Local Music, the Construction of Peace, and Post-Conflict: The Case of Libertad (Sucre)

Abstract

Libertad, a coastal Afro-Colombian Caribbean town, was the target of a paramilitary occupation between 1996 and 2004. When the collective reparation plan for this community was designed in 2007, it included initiatives to recuperate local music (such as the bullerengue) and other cultural expressions, based on the belief that they were historical tools used to strengthen social cohesion. Weakened as a consequence of warfare, these practices are strong today, for local musicians have rescued them and also transformed them strategically to create new expressions that resonate with contemporary urban and popular aesthetics, exemplifying local mechanisms that embrace post-conflict situations by creatively generating connection and empathy.