Thanks to the follow-up impact funding from the British Academy, members from The RECLAMA team recently had an exciting opportunity visit to Cali, Colombia to undertake a range of project activities. Between August 13 and 23, 7 peer researchers and 3 CO-Is (further supported by 3 staff members of the Mujeres de Asfalto collective) met with and were supported by the Afro-Colombian organisations Revista Matamba* and the Casa Cultural el Chontaduro Association* to organise a range of events highlighting the outputs of the RECLAMA project and encouraging mutual learning between members of the RECLAMA team, Matamba, and a range of invited organisations.
Highlights of the trip included:
'Tapao Conversado'
On the 16th of August, the team took part in La Azotea de la Abuela, a space of Black ancestral knowledge, focusing on medicine and gastronomyin the East of Cali. This event focused ondecolonising food sovereignty from Afro-descendant communities and sharing experiences, learning and outputs from RECLAMA. In particular, 7 peer researchers highlighted their experiences working on the project, what the most important outputs and learning had been for them.
This brought the team into conversation with a range of Afro-Colombian organisations and other interested partices including Fundación Somos Identidad; Jovenes positivos del Colombia; El descubrimiento de Europa; AfroYoga; and the Red de Organizaciones de Mujeres Negras del Oriente de Cali.
A short video from the event (in Spanish):
'Open Microphone with Black Women'
On the 17th of August, we took part in an open mic event and workshop in the Casa de las Memorias del Conflicto y la Reconciliación.
Here, we shared exercises in storytelling, using poems, songs and the body to tell stories. A peer researcher shared her experience with RECLAMA, and various invited writers spoke and shared their work, including Afro-Ecuadorian writer Yuliana Ortiz.
A short video from the event (in Spanish):
‘Memory and Territory Circle’
On the 18th of August, the team shared creative outputs form the RECLAMA project in the BlackGround space. BlackGround Lab is a cultural production company dedicated to
creating, developing and promoting events and experiences inspired by the artistic-cultural legacy of the African diaspora. At this event, two documentaries from the RECLAMA project were shown: Wimbí: Resisting from Ancestry and Beauty: Memory's Art. This led to a lively discussion with participants about the content of the documentaries and the project as a whole.
A short video from the event (in Spanish):
Other cultural events we took part in:
The events took place alongside the Petronio Alvarez festival (16/8 – 21/8), the largest festival around Afro-descendant culture in Latin America.
This event features a lot of music; gastronomy and drinks; handicrafts; workshops and dance all based on ancestral knowledge and practices of Black and Afrodescendant population in Colombia, the pacific region and beyond. As this is a time of increased interest in and attention to Afrodescendant cultures in Latin America, this was an excellent time for the team to visit and take part in cultural activities that educated and empowered the team members, alongside the opportunity to share their work.
Other highlights of the trip included taking part in the Balsada cultural event at the Playa Renaciente (15/8); an ancestral Afro-Colombian community in East Cali, a procession of boats in honour of the Assumption of Mary; and a visit to the Lila Mujer association (22/8), an association working for women living with HIV; particularly for Black women.
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* Largely led by young people, Revista Matamba strive to visibilise and empower Afro-descendant Colombians in Cali and beyond. They produce an anti-racist magazine drawing from Afro-descendant communities and LGBTIQ+ experiences. Asociación Casa Cultural el Chontaduro is a non-governmental organization that works for the defense of human rights, eco-environmental care, taking art as strategy for the formation of critical, self-critical and committed children, young people and adults.