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Palenquero Foodways

San Basilio de Palenque

Community

⚠ THE FIRST FREE TOWN IN THE AMERICAS. San Basilio de Palenque in Bolívar was founded by people who escaped slavery in Cartagena under Benkos Biohó and was recognised as free by the Spanish crown in the early eighteenth century — earlier than any comparable settlement. It kept a creole language, PALENQUERO, the only Spanish-lexifier creole in the Americas with a documented Kikongo substrate, and UNESCO inscribed its cultural space on the intangible heritage list. Its food: maize, yuca, ñame, plantain, coconut, the alegrías and cocadas sold by the PALENQUERAS in Cartagena, the sweet-seller’s basket carried on the head, and a funerary and musical complex — the lumbalú — whose food component is recorded only as publicly described.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Palenqueros community documented

Languages: Palenquero, Spanish

What is recorded

  • San Basilio de Palenque was founded by people who escaped slavery in Cartagena and was recognised as free by the Spanish crown in the early eighteenth century, making it the earliest such recognised free town in the Americas. Palenquero is the only Spanish-lexifier creole in the Americas and carries a documented Kikongo substrate. The cultural space of Palenque is inscribed on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list. documented
  • San Basilio de Palenque, founded by people who escaped slavery in Cartagena, is recognised as free by the Spanish crown — the earliest such recognition in the Americas. documented

Related foodways

This foodway relates to

  • part of Afro-Colombian Foodways documented

    San Basilio de Palenque is the first free town in the Americas and its cultural space is UNESCO-inscribed.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.