The sexualisation of racially subordinated people has been linked to the exercise of power. This article focuses on an aspect of subordination related to the condition of being a servant, and the ‘domestication’ and ‘acculturation’ that domestic service implies in societies where black and indigenous people are often linked to ‘backwardness’. Perceived racial otherness, class subordination, gender, age and domesticated servitude together reinforce an erotic image of sexual availability, particularly in younger women.
The Caribbean coastal region of Colombia is called the costa, and its inhabitants are referred to as costeños. The müsica costeña (coastal music) is a product of tri-ethnic syncretic cultural traditions including Amerindian, Spanish, and African elements, a merging that begins with the colonial period and continues into the republican period on the Caribbean Coast. Traditional music from the Colombian Caribbean coast expresses its tri-ethnic costeño identity in various vocal styles and musical forms and through its types of instruments and the way they are played. This essay describes the aspects and circumstances under which cumbia, a coastal musical genre and dance form of peasant origins characterized by an African-derived style, has spread from its local origins in the valley of the Magdalena River to acquire a Colombian national identity, becoming in a few years a transnational musical phenomenon.
In Colombia, armed conflict, exacerbated by the war on drugs and the effects of neoliberal economic policies, has forced Afro-Colombian communities in the Chocó region off their land. The author studies the lyrics of a collection of vallenato songs that affirm the identity of the displaced of Chocó and help create solidarity and consciousness about their struggle. She explains the ideological roots of the armed conflict between the state military, the guerilla groups, and the paramilitary units of Colombia. She also describes the displacement she believes is caused by specific economic development projects resulting from 21st-century free-trade agreements between North America and Colombia. She analyzes how the villanato songs bring visibility to an otherwise invisible group of displaced peoples.
This paper analyzes the intersection of two parallel developments that have had a curious impact on agrarian politics in Colombia: on the one hand, attempts to appropriate land for ‘green’ ends such as biofuel production, which have become ubiquitous all across Latin America, and on the other, the implementation of multicultural reforms, which in Colombia resulted in the collective titling of more than five million hectares of land for ‘black communities’.
Reviews the history of the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network (LACWHN), a women's organization founded in 1984 in Colombia for the defense and promotion of women's health and rights. Discussed are the diverse experiences, key achievements, major challenges, and future directions for the network.
152 p., Sheds light on the importance of orality as it is embedded in the cultural traditions of the Colombian Caribbean. Examines the different ways in which orality is manifested and produced in Colombian popular culture and literature. Also explores the dynamics of "primary orality," in which orality compensates for the absence of knowledge or usage of a written alphabet, and "secondary orality," in which orality is sustained by a technological device, in this case the cassette.
The dry Caribbean is a place in Colombia where some black communities have lived since decolonization. The text tackles the pedagogical sense of the Catedra de Estudios Afrocolombianos. The historical, territorial, juridical, educative, and organizational contextualization is followed by the emphasis in the necessity of creating a cultural production policy based on the black communities' life.
Hoffmann, Volker (author), Contreras Arias, Carolina (author), Holle, David (author), White, Douglas (author), Peters, Michael (author), and Burkhart, Stefan (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2010-09-14
Published:
Colombia
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 178 Document Number: C30732
Notes:
Presented at Tropentag 2010, Conference on International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development, Zurich, Switzerland, September 14-16, 2010. 1 page.
Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
4 p., The growing violence and instability in Mexico and the Caribbean will clearly demand greater attention from the United States in the future. This conference, held at the University of Pittsburgh campus on October 28-30, 2009 offered an important opportunity to assess these threats, and to consider what can be done to counter them. Includes chapter "Perspectives on the Caribbean."
