This village of 3,500 inhabitants is located in the foothills of the Montes de María. Its Afro-Colombian population is directly descended from fugitive African slaves who formed a free and independent community in the 17th century. Of the many palenques that existed, only San Basilio has survived. The inhabitants have preserved their traditions, their social, medicinal, religious, cultural and musical practices, inherited from their ancestors, which motivated UNESCO in 2005 to proclaim the village "Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity". In San Basilio, they speak a unique language, the Palenquero Creole, also called Suto, which means "ours", a mixture of Spanish and Bantu linguistic elements. The other characteristic of Palenque is its music, with the omnipresence of drums. The inhabitants sing and dance to the cumbia and champeta of course, but also to the traditional rhythms of bullerengues sentados, chalupas, son de negros, chalusonga or son palenquero... They also dance in the rings in San Basilio. This small village gave birth to one of the greatest boxers in the history of Colombia, Antonio Cervantes, alias "Kid Pambelé", who offered his first world title to the country in 1972, a title that he kept until 1976, then from 1977 to 1980...

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