Festival are of black, a laboratory of practices and knowledge

Abstract

The National Festival Son de Negro is an event of historical - cultural and social transcendence. It had its origin in research in real contexts about festivals, parties, carnivals, music, rituals and oral tradition. In 1996, based on the study, the idea of creating the Son de Negro Festival was presented with head-quarters  in  Santa  Lucía,  Atlántico  Department  (Colombia),  in  association  with  the  Por  ti  Santa  Lucía  Foundation, for the organization of all associated events to the ancestral culture. The objective was to revitalize a festival that activates, recreates and reflects educationally the dance-musical expressions Son de Negro to articulate practices and knowledge in areas where the academic, as a cultural mechanism, accompanies  and  strengthens  the  safeguarding  and  appropriation  of  this  community  heritage.  It  was  based on a methodological process of selection, organization and systematization of the collective oral memory of the active musical choir Son de Negro. The work of knowledge management and cultural re-search has made it possible to mark out the integral human development and knowledge in practices and knowledge in the territory as a sociological - anthropological and historical space in which the identity of the Congolese - African ancestral culture is reaffirmed, arrived at the region at the time of the colony. As conclusion, despite the importance of oral tradition in the Colombian Caribbean culture and in the area of the Canal del Dique, the intangible cultural heritage is reverted of great fragility, above all, by the supports to preserve the memory and find ways to convey orality.