Cumbia (Colombia)

Cumbia
Stylistic origins	Pre-Columbian indigenous melodies from the Caribbean region of Colombia and African rhythms.
Cultural origins	Indigenous, African and Spanish elements during the conquest and colony on the Caribbean region of Colombia.
Typical instruments	Caña de millo, gaitas (hembra, macho, corta), tambor alegre, tambor llamador, tambora, caja, guache, maracas, accordion, guacharaca, clarinet.
Derivative forms	Argentine cumbia Costa Rican Cumbia Mexican cumbia Paraguayan cumbia Peruvian cumbia Salvadoran cumbia cumbia sonidera Venezuelan cumbia Merecumbé Tecnocumbia.

Cumbia is a folkloric rhythm and dance from Colombia. It has components from three cultures, principally indigeous and Black African and, in lesser extent, white (Spanish), fruit of a long and intense interbreeding between these cultures during the Conquest and the Colony. The researcher Guillermo Abadía Morales in his "Compendium of Colombian folklore", Volume 3, # 7, published in 1962, states that "this explains the origin in the zambo conjugation of musical air by the fusion of the melancholy indigenous gaita flute or caña de millo, i.e., Tolo or Kuisí, of Kuna or Kogi ethnic groups, respectively, and the cheerful and impetuous resonance from African drums. The ethnographic council has been symbolized in the different dancing roles that correspond to each sex." The presence of these cultural elements can be appreciated thus:

• In instrumentation are the drums of African origin; maracas, guache and the whistles (caña de millo and gaitas) of indigenous origin; whereas the songs and coplas are a contribution of Spanish poetics, although adapted later.
• Presence of sensual movements, distinctly charming, seductive, characteristic of dances with African origins.
• The vestments have clear Spanish features: long polleras, lace, sequins, hoop earrings, flower headdresses and intense makeup for women; white shirt and pants, knotted red shawl around the neck and hat for men.

From the 1940s, commercial or modern cumbia spread to the rest of Latin America, after which it became popular throughout the continent following various commercial adaptations, such as Argentine cumbia, Bolivian cumbia, Chilean cumbia, Dominican cumbia, Ecuadorian cumbia, Mexican cumbia, Peruvian cumbia, Salvadoran cumbia, Uruguayan cumbia and Venezuelan cumbia, among others.

Etymology

The word cumbia has been studied by different authors that attribute different origins and meanings.

In 1930, the musicologist Narciso Garay assumed the word cumbia shares the same linguistic root of the word cumbé, a dance of African origin registered in the Diccionário de la Real Academia de la Lengua Española as "Baile de Negros" (Dance of Black people).

Colombian folklorist Delia Zapata Olivella in her publication of 1962, "La Cumbia: Síntesis Musical de la Nación Colombiana, Reseña Histórica y Coreográfica" (Cumbia: Musical Synthesis of the Colombian Nation, Historical and Choreographic Review) notes that the only word similar to cumbia present in the dictionary of the Real Academia de la Lengua Española, is cumbé "a dance of black and musical interpretation of this dance." And that cumbes (without acute accent) is used for black people living in Bata, in Spanish continental Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea).

The Colombian cultural researcher Jorge Villarreal Diazgranados in his article "La cumbia, el jolgorio y sobre todo el placer" (La cumbia, fun and above all pleasure), published in 1977 states:

Cumbia viene de Cumbague y Cumbague era la personificación del cacique indígena pocabuyano, se dice que Cumbague además de tener un carácter belicoso y audaz, debía ser un excelente bebedor de maco (chicha) porque todos los de su raza eran muy borrachos y amigos del baile y la juerga.

That can be translated as

Cumbia comes from Cumbague and Cumbague was the personification of the indigenous cacique pocabuyano, it is said that Cumbague besides having a bellicose and bold character, should have been an excellent maco (chicha) drinker because all of his race were drunks who danced and played among friends.

Musicologist and folk-researcher Guillermo Abadía Morales, in his 1977 "Compendio general de folclore colombiano" (General Compendium of Colombian folklore), says that cumbia is a shortened form of cumbancha, a word whose root is Kumba, Mandinka demonym, and adds that the Republic of the Congo was called Cumba and its king was called .

Cuban ethnologist Fernando Ortiz Fernández states that the words Kumba, Kumbe and Koumbi, replacing the letter "k" for "c" (when turned into Spanish) means "drums" or "dances". He adds that cumbé, cumbia and cumba were drums of African origin in the Antilles. On the other hand, he states that cumba - kumba, African word for Bantu or Congos tribes, means "roar", "shock", "shouting", "scandal", "joy". Manuel Zarate adds to this theory in his "Tambor y Socavón" (Drum and Tunnel), as the root of the word cumbia. Also, for Ortiz, among congos, nkumbi is a drum.

