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.
