Field Report: 2024 Mercado Cultural del Caribe, Cartagena, Colombia with Alex Boicel

The Mercado Cultural del Caribe, November 28-30th in Cartagena was the 8th edition of this annual event. It took place in the historic Palacio de la Proclamacíon, the Museo Histórico MUHCA, and the Plaza de la Proclamacíon. Much of the music and artists heard originate from the Magdalena region, and extended to connections with Caribbean and African cultures. Alex Boicel traveled there for the conference and shared video of showcase performances. He has an integral knowledge of Colombian music as he introduced many African artists to the country.

Viviana Esparragoza is known as “La Reina Pocabuyana”. Pocabuy is the indigenous region where the Cumbia originated. She hails from El Banco an interior city that connects to the Caribbean via the winding Magdelena River at Barranquilla. A distinct regional flair is heard in her tamboras amd cumbias, traditional music and dance forms of the region usually performed there in the context of festivals and dances. In her song ‘Espiritu del Agua’ the traditional format of musicians can be heard backing her vocals. Her 2023 release ‘La Reina Pocabuyana’ is an album of music written by her brother Jose Esparragoza, and is bringing her attention internationally.

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Jorge Aguilar comes from humble origins as a farmer in Ibague. He began playing the ranchero music of his region, at first locally with other farmers but his love of music has led to a professional career that has brought ranchero music to listeners all over the world. Which, Alex tells us, is how Tapha Gueye of Senegal came to perform at MCC. “Gueye is the guitarist for Youssou NDour, there is a producer name John Hollis who lives in England and he used to manage the great female singer call Toto la Monposina, the great singer who toured all over the world, and Aguilar was the backup singer in her group. Now Toto is not singing anymore, she's almost 90 ...And Hollis decided to give Aguilar this opportunity to tour and its how he met Tapha Gueye from Senegal, he is now working on a Afro- Colombian special project….that coming out soon.

Tury Morey, grew up in Escallon Villa, a neighborhood in Southern Cartagena where it was normal to hear African music. At that time Soukous electrified the continent and it was becoming the most popular sound in the Colombian Caribbean region. Tury tells  Juana Hermida of Lulaworld records: "Soukustek is a combination of the life experiences, dreams and joys that have fed off of our direct connection to Africa, When we were kids, on weekends, we'd both fall asleep and awaken the next morning to the thunderous soukous rhythms and African guitar melodies blasted out by the powerful and brightly-painted sound systems called "picos" or “pickups”. Its an experience that he carries to this day.

The band included Tury Morey, guitar; Tiko, Tambor (drums); Juanma, Percussion; Lizandras Navas, trumpet; and Claro Torres, bass. Torres played bass due to a problem, usually he plays guitar, but the bass player couldnt make it so it changed the sound.

Soukous is characterised by the guitar interplay with two or more musicians playing different parts which creates its distinctive sound. It evolved from Cuban Rumba music adapted by Congolese musicians, such as Franco. So, in the music of Soukustek, we hear the cross-Atlantic musical dialogue between West Africa and Colombia that began with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and continued in the LP format, as commercial mariners introduced African music to Cartagena.  

The band formed in 2011, are currently working on their second album. The first, ‘Asina Jue’ released in 2019, can be heard on spotify and online platforms. The ten song collection ‘Asina Jue’ which is a palenque phrase that roughly translates as "Thats the way it will be” includes influences of Afrobeat, Soca, Champeta, and Afro -Colombian dance music. Writer Rodolfo Cañete contributed four songs. They have been touring internationally including Liverpool’s African Oye festival in 2023, and several appearances at festivals in Toronto including the Small World Music Festival.

