Reinhabiting Daily Life: The Women of Pogue and the Power of Song as a Political Tool

Abstract

The alabaos are songs traditionally used in funeral rituals within the afroatrateñas communities, however, they have been transformed over time due to the fragmentation generated by the armed internal conflict in Colombia. From this premise, I delve into the identity narratives that have led to these sound reconfigurations, wondering about the ways in which the song has become a political tool to make these everyday spaces hit by the war rehabitable through the constitution of political community. I use as an ethnographic anchor throughout this exploratory approach two narratives: a written and a cinematographic one, through which the experience of the alabaoras from Pogue has been portrayed in the last decade.

Keywords: alabaos, territory, women, identity, armed conflict, cultural transformation.