Palenquero origins

Abstract

Palenquero is a Spanish-lexified creole spoken in Columbia. We argue that existing hypotheses regarding its birth are problematic in several regards. This article addresses the inconsistencies in these hypotheses and provides an alternative, more coherent account. More precisely, we take issue with the following three claims: (a) Palenquero is the result of a two-language encounter; (b) it has its roots in a West African Afro-Portuguese proto-variety; (c) an ancestral form of the creole emerged in the port city of Cartagena. We then set out to present our own, more economical, formation scenario, according to which Palenquero was formed in the early 1600s in the linguistically heterogenous maroon communities of the Cartagenan hinterlands.

Racial Segregation and Urban Planning in Latin America: a Historiographical Study of Contemporary Cartagena, Colombia

“…48 Groups of them had to face a second, equally harsh journey, as they were transferred inland to work in the mines and replace the native Indians, who would get sick and die very quickly or escape 49 . The constant influx of enslaved Africans, who became the majority of Cartagena's population for most if its history -nowadays Afro-Colombians make up one third of the city's residents, the largest proportion among Colombia's big cities-, brought racial mixing, cultural exchanges 50 and linguistic influences -still visible to visitors today-, but also new settlements in discrete, secluded areas started by those who were able to escape, the so-called palenques 51 . All these facts reinforced racial discrimination, as several ordinances came into force about how incoming (living) slaves must be handled and how they must be spiritually repressed and converted 52 .…”