Alex, with his partner Charly Maiwan, founder of the Festival Mondial De Musique Des Femmes, in the 1990’s, brought Congolese artists already popular in Colombia to perform in the country for the first time including luminaries such as M'bilia Bel, Diblo Dibala, Lokito, and the Soukous Stars. He says it was as if royalty wa spassing, people lined the streets. But he says: “What really helped Soukous in Colombia, is Manuel Reyes, with his nickname Marebo, he has a radio station playing Soukous Music every week, and I was giving him lots of CDs … He passed away 2 months ago, a day before we were going to do the 11th edition of this festival that we created 11 years ago .. in Cartagena and it’s call Voces del Jazz y Caribe.”

Vallenato is rural accordion music originating in the Magdalena region. It was honored with an UN Intangable Cultural Heritage designation for its role in building a regional identity. The proclamation states: “Traditional Vallenato music fuses cultural expressions from northern Colombia, the songs of cow-herders of the Greater Magdalena region and the chants of African slaves with the traditional dance rhythms of the indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.”

Traditionally performed by men, women of Vallenato were featured at MCC. 

Rober L.Ninho is a Cuban rapper, now living in Colombia now for three years, who was raised in an environment of violence in La Sabana Candalaria, Cuba. He now understands his childhood as racist but it brought him to become a musician and is “deconstructing himself” through his music while discovering shared experiences in Colombia. Edna Liliana a journalist representing Rober tells us: “ He is not only a singer, he is also an anti rascist leader who works for the empowerment of black communities in Cuba, Colombia, and different countries. Through his music he is promoting the respect for the history, the real history, of black people around the world.”

‘Cimarron is one of his latest singles, and in it he pays tribute Afro Columbian maroons (but a shared experience throughout the Caribbean diaspora) who resisted slavery and established free palenques in the mountains inland from the Caribbean coast:  “I'm a cimarrón and I'm going to the mountains! Freedom, resistance and Afro-Colombian roots in every verse. Join the urban music revolution he says of the cut, which includes these lyrics:(To the mountains)

I am a runaway and I am going to the mountains

Runaway, runaway to the mountains

Hey runaway, runaway to the mountains

Runaway, runaway to the mountains

And it is that when I arrive, the chains are broken

Vindication and freedom on the horizon

I am a runaway and I am going to the mountains, (ha)

(Runaway, runaway to the mountains), ja”

The melodic rapping of leader Luis Miguel Caraballo  soars over traditional drumming and goes back and forth with a more rhythmic chorus telling a s expresses takes a brave stance of truth and resistance in the face of violence in Colombia.

Bullenrap fuses Bullenrengue, the Afro Colombian traditional music with lyrics rapped that address contemporary issues. Bullenregue is music that was found in the mountainous rural regions along the Caribbean coast in communities of African descendants of the Atlantic slave trade. The band is from Montes de Maria. Bullenrap leader Luis Miguel Caraballo raps lyrics that challenge violence and express the anguish felt by the victims as in the latest single from the group La Lucha. La Lucha is in their own words: "La Lucha" is a song that was born from dialogue and encounters with victims of the armed conflict in the city of Cartagena and the Montes de María. Inspired by the stories of our people, these narratives were transformed into verses that, in turn, were intertwined with the rhythms and melodies characteristic of the bullenrapero movement.

Alex recalls “In 1992, I met a Colombian promoter and booking agent, who saw me in New York at Club Harambee when I was doing Loketo and mostly bands from Congo, also at Club SOBs.... His name is Paco de Onis. He told me about this festival called Festival del Caribe in Cartagena, he told me some pirate distributors and radio stations were playing Soukous music that was very very popular among the black community called Palenque, this community always felt that they belonged to Africa. And Paco de Onis, who is a white Colombian told me that, the festival liked the music but didn’t know how to bring African musicians to Colombia, specially the Congolese .. So, I started with Kanda Bongo in 1992, then Loketo and, in 1993, with Aurlus Mabele, and Diblo Dibala after he split with Loketo as the main guitarist, then 1994 I came with Diblo Dibala and the Four Stars … I think that same year Pablo Escobar was killed by the police…..”