Colombia - Ecuador - Marimba music, traditional chants and dances from the Colombia South Pacific region and Esmeraldas Province of Ecuador

Marimba music and traditional chants and dances are musical expressions integral to the family and community fabric of people of African descent in the Colombian South Pacific region and Esmeraldas Province of Ecuador. Chanted stories and poems are performed by men and women at ritual, religious and festive events as a celebration of life, a form of worship to saints or as a farewell to the deceased, and are accompanied by rhythmic movements of the body. The marimba music is played on a palm wood xylophone with bamboo tube resonators, accompanied by drums and maracas. The element is rooted in family and daily activities and the community as a whole is considered the bearer and practitioner, irrespective of age or gender. Elderly people play a crucial role in transmitting legends and stories from oral tradition, while music teachers oversee the transmission of musical knowledge to new generations. Marimba music and traditional chants and dances promote symbolic exchanges that include food and drink. Each of these expressions facilitates family and collective integration through ancestral practices that heighten the sense of belonging to a particular group connected to a shared territory and history.

Ecuador - Peru - Oral heritage and cultural manifestations of the Zápara people

Ecuador - Pasillo, song and poetry

The pasillo is a type of music and dance that emerged in Ecuador in the nineteenth century, during the South American independence wars. It is a fusion of elements of indigenous music, such as the yaraví, with a complex variety of musical genres including the waltz, the minuet and the Spanish bolero. The pasillo, which means ‘small step’, is danced in short steps by a couple. A product of urban culture, it is performed in ballroom dances, public ceremonies, festivals, radio and television programmes, and outdoor concerts. It is a dynamic, ever-evolving practice that can be performed by soloists, duos, trios and ensembles. Usually accompanied by guitars and the requinto, a high-pitched guitar, it is essentially a musicalized poem, with lyrics relating to love, heartbreak, life, death, family, homeland and the daily life of the people. To Ecuadorians, the pasillo is an identity marker and a symbol of their connection with the homeland, and with time, has become a form of collective expression. The music is performed by men and women and transmitted from generation to generation within families, in formal training centres, and through street musicians and popular or municipal bands.