KALABONGÓ
In an atrocious and violent crime, African men and women were kidnapped and forcibly transported from one place to another. Enslaved people arrived on the new continent carrying their languages, cultural roots, music, ways of loving, and ways of dreaming. Their struggle for freedom was also the search for their own territory, a space where their customs could flourish and where they could autonomously exercise their vision of the world.
In 1599, in Cartagena, Benkós Biohó ran in the middle of the night with four men, his wife, and three other women. They fled with thirty enslaved people from other places in search of autonomy, territory, and freedom. In some regions, it is still remembered that the maroons flew over the lands in times of struggle, confronting troops and defending the inhabitants who lived in mobile settlements for years. After clashes with the Crown, in 1605, they were granted a year of peace, a treaty considered the first agreed upon in what is now Colombia. That year of peace was the seed of what is now Palenque.
The history of the maroons intertwines with the struggles of our time; the search for justice and freedom continues to pulse in the territories that were once havens of refuge and resistance. Kalabongó uses the metaphor of a forest and its trees to approach these events. The images of plants represent that struggle for freedom and the search for a new land where roots can take hold and bear fruit again.
Past and present intertwine. The memory of the maroons resonates with the turbulence and transformative forces that continue to shape the world. Family, memory, dreams, religion, and language fly in the light of day, reminding us that the darkness of the night is the accomplice of freedom.