Regarding the word cumbé the 22nd version of the Diccionário of the Real Academia de la Lengua, published in 2001, it is recorded as "Danza de la Guinea Ecuatorial" (Dance of Equatorial Guinea) and "Son de esta danza" (Music of this dance).

In 2006, Colombian musician and musicologist Guillermo Carbo Ronderos said that the etymology of the word cumbia is "still controversial" and that "seems to derive from the Bantu word cumbé"

Geographical coverage

File:Ambito cumbia 2.png

Geographical coverage of Colombian cumbia.

The cumbia is present on the Caribbean coast, in the subregion around the Magdalena River delta invested, the Montes de María and riverine populations, with its epicenter in the Depresión momposina seat of ancient Pocabuy Indigenous country .

Origins

Sociologist Adolfo Gonzalez Henriquez, in his work "La música del Caribe colombiano durante la guerra de independencia y comienzos de la República" (Music of the Colombian Caribbean during the war of independence and the beginning of the Republic), includes a text of Admiral José Prudencio Padilla which records cumbiambas and indigenous gaitas during the festival of John the Baptist in the neighboring town of Arjona, a few days before the naval battle that took place in the Bahía de las Ánimas of Cartagena between the last Spanish resistance and the republican army, military confrontation that sealed the independence of Colombia:

No era noche de luna la del 18 de junio de 1821; pero la pintoresca población de Arjona ostentaba la más pura serenidad en el cielo tachonado de estrellas, y en el alegre bullicio de las gaitas y cumbiambas con que festejaban los indígenas, al abrigo de las armas republicanas, la aproximación de la celebrada fiesta de San Juan...

— Almirante José Prudencio Padilla, p. 96.

Translated as

It was a night without the one of June 18, 1821; but the picturesque town of Arjona held the purest serenity in the starry sky, and the cheerful bustle of gaitas and cumbiambas which indigenous people used for celebration, sheltered from the republican arms, held the approximation of the festival of St. John...

File:Gaiteros en el Festival del Porro, Colombia.jpg

Children playing cumbia instruments. Notice the gaita, maracas, instruments mentioned by Gosselman in his historical record.

The musician and pedagogue Luis Antonio Escobar, in the chapter "La mezcla de indio y negro" (The mixture of Indian and black) of his book "Música en Cartagena de Indias" (Music in Cartagena de Indias) takes the description of Indian dance who witnessed the navy lieutenant Swedish Carl August Gosselman in Santa Marta, and recorded in his work "Viaje por Colombia: 1825 y 1826" (Journey through Colombia: 1825 and 1826) as proof that at least in the second decade of the nineteenth century the gaita ensemble existed already in Santa Marta, the same that appears in Cartagena and other coastal cities with black musical elements that resulted in cumbia:

Por la tarde del segundo día se preparaba gran baile indígena en el pueblo. La pista era la calle, limitada por un estrecho círculo de espectadores que rodeaba a la orquesta y los bailarines.

La orquesta es realmente nativa y consiste en un tipo que toca un clarinete de bambú de unos cuatro pies de largo, semejante a una gaita, con cinco huecos, por donde escapa el sonido; otro que toca un instrumento parecido, provisto de cuatro huecos, para los que solo usa la mano derecha, pues en la izquierda tiene una calabaza pequeña llena de piedrecillas, o sea una maraca, con la que marca el ritmo. Este último se señala aún más con un tambor grande hecho en un tronco ahuecado con fuego, encima del cual tiene un cuero estirado, donde el tercer virtuoso golpea con el lado plano de sus dedos.

A los sonidos constantes y monótonos que he descrito se unen los observadores, quienes con sus cantos y palmoteos forman uno de los coros más horribles que se puedan escuchar. En seguida todos se emparejan y comienzan el baile.

Este era una imitación del fandango español, aunque daba la impresión de asemejarse más a una parodia. Tenía todo lo sensual de él pero sin nada de los hermosos pasos y movimientos de la danza española, que la hacen tan famosa y popular.

— Carl August Gosselman (1801-1843), Viaje por Colombia: 1825 y 1826.

Translated as:

In the afternoon of the second day they were preparing a large indigenous dance in the village. The dance floor was the street, bounded by a narrow circle of spectators surrounding the orchestra and dancers.

