Palenques and Marronage: resistance processes against the colonial slaves system in the Sabanero Caribbean (XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries)

Abstract

This article discusses the marronage logics (Cimarronaje) and the constitution of Palenque villages, as an expression of black slaves’ resistance against the colonial neogranadian system. The analysis is temporarily focused on the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and spatially in the current Caribbean region of Colombia, specifically the areas known as Bolivar Sabanero and the Mompox Depression. Throughout the conjunction of these temporal and geographic variables, the author can track how black slaves ran away from their masters using marronage (cimarronaje) dynamics, as a pursuit for social and territorial autonomy. This autonomy was materialized through the construction of Palenque villages in specific areas of the Colombian Caribbean, where they found what the colonial system did not provide to the enslaved population of the time.  In this sense, this paper presents some theoretical positions corresponding to the study of Afro-descendants during the colonial times in the focused region. The analysis could contribute to strengthening the figure of Palenque village’s as territorial entities and a geographic space that allowed the Maroons to access levels of social autonomy through a particular use and appropriation of their native territory.