This small town has kept it’s culture alive for 400 years, they still feel African (even believing the soul returns to Africa after death), they are taught their original Spanish-Creol language and have an incredibly strong proud identity.

This is the town of San Basilio de Palenque, known as just Palenque by local people, situated along coastal Colombia.

GarryLeech.com wrote more about this interesting place, his article reads:

And there is much to learn about Palenque. The name “Palenque,” which loosely translates into “walled cities,” was applied to hundreds of remote communities established by escaped slaves during the 17th Century because of the circular walls constructed with tall sticks that sought to protect the villagers from the Spanish. As a result, the name itself symbolizes both the resistance and the isolation that have helped preserve San Basilio de Palenque’s unique culture, particularly its African-descendent language, through centuries of colonial repression and the country’s contemporary violence.

Many of the black slaves that arrived in the colonial city of Cartagena during the 1500s came from the west coast of Africa, particularly the Congo region.

According to Marquéz, “Among them were princes and leaders, and those blacks never accepted the conditions of slavery. Many killed themselves, which is to say they were killed, and others organized and escaped from Cartagena.” During the late 1500s and early 1600s, many escaped slaves were led by an African resistance leader named Benkos Bioho, who launched repeated attacks on Cartagena until he was eventually killed by the Spanish in 1619.

It was during this period that the ancestors of San Basilio first established a palenque in Mazuna, which was relatively close to Cartagena. But the Spanish soon came after them and so they fled further inland, eventually ending up in San Basilio in the modern-day department, or province, of Bolívar. The villagers of San Basilio claim Benkos as the founder of their community and a statue honoring him stands in the central plaza.

Eventually, the Spanish succeeded in destroying most of the original palenques, with San Basilio being one of the only survivors. According to Marquéz, San Basilio “is located in a strategic place because it is surrounded by a small mountain range; therefore, it was easy to see who was coming. The people would communicate with drums when the Spaniards came down the mountains and when the Spaniards arrived in Palenque they would see the houses but no blacks.” The people would simply disappear into the hills while the Spanish burned down their houses. The villagers would then reappear, reconstruct their homes and go on with their lives. This process transpired over and over until the Spanish eventually decided to offer the escaped slaves of San Basilio their freedom.

But freedom came with conditions. The Spanish required that the residents of San Basilio adopt Catholic names, practice Catholicism and renounce their own religions. The people agreed, says Marquéz, “This is why I am called Enrique. It is not an African name, it’s a Spanish name. But black cultural practices and religion are ethereal, intangible, so it was easy to continue practicing them.

Still today, the practices that were imposed on us are not well received. If you go to the Catholic Church on Sundays you will not see anybody there. The Palenqueros accepted certain conditions during negotiations in return for liberty, but never abided by them.”

For centuries, Palenque existed in virtual isolation, with only Blacks being permitted to enter the community. This isolation helped preserve many African cultural practices related to religion, music, dance and cuisine that still exist today. The Palenquero religion, reflecting African practices, is more focused on the spirits than the saints worshiped by Catholics. Meanwhile, drums are the most prominent instrument in Palenquero music and, along with dances and traditional African clothing, are commonly used in ceremonies such as marriages.

Read more in the article “The First Free Black Community in the Americas Continues Its Struggle” here and learn a little more in the video from Al Jazeera below: