Accompaniment in Palenque

By accompaniers Judy Sheppard Bierbaum and Beth Beall

We share the following story with you, because that is what the people living in Palenque de San Basilio (including the displaced people of La Bonga) and the Presbyterian Church of Colombia have asked us to do. Hear this story, and let this story change you.

We recently visited the town of Palenque de San Basilio with leaders from the Presbyterian Church of Colombia. Palenque is known as the first free town in the Americas; it was established in 1603 by African slaves who escaped from the Spaniards. For centuries, this Afro-Colombian community has maintained distinctive forms of dance, language, healing practices and collective social organization.

Another Afro-Colombia town, called La Bonga, is located fifteen kilometers outside of Palenque. In 2001 a paramilitary group told the people of La Bonga that they had 48 hours to leave their land. Of the 90 families living in La Bonga at that time, 75 families fled to Palenque.

Today the land that the people of La Bonga formerly knew as their own remains in the hands of the paramilitaries. The people of La Bonga hope to get their land back. "But in the process, we become poorer and poorer," one of the men explained.

A Palenque person said to us, "We are working hard to hold onto our land, so that what happened to La Bonga does not happen here."

Even as the people of Palenque work to secure themselves against displacement, they are offering their own land as an expression of refuge and hospitality to the displaced people of La Bonga. The people of Palenque have welcomed the "stranger" into their midst, defying the mindset of scarcity and fear that pervades so many places and so many hearts in our world. (When you enter the community center in Palenque — a beautifully constructed edifice made of sticks and mud and dried palm leaves — you are greeted by a large sign that says, "Bienvenidos a los de La Bonga," that is, "Welcome, people of La Bonga.")

Afro-Colombians constitute the highest number of displaced persons in Colombia today. The Presbyterian Church of Colombia seeks to accompany the people of Palenque and the displaced people of La Bonga, reminding them that they are not alone, and supporting their efforts to secure their legal and human rights. It was our privilege to accompany the church in this work.