San Basilio de Palenque — a village in the Colombian Caribbean department of Bolívar — was founded in the 17th century by Benkos Bioho, an enslaved man from Guinea-Bissau who escaped from Cartagena de Indias, gathered other escaped enslaved people (cimarrones — "runaways"), and established a fortified settlement that successfully resisted Spanish colonial military campaigns for decades until the Spanish were forced to sign a peace agreement in 1713. "Everything we do—how we learn how to use our environment, how we prepare the plants that grow nearby, the way we prepare fish, the way we prepare our medicine—it's a result of our heritage from the African people," says Víctor Simarra Reyes, a chef, educator, and an advocate for Palenque pride. UNESCO recognised Palenque's intangible cultural heritage in 2005.
The culinary tradition of San Basilio de Palenque — the most uninterrupted African culinary survival in Latin America.
AFRICA TO AMERICA — WA4: THE DEEPEST DIVE