Jende ri Palenge or people of Palenque

The people meant are the inhabitants of San Basilio de Palenque in the northern part of Columbia. Hard to believe but true the village was founded in the 17th century by African "maroons" or escaped slaves. Thus becoming a little piece of Africa inside Columbia, Palenque became the first offical free slave settlement in the Americas. Through the years the community succeeded in maintaining their cultural heritage. They remain a sort of isolated Afro-Columbian culture with own local creole language and music tracing back to mainly Angola. A quote heard in the movie states: "we are here in Palenque only by accident, we should all be in the black continent in Angola!"

Reason for Santiago Posada and Simon Mejia to set up a local recording studio to tape the music and film the whole experience back in 2008. I must admit that I would have liked to see more from the studio sessions but the documentary is unique and the music a real treasure for rythm/groove hunters or aficionados of cultural anthropology. One wouldn't expect this taking place in the 21th century. Soul Jazz Records has assembled film and recordings on dvd/cd/vinyl in a limited box. Also contained in the box are exclusives remixes from the original music.