Again the Wild Square a Brief History on Santa Marta

We spent the day at the gold and ethnographic museum. Pre-contact Indigenous culture was well covered as well as the current Indigenous communities living in the larger Caribbean coast.

In the Tayrona culture special people would be trained at reaching puberty to become batman shamans. They would alter their bodies with piercings to resemble the faces of bats and live in caves meditating taking on the wisdom and characteristics of bats: their ability to live and see the world upside down; watch  the world from night and travel the cosmos.

Interestingly they were altered to resemble the vampire bat which in Tayrona culture was associated with fertility and birth.

The history of colombian colonies recorded a lengthty history of resistance and assertion of sovereignty by the various Indigenous groups - one holding out for 75 years against the Spanish until they were massacred by some governer brought in by the Crown to do the deed.

To augment the slaves the Spanish made of the Indigenous groups, the spanish also loaded up slaves stolen from the Gambia and brought them chock and block to work the many indigo, sugar and cassava plantations.  Like the Idigenous slaves, those from Africa fought back and a number were able to escape and form their own free communities called Palenques where they established social orders and governments akin to the models of home communities in Africa. They also intermarried with Indigenous peoples who had escaped the spanish controlled regions.

All this means Colombia is a fusion of 3 different groups, reflecting the complexities of numerous ethnicities.

Last night at the old town square the power went out in the area for about 4 hours but that didn't quash the joyous party of a Saturday night.

The white Colombian  street musician with dreads played traditional  Colombian songs while everyone on the street, the peddlers, jewellery makers and restaurant staff all joining in on the chorus clapping and dancing.

He was augmented by two young women turistas, one who was learning the bongos and they jammed together. She wasnt bad given that she was a novice. I learned yesterday that woRd bongo and hence the drums, comes from the name given to the  escaped slaves who worked as ferry men along the canals transporting goods around the carribean.

Pirates of old, stolen gold and so many stories untold: Santa Marta.