Juan Sebastián Rojas E. – författare

These twenty-one animal tales from the Colombian Caribbean coast represent a sampling of the traditional stories that are told during all-night funerary wakes. The tales are told in the semi-sacred space of the patio (backyard) of homes as part of the funerary ritual that includes other aesthetic and expressive practices such as jokes, song games, board games, and prayer. In this volume these stories are situated within their performance contexts and represent a highly ritualized corpus of oral knowledge that for centuries has been preserved and cultivated by African-descendant populations in the Americas. Ethnomusicologist George List collected these tales throughout his decades-long fieldwork amongst the rural costeños, a chiefly African-descendent population, in the mid-20th century and, with the help of a research team, transcribed and translated them into English before his death in 2008. In this volume, John Holmes McDowell and Juan Sebastián Rojas E. have worked to bring this previously unpublished manuscript to light, providing commentary on the transcriptions and translations, additional cultural context through a new introduction, and further typological and cultural analysis by Hasan M. El-Shamy. Supplementing the transcribed and translated texts are links to the original Spanish recordings of the stories, allowing readers to follow along and experience the traditional telling of the tales for themselves.

These twenty-one animal tales from the Colombian Caribbean coast represent a sampling of the traditional stories that are told during all-night funerary wakes. The tales are told in the semi-sacred space of the patio (backyard) of homes as part of the funerary ritual that includes other aesthetic and expressive practices such as jokes, song games, board games, and prayer. In this volume these stories are situated within their performance contexts and represent a highly ritualized corpus of oral knowledge that for centuries has been preserved and cultivated by African-descendant populations in the Americas. Ethnomusicologist George List collected these tales throughout his decades-long fieldwork amongst the rural costeños, a chiefly African-descendent population, in the mid-20th century and, with the help of a research team, transcribed and translated them into English before his death in 2008. In this volume, John Holmes McDowell and Juan Sebastián Rojas E. have worked to bring this previously unpublished manuscript to light, providing commentary on the transcriptions and translations, additional cultural context through a new introduction, and further typological and cultural analysis by Hasan M. El-Shamy. Supplementing the transcribed and translated texts are links to the original Spanish recordings of the stories, allowing readers to follow along and experience the traditional telling of the tales for themselves.

An Afro-Colombian community in the Caribbean, the scourge of violence, a process of collective reparation, and cultural leaders brimming with spirit and creativity—in Libertad, a rural area of San Onofre on the northern coast of Colombia, the revitalization of traditional music has been a powerful tool for repairing the damage caused by armed conflict. From children to the elderly, everyone works together to make the dream of peace a reality.Drums of Libertad explores this process of community building, bringing together bullerengue, hip-hop, and traditional song-games to demonstrate how they facilitate social cohesion, cooperation, and the construction of a strong Afro-Colombian identity. Author Juan Sebastián Rojas E. presents a novel methodology by posing critical debates around the roles of art, culture, and applied scholarship in peacebuilding efforts. Embracing a collaborative research agenda, Rojas E. illuminates the lifeways and experiences of individual artists and activists in Caribbean Colombia and, at the same time, explores local revivals of Afro-diasporic music practices as peacebuilding initiatives through the lens of grassroots leadership.A vibrant contribution to the development of South American ethnomusicology, Drums of Libertad shows us how local musical cultures, the social networks of community leaders, and the creative resilience of socially engaged musicians interact to spark the reconstruction of communal ties through affect and empathy.