The orchestra is really native and consists of a guy who plays a bamboo clarinet about four feet long, like a gaita, with five holes, through which escapes the sound; another that plays a similar instrument, with four holes, for which he only uses his right hand because the left has a small pumpkin full of pebbles, a maraca, that sets the pace. The rhythm is marked even more with a large drum made in a hollowed trunk with fire, and above a stretched leather, where the third one virtuoso hits the flat side of his fingers.

To the constant and monotonous sounds that I have described already join the observers, who with their singing and clapping form one of the most horrible choirs that can be heard. Then all pair up and start dancing.

This was an imitation of Spanish fandango, although it seemed to be more like a parody. It had every sensual detail from the Spanish dance but without any of its beautiful steps and movements, that make it so famous and popular.

In the description of the writer José María Samper during his trip down the Magdalena River in 1879, the constituent elements of dance and music on the Magdalena River, instruments and elements of dance cumbia are identified:

"Había un ancho espacio, perfectamente limpio, rodeado de barracas, barbacoas de secar pescado, altos cocoteros y arbustos diferentes. En el centro había una grande hoguera alimentada con palmas secas, alrededor de la cual se agitaba la rueda de danzantes, y otra de espectadores, danzantes á su turno, mucho más numerosa, cerraba á ocho metros de distancia el gran círculo. Allí se confundian hombres y mujeres, viejos y muchachos, y en un punto de esa segunda rueda se encontraba la tremenda orquesta... Ocho parejas bailaban al compás del son ruidoso, monótono, incesante, de la gaita (pequeña flauta de sonidos muy agudos y con solo siete agujeros) y del tamboril, instrumento cónico, semejante á un pan de azúcar, muy estrecho, que produce un ruido profundo como el eco de un cerro y se toca con las manos á fuerza de redobles continuos. La carraca (caña de chonta, acanalada trasversalmente, y cuyo ruido se produce frotándola á compás con un pequeño hueso delgado); el triángulo de fierro, que es conocido, y el chucho ó alfandoque (caña cilíndrica y hueca, dentro de la cual se agitan multitud de pepas que, a los sacudones del artista, producen un ruido sordo y áspero como el del hervor de una cascada), se mezclaban rarísimamente al concierto. Esos instrumentos eran más bien de lujo, porque el currulao de raza pura no reconoce sino la gaita, el tamboril y la curruspa. Las ocho parejas, formadas como escuadrón en columna, iban dando la vuelta á la hoguera, cogidos de una mano, hombre y mujer, sin sombrero, llevando cada cual dos velas encendidas en la otra mano, y siguiendo todos el compás con los piés, los brazos y todo el cuerpo, con movimientos de una voluptuosidad...

Translated as:

There was a wide space, perfectly clean, surrounded by barracks, barbecues used to dry fish, tall coconut trees and various bushes. In the center there was a large bonfire fed with dry palms, around it the circle of dancers hopped, and another circle of spectators, dancers at their own turns, much larger, close to eight meters away closing the greater circle. There, men and women, old and young were confused, and at one point of that second circle was the tremendous orchestra... Eight couples danced to the beat of that loud, monotonous, incessant son of the gaita (a small flute of very high pitch and with only seven holes) and the tamboril, conical instrument like a sugar loaf, very narrow, that produces a deep sound like the echo of a hill and is played with bare hands by continuous drumbeats. The carraca (a chonta reed, corrugated transversely and whose noise is produced by rubbing a small thin bone); the triangle of iron, which is known, and the chucho or alfandoque (cylindrical and hollow reed, filled with beads that are shaken by the jolts of the artist, it produces a dull and rough sound similar to the dash of a waterfall), they were very rarely mixed in the concert. Those instruments were rather fancy, because the pure currulao knows nothing more than the gaita, the tamboril and the curruspa. The eight couples, formed as squadron in column, were turning around the bonfire, hand in hand, man and woman, hatless, carrying two burning candles each on the other hand, and following all the rhythm with their feet, arms and whole body, with movements of a voluptuousness...

In his work 'Lecturas locales (Local Readings) (1953), the barranquillero historian Miguel Goenaga barranquillero describes the cumbia and its cumbiamba circles in Barranquilla around 1888:

"El poeta y escritor Julio N. Galofre le cantó a la Cumbiamba; y al repasar yo esos cuartetos, que se publicarán alguna vez, me vienen a la memoria recuerdos de la niñez, cuando la popular mujer barranquillera, llamada La Cañón, ponía sus grandes ruedas de cumbiamba, allá por el año 1888, en las 4 esquinas de la calle Bolívar, callejón de California (hoy 20 de Julio), a donde concurría mucho público a ver la voluptuosidad del baile y el ritmo hondo y vigoroso de tambores, flautas y guarachas... Esto sí es cosa de la vieja Barranquilla, como resuena también en mis oídos el comienzo de un canto popular, cuando un señor Carrasquilla tenía en competencia otra cumbia por el barrio arriba, como entonces llamaban la parte sur de la ciudad:
Corre, corre, que te tumba la Cañón.

— Miguel Goenaga, Lecturas locales (1953), p. 396.

Translated as:

"The poet and writer Julio N. Galofre sang to the Cumbiamba; and I review those quartets, to be published sometime, it comes to mind memories of my childhood, when the barranquillera popular woman, called La Cañón, created her huge cumbiamba circles back in 1888, at the 4 corners of Bolivar street, California alley (today 20 de Julio). A large audience attended to see the voluptuousness of the dance and deep and vigorous rhythm of drums, flutes and guarachas... This is a thing of the old Barranquilla, as it resounds in my ears the beginning of a popular song, when a Mr. Carrasquilla had another competing cumbia up the neighborhood, as it was then shout in the southern part of the city:
run, run, or your knock down by La Cañón.

Controversy

The origin of cumbia has been the subject of argument between those who attribute an indigenous ethno-musical origin, geographically located in the region of Depression Momposina and those who argue the thesis of origin black African in Cartagena or even in Africa itself. The first, represented by personalities like the composer José Barros, writers like Jocé G. Daniels, sociologists like Orlando Fals Borda and historians as Gnecco Rangel Pava, and the latter by the folklorist Delia Zapata Olivella.

File:Casa de jose barros sede de la corporacion festival de la cumbia.JPG

House of the composer José Barros at El Banco, Magdalena.

In 1998, in his article "La cumbia, emperadora del Pocabuy" (La cumbia, Empress of Pocabuy) the writer Jocé G. Daniels theorizes that the cumbia was "el aliciente espiritual de los indios" (the spiritual attraction of the Indians) to associate the flutes used in the celebrations of the Chimilas, pocigueycas and pocabuyes in the territories of the current populations of Guamal, Ciénaga and El Banco, with the primitive cumbia gaita, based on the report sent by the perpetual governor Lope de Orozco to the king in 1580, about the Province of Santa Marta, which recounts that "los yndios i yndias veben y asen fiestas con una caña a manera de flauta que se meten en la boca para tañer y producen una mucica como mui trayda del infierno" (The Indians drink and party with a cane that is used as a flute, which they put in their mouths to be played and that produces a music that seems to come from the very hell) (sic).

The banqueño songwriter Antonio Garcia presented in 1997 the following theory about the birth of cumbia: "Las tribus dedicadas a la pesca y la agricultura, en sus rituales fúnebres, especialmente cuando moría algún miembro de la alta jerarquía de la tribu, todos los miembros se reunían al caer la noche alrededor de una fogata, en el centro del círculo se colocaba a una mujer embarazada que era símbolo de la nueva vida, quien iniciaba una danza con el ritmo suave y melancólico de la flauta de millo, esta ceremonia se prolongaba por varias horas y terminaba por sumir en el más grande éxtasis a todos los que estaban allí reunidos y así nació la cumbia" (The tribes engaged in fishing and agriculture, in their funeral rituals, especially when someone in the hierarchy of the tribe died, gathered all members at nightfall around a campfire in the center of the circle stood a pregnant woman who was a symbol of new life, who started a dance with the soft and melancholic rhythm from flute of millo, this ceremony was prolonged for several hours and ended up plunging into the greatest ecstasy to all who were gathered there and cumbia was born). At the same meeting, José Barros said, product of the oral tradition received from the Indians: "The cumbia was born in funeral ceremonies that Chimillas Indians celebrated in the country of Pocabuy when one of its leaders died" (La cumbia nació en las ceremonias fúnebres que los indios Chimillas celebraban en el país de Pocabuy cuando moría uno de sus jerarcas). Barros also holds in relation to dance: "The idea of dancing in a circular motion has to do with the custom of the Chimilas Indians who danced around the coffin of one of their leaders, what they did counter-clockwise, what meant one-way trip). Daniels adds that the musical airs related to the origin of the cumbia "had their peak between Chymilas, Pocigueycas (Ponqueycas) and Pocabuyes, i.e., in the actual populations of Guamal, Cienaga and El Banco. Cumbia reached its development with the elements provided by Bemba colorá blacks and whites, cunning and canny.".

To researchers of indigenous cultures, the ethno-musical mixture that gives rise to the cumbia occurs during the Colony in the native country of Pocabuy (current populations of El Banco, Guamal, Menchiquejo and San Sebastian in the Magdalena, Chiriguaná and Tamalameque in the Cesar and Mompox, Chilloa, Chimi and Guataca in Bolívar Department) located in the current Caribbean region of Colombia, in the upper valley of Magdalena region the Mompox Depression (including the cultures of La Sabana (Sucre),La Sabana and the Sinú River, north to Pincoya), product of the musical and cultural fusion of Indigenous, Afro-Colombian slaves and, on a lesser extent, of Spaniards, as referred by it historians Orlando Fals Borda in his book Mompox y Loba, and Gnecco Rangel Pava in his books El País de Pocabuy and Aires Guamalenses. The Pocabuy are mentioned in several recordings, although the most famous mention corresponds to the chorus of the song "Cumbia de la paz" (Cumbia of peace) recorded by "Chico" Cervantes:

Ritual sublime de los Pocabuy,
en la rueda de la cumbia
se despedían de los bravos guerreros
que allí morían,
que allí morían
en la paz de la cumbia...

translated as:

Sublime rite of the Pocabuy people,
at the cumbia circle
they gave farewells to brave warriors
who died there,
who died there
in the peace of cumbia...

Fals Borda notes:

1. REDIRECT Template:Blockquote

translated as:

The cumbia was born in the country of Pocabuy formed by El Banco, Chiriguaná, Mompox, Tamalameque, Guamal and Chimi. Pocabuy was an indigenous country that extended throughout the Tucurinca river (current Magdalena).

For the writer Jocé G. Daniels, is "ironic" that people have "tried to foist a Kumbé Bantú origin to cumbia." Researchers question that if the cumbia came from African rhythms, in other parts of America where blacks came from all over Africa as slaves, as the United States, there should be cumbia, or at least something similar. J. Barros says, "cumbia does not have a single hint of Africa. That's easy to check: the United States, which received so many thousands of black Africans does not have anything like cumbia in its folkloric manifestations. The same happens with the Antillean countries. I wonder why if the cumbia is African and entered through La Boquilla, like Manuel and Delia Zapata Olivella Dsay, in Puerto Tejada, for example, where there are also black people, and throughout the Pacific, cumbia is not a rhythm or appears in compositions ... I, who have been in contact with Pocabuyanos Indians since I was eight, who have had the opportunity since I was a child to interact with indigenous wome of 80 to 90 years telling her ritual, the cumbia ritual, I can certify the above, that the cumbia appeared every time the cacique died and they danced around the dead."

In turn, the Africanists place the emergence of the cumbia to contact the black slaves with Indians in ports like Cartagena, Ciénaga, Santa Marta and Riohacha, mainly in the first, during the celebrations of the Virgen de la Candelaria. The Afro-Colombianists dispute the origin of cumbia, and the place it Cartagena.

Some authors assume that the black element in cumbia comes from cumbé, a bantu rhythm and dance from Bioko island Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. The Africans who arrived as slaves to those regions, to tell the story of their ethnic groups and those famous deeds worthy to be stored in memory, used certain songs that they called areítos, which means "dance singing": putting up candles, they sang the coreo which was like the historical lesson that, after being heard and repeated many times, remained in the memory of all listeners. The center of the circle was occupied by those who gave the lesson singing and those more proficient in handling guacharacas, millos, drums and maracas, to sing with delicacy the music of those songs that suffer a transformation, with time, from being elegiac to exciting, gallant, complainant and amusing.

References

• Abadía, Guillermo. Compendio general del folclor colombiano. 1983 4a ed., rev. y acotada. 547 p.: ill.; 22 cm. Bogotá: Fondo de Promoción de la Cultura del Banco Popular. (3. ed en 1977).
• Davidson, Harry. Diccionario folclórico de Colombia. Tomo III. Banco de la República, Bogotá, 1970.
• Ocampo, Javier. Música y folclor de Colombia. Enciclopedia Popular Ilustrada, No. 5. Bogotá, Plaza y Janés. 2000. ISBN 958-14-0009-5.
• Revista Colombiana de Folclore. No. 7, Vol. III. Bogotá, 1962.
• Ballanoff, Paul A. Origen de la cumbia Breve estudio de la influencia intercultural en Colombia. América lndígena 31, no 1: 45-49. 1971.
• Zapata Olivella, Delia. La cumbia, síntesis musical de la Nación colombiana. Reseña histórica y coreográfica. Revista Colombiana de Folclor 3, no. 7:187-204. 1962
• Rangel Pava, Gnecco. Aires guamalenses. Kelly, 1948.
• Pombo Hernándes, Gerardo. Kumbia, legado cultural de los indígenas del Caribe colombiano. Editorial Antillas, 1995.

External references

• Report about flauta de millo, by Plinio Parra