LA PLAYITA

Buenaventura is a city located in the Cauca Valley and is considered the gateway to the Colombian Pacific. It is estimated that 60% of the country's economy enters and leaves through its port, which is why it is trying to be controlled by criminal gangs. Many of these violent groups were formed after the demobilization of the paramilitaries 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. Walking through there is like walking through its origins: dirt roads with animals running free, wooden houses raised on stilts over the water, boats and canoes for fishing, palm trees, coconuts and children playing. A great contrast with the urban landscape of other streets in the city.

FIGHT AGAINST VIOLENCE

The violence has left a mark that is difficult to erase. In recent years, criminal gangs have terrorized residents with “chop houses” where people are dismembered alive in broad daylight. The situation became so unbearable that residents began to organize to expel the violent people and build a better Buenaventura.

The inhabitants of the “Nayero Bridge Humanitarian Space” They are the first civil association that managed to expel the paramilitaries from their streets, on April 13, 2013.

THE LANGUAGE OF HAIR

The element that has inspired us the most is the meaning of women's hairstyles. The ability to create a language of their own that, beyond aesthetics, allows them to send coded messages to those who use them. They tell us how the hairstyle designs made in the era of slavery were actually maps that indicated the escape routes to freedom. Or how they have subsequently served to show everyday aspects of daily life, representing a legacy of culture, resistance and identity that grows stronger day after day.

Image by Okhai Ojeikere

OUR OWN DIALOGUE

Together with the neighbours, we reflect on the most important concepts that make Puente Nayero a unique community in the world. Values ​​such as temperance, freedom, struggle and unity are the basis of the present to build a solid future. And they are the ones we represent through shapes and colours taken from their hairstyles, creating a new code with which to communicate.