Development Cooperation Handbook/Stories/Muisca Indigenous Heritage

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Recommencing from the ancestral call for a universal identity
Bogota', Colombia , May 2011
Project managed by the Secretaría de Integración Social of the Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá

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⇒ [http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTzY9kTw5ufmn65JEvyaJ80Bp75zEQizL Muisca Heritage

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We went to visit the community centre of Cabildo de Bosa, on the periphery of Bogotá, where activities of education and nutrition security go alongside the rediscovery of ancestral values and the re-establishment of cultural identities.

An estimated 30 million people lived in South America before a series of official documents or papal bulls, as they are called, were issued by the Pope between 1452 and 1493 whereby Christian monarchs were authorised to take possession of non-Christian lands. This paved the way for the European colonisation of the Americas. Since the 1530s, both people and the natural resources of South America have been mercilessly exploited by the conquistadors and ethnic Americans have been massacred by wars, new diseases and forced labor.

The Spaniards forcibly or amicably converted the survivors to Christianity and as a result native religions got largely wiped out of South America. Although indigenous and mestizos populations suffered social exclusion and even self-inflicted inferiority complexes, still they preserved the ancestral values hidden within, in a secret receptory of their personality. However, now this spiritual heritage is becoming an unexpected resource for a cultural and political regeneration.

The Government of Bogotá formally recognises the importance of cultural diversity and, through its Department of Social Integration, it supports minority ethnic groups, indigenous as well as of African origin, in their effort to re-establish traditional institutions. In the community of Cabildo de Bosa, the recovery of ancestral memory goes along with increased political participation and community service in education and food security.

One of the principles that animate the recovery of ancestral memory is that spiritual values are universal and that all civilisations must cooperate in restoring the human richness we have lost by following a predatory and exploitative model of development. The political implications of rediscovering spiritual values go beyond the local communities that are animating workshops for reviving ancestral memory. In Colombia, intercultural dialogue and reconciliation are proving to be regenerative not only for indigenous groups, but also for all those trying to embark on a new path back to one's own lost soul.