inhabited mainly by Afro-Colombian
Afro-Colombian
Afro Colombians refers to Colombians of African ancestry, and the great impact they have had on Colombian culture. Notable Afro-Colombians include Colombian scientists like Raul Cuero, writers like Manuel Zapata Olivella and politicians:...
s which are direct descendants of African slaves brought by the Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
during the Colonization of the Americas and have preserved their ancestral traditions and have developed also their own language; Palenquero
Palenquero
Palenquero is a Spanish-based creole language spoken in Colombia. Palenquero is the only Spanish-based creole in Latin America. The ethnic group which speaks this Creole consists only of 3,000 people,...
. In 2005 the Palenque de San Basilio village was proclaimed Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
.
In the village of Palenque de San Basilio most of its inhabitants are black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
and still preserve customs and language from their African ancestors. In recent years people of indigenous ancestry have settled at the borders of Palenque, being displaced earlier by the Colombian civil war. The village was established by Benkos Bioho
Benkos Bioho
Benkos Biohó was said to have been born in the region of Bioho, Guinea Bissau, West Africa where he was seized by the Portuguese Pedro Gomez Reynel, the dealer, sold to businessman Juan Palacios and resold as a slave to the Spaniard Alonso del Campo in 1596, in Cartagena de Indias...
sometime in the 16th century.
Palenquero language
The New York Times reported on October 18, 2007 that the language spoken in Palenquero is thought to be the only Spanish-based Creole language still alive worldwide and the grammar is so different from Spanish, that Spanish speakers cannot understand it. The language Palenquero was influenced by the Kikongo language of Congo and Angola, and also by Portuguese, the language of the slave traders who brought African slaves to South America in the 17th century. Exact information on the different roots of Palenquero still lack, and there are different theories of it´s origin. Today fewer than half of the community’s 3,000 residents still speak Palenquero.A linguist born in Palenquero is compiling a lexicon for the language and others are assembling a dictionary of Palenquero. The defenders of Palenquero continue their struggle to keep the language alive. “Our ancestors survived capture in Africa, the passage by ship to Cartagena and were strong enough to escape and live on their own for centuries," said Mr. Salgado, a schoolteacher.