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E<\/span>very year, hundreds of Afro-Colombians climb into wooden boats and set sail down the Yurumangu\u00ed River. They navigate dense rainforest, scramble through mangroves, and battle charging river currents, to disembark about 12 hours later in the remote village of Juntas.<\/p>\n It is here that they reunite and gather for an ancestral ritual: the Manacillos festival.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a story that needs to be told,\u201d says Ever Andr\u00e9s Mercado, a local photographer. \u201cIt\u2019s a story about peace, about resilience, about resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n The Afro-descendant community of Yurumangu\u00ed traces its roots to enslaved Africans who were brought to mine gold between the 17th and 19th centuries. They have lived there ever since, working in the fields and artisanal mines, caring for the land, and fishing for food. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a small paradise,\u201d says Mercado. \u201cThere is no exploitation, only the river and the forest.\u201d<\/p>\n People living in the Juntas village of Yurumangu\u00ed use the festival as a way to unite and attract more people who, for years, had to flee the territory.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Yet while the 13 settlements scattered along the river remain home to approximately 4,000 people, in recent decades thousands more inhabitants have fled, driven away by economic instability and state neglect, or escaping violence inflicted by armed groups. Local people fear that if they do not take a stand, their way of life will vanish.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have lived here for more than 350 years, and this has been the most difficult time ever experienced,\u201d said Delio Valencia Renter\u00eda, 36, leader of the Yurumangu\u00ed River Basin Community Council. \u201cMultinationals and armed groups come to the territory to plunder, to undo what we have taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n This practice enabled Juntas to bring together about 1,500 people in 2025 who had not seen one another for years because of violence, according to Valencia Renter\u00eda. For a community with no more than 800 inhabitants, it was the highest number of people in the village in recent years.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Despite facing intimidation, each year families return to this vast, inhospitable region of the Colombian Pacific, to reaffirm their claim to the land and their ancestral traditions.<\/p>\n \u201cThey return home because they want to send a message that, despite the problems they have faced, they will always come back to the territory to protect it. They say they are the only ones who can,\u201d says Mercado.<\/p>\n Most of those who have migrated live in the cities of Buenaventura and Cali, and so the celebration \u2013 which takes place during Holy Week and is planned over several months \u2013 begins first and foremost with grand family reunions. The streets are adorned with palm leaves, and hand-woven costumes are donned. Slogans painted on walls read \u201cour territory is not for sