Traveling Seminar: San Basilio de Palenque

Written by Jada Jackson, (Howard University), Student Correspondent for CET Colombia, Fall 2024

Hi everyone! For my last photo essay, I would like to reflect on our Traveling Seminar to Cartagena, specifically on our trip to San Palenque. Because this land and its people has so much importance and deserves so much appreciation, this photo essay will include more pictures than the others.

Hope and Resilience: Life in Palenque

San Basilio de Palenque, also known as “Little Africa”, is a small community village about two hours away from the main city of Cartagena. The people here speak both Spanish and Palenquero, which is their official language. We spent our first night there with local host families who graciously took us in with so much love. Me and my two roommates stayed with a woman called Milagro. She was 65 years old (her birthday coming up later November) and full of so much spirit.

The main thing I noticed while being in Palenque is how happy everyone is, no matter what seems to be going on. For example, while I was staying with my host family, the woman of the house sounded sick. Nonetheless, she still desired to care for us and make sure we were okay. When the morning came, the man of the house had told us she had to be sent to the hospital. On hearing this, we all seemed worried and questioned if she was going to be okay. With a smile on his face, he said “Hakuna Matana, don’t worry! Everything will be just fine!” while still running around making sure we were taken care of.

Sure enough, she came back later that day okay, but this speaks on the importance of hope and community. Even though these people face situations, their land is being taken and they are constantly fighting for justice, you would never know that they’re in strife because of how they act. They even slept on the couch just so we could have a bed to sleep in.

Their sense of community for people they don’t even know just shows how welcoming and loving they are. Their sense of hope translates into all areas of their life and their want for people to learn about their culture shows through their actions. From teaching us music to showing us nothing but love, the people of Palenque show what it means to truly be hopeful in times of despair.

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Cultural Connections: The Significance of Traditions & Hairstyles

In Palenque, I observed so many new conditions that taught me a lot about the people there. In a cultural sense, there is such a strong sense of traditions and values. When we arrived in Palenque, later that night we took a tour of an older house in the village. In one of the rooms, they had pictures of different traditional hairstyles, such as cornrows and locs.

As someone who loves doing hair, especially braids, this room made me emotional. To see where we came from to where we are now is truly a journey within itself. To know that these braids were used to map routes, hide food, and save lives make them mean even more to me than they already do. So many of us had braids or locs in our hair as he was explaining the stories to us. I do these braids for styles and aesthetics but to understand the historical context created a whole new perspective for me. They also showed us the bowls and spoons they make to eat, and the containers they use to carry water.

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The Strength of Women: Matriarchs of Palenque

One of the activities created for us was a panel talk with the women of Palenque. The women of Palenque have so much history stored within them so it was so informative to learn about their culture and way of life. We learned so much about traditional customs and how being the matriarchs of this town, their roles have been transformed and renewed throughout the years.

The people there, especially the women, talked to us about their practice of ancient medicine. One of them even said, “This is why everyone here lives so long. During COVID, no one here died because of our ancient practices.” Similar to what I’ve learned in some of my classes, women are usually the ones holding the family/community together. Their roles are so vital in the upkeep and preservation of culture and refuge for the people of their towns.

Even in the preservation of their language, the community makes sure that the kids are taught both Spanish and Palenquero so they always know who they are. Their way of keeping and instilling ancient traditions was remarkable to see. As seen in one of the pictures, they have a wall of certain words in their language. My favorite one was gonoroko, which means amor (love).

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A Taste of Palenque’s Agriculture

The preservation of this land was shown in the way they spoke about it and valued its natural resources. Walking around you can see chickens, ducks, roosters, pigs, and mules all eating off the land. We traveled to a farm nearby that is owned and taken care of by the community there. As seen in one of the pictures, the people there cooked us sancocho, a traditional soup using only ingredients they gathered from their land. Served on banana leaves, this soup tasted of deep rooted cultural and traditional cuisine. It was a way for us to feel more connected with the people there and through that meal we shared, we bonded.

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Annual Drum Festival in Palenque

Later that week, we went back to Palenque to attend an annual drum festival in Palenque. For me, the most heart-warming part was how it was able to bring together so many people, even those who weren’t from Palenque. As seen in one of the pictures, the streets were flooded with people. You saw families dressed up and kids performing traditional dances in front of their community. Walking around Palenque, you will see so many colors. From the houses to the street arts, this village luminates as you pass by. There was so much street art, specifically uplifting black people and showing pride in being Palenquero.         

This was by far the most fun I’ve had in Colombia and I hope to remember this forever.