Abstract

OSLENDER, ULRICH. "DISCURSOS OCULTOS DE RESISTENCIA": TRADICIÓN ORAL Y CULTURA POLÍTICA EN COMUNIDADES NEGRAS DE LA COSTA PACÍFICA COLOMBIANA. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2003, vol.39, pp.203-235. ISSN 0486-6525.

THIS ARTICLE PRESENTS A SAMPLE OF ORAL LITERATURE FROM THE AFRO-COLOMBIAN people, including unedited verses and poems gathered by the author in Guapi on the Cauca coast of the Pacific region. Beyond the 'folkloric' presentation of this material, the author stresses the importance of the elderly, the wise and the poets of the oral traditions (decimeros) in the current processes of re-construction of collective memory in the Pacific region, and how their narratives reveal a sense of place that speaks of past settlement processes, migrations, and real and imagined journeys. It is argued that the oral tradition and its poetic forms as literary document constitute 'hidden transcripts of resistance' that challenge dominant representations of the Pacific region and its inhabitants, and which can be mobilized as political articulation in the struggle for cultural and territorial rights by black communities in Colombia.

Keywords : black communities; oral tradition; collective memory; social movements; cultural politics; hidden transcripts.

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