Suffering While Black. Resistance Amid Deracination

Abstract

In this chapter, Vergara-Figueroa describes how a group of traditional singers in the municipality of Bojayá, use songs as a means of resistance to channel their mourning, calling it the politics of spirituality. It was this form of resistance that placed Bojayá at the center of the peace agreement signed between the Colombian government and FARC, a process that started in 2012 and finished in 2016. When forgiveness appeared in the debate as an important need, the victims of Bojayá became the symbol of reconciliation of the country even though their demands of reparation have not yet been fulfilled.

I wrote this chapter during the field trips of the project “Voices of resistance.” I thank Diego Cagueñas for insisting on conducting this new phase of my research with a focus on the role of religious practices. I thank Lina Jaramillo, Ana Garay, Lina Mosquera‚ and Mario Hernndez for their multiple efforts to transcribe and translate the alabos I present in this chapter. I also thank Phenómena Photogramas for providing their visual material for this chapter.