Peinados de libertad

Buenaventura is a city located by the Cauca valley and is considered the gateway of the Colombian Pacific. It is estimated that over 60% of the country´s economy enters and leaves through its port, which is why it tries to be controlled by criminal gangs. Many of these violent groups were formed following the demobilization of the militiaman forces between 2002 and 2006.

Near the port there is a very humble area called La Playita. Most of its population are Afro-Colombians, who continue to keep alive the traditions of the Naya River from which they come from. Walking on this area is a constant look back to its origins: soil roads crowded with animals, wooden houses build with pile dwellings on water, boats and canoes to fish, palms, coconuts and children playing. A great contrast to the urban landscape of other streets of the city.

The violence has left an invisible footprint difficult to wash out. Over the past few years, criminal gangs have terrorized neighbors with «pique» houses in which people were quartered in daylight. The situation became so unbearable that the neighbors began to organize to expel the violent groups and build a better Buenaventura.

The residents of the “Espacio Humanitario Puente Nayero” are the first civil association that managed to expel the paramilitaries from their streets, on April 13th, 2013.

The most inspiring element for us was the meaning of women’s hairstyle. The ability to create a language of its own that beyond the aesthetic allows people to send coded messages to those who understand it. They tell us how the designs of braids made in slavery times were actually maps that indicated the escape routes to freedom. They also teated us how some of them have subsequently served to show aspects of daily life, representing a legacy of culture, resistance and identity that is strengthened day after day.

Together with the neighbors, we reflect on the most important concepts that make Puente Nayero a unique community in the world. Values such as temperance, freedom, fight or union, are the present basis to build a solid future. And they are the ones we represent through shapes and colors extracted from their hairstyles, creating a new code to communicate.