Between Sound and Poetic Word: Bullerengue as an Intermedial Device of Afro-Caribbean Vindication amid the Syncretic Dynamics of the Black Atlantic

Abstract

Bullerengue, a Caribbean cultural-musical expression of African roots, functions as an intermedial device of Afro-Caribbean affirmation within the hybrid and syncretic dynamics of the Black Atlantic. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework that combines intermediality studies, theories of Afro-diasporic hybridity, and approaches to performative memory, this study examines literary and musical texts from the Colombian Caribbean in dialogue with these sung dance traditions. Textual and contextual analyses reveal how bullerengue, through its ritual, corporeal, and oral dimensions, articulates poetry, music, and the body as interconnected media of memory and anti-racist resistance. The construction of Afro-Colombian identity by pioneering intellectuals such as Jorge Artel and Manuel Zapata Olivella draws on this cultural expression, which resurfaces in the contemporary poetics of Solmery Cásseres Estrada and the lyrics of Kombilesa Mi. Bullerengue thus emerges as a living archive of cultural continuity, with the Afro-feminine body re-signifying the past and projecting translocal Afro-descendant identities through performance.