The Afro-Caribbean festival combines music, dance, and theatrical performance.
Panamanians celebrated the Congo Festival in Portobelo, evoking the resilience of enslaved Black people during colonization and their struggle for freedom.
The Afro-Caribbean festival combines music, dance, and theatrical performance, recreating historical episodes linked to slavery, resistance, and emancipation through symbolic characters and traditional rhythms passed down through generations.
Irma Pinilla, Congo Queen and folklorist, said she felt proud to wear the Congo pollera (traditional dress) and to participate in national festivals that honor Afro-descendant heritage. The costumes, made from scraps of colorful fabrics, along with masks and characters, constitute a symbolic language that reflects resistance and survival strategies of Afro-descendant communities.
Congo culture highlights the leading role of women, especially through the figure of the queen, who plays a central role in the organization and transmission of tradition, reaffirming its matriarchal nature.
The text reads, “Portobelo was once again adorned with history, color, and tradition with the celebration of the seventh edition of the Pollera Congo Festival, one of the most representative cultural expressions of Panama’s Afro-colonial heritage.”
Pinilla emphasized that the queen decides on collective actions, comparing herself to the mother of the community, and expressed concern for preserving the authenticity of the cultural practice.
In 2018, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed the Congo tradition on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognizing its historical value.
This year, the queen was accompanied by King Manrique Alonso Pacheco, who celebrated his Afro-descendant roots, highlighting the lineage inherited from his father and mother, and linking the celebration to the abolition of slavery.
The Panamanian Congos serve as a vehicle for collective memory, preserving the history of resistance and reaffirming Afro-descendant identity in the Central American region.
teleSUR: JP
Source: EFE
0 Comentarios