Past, present, and future of Palenquero creole

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the current usage of the creole language of Palenque. To properly contextualize the topic in time and space, the study presents various aspects of Palenquero language and culture, linking them with the history and language use of other Afro-Colombian communities. I present an overview of Palenque’s oral history, which is then assessed in light of colonial archival records. Thereafter, attention is turned to the genesis and composition of the creole, in an effort to demonstrate that it must be considered a Neo-Romance vernacular, regardless of its rather minor linguistic African legacy. That legacy is traceable to a single sub-Saharan language, i.e. Kikongo. An attempt is made to offer a hypothesis for the unexpected uniformity of this African substrate. The sociolinguistic description of Palenque’s creole and Spanish bilingualism is at the core of this study. An effort is made to describe Palenqueros’ self-perception of their past and current language use. I claim that today’s relatively small proportion of fluent creole speakers, and the teaching of Palenquero as an L2 in Palenque’s secondary school, are two outward signs that the prospects for the creole’s survival are slim. This I argue in spite of recent community-based efforts to revitalize the creole, which has received support from UNESCO’s declaration in 2008 of Palenque as “Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity.” Finally, a theoretical analysis of orality, oral literature and “orature” will lead to a proposal to revitalize the use of the creole language.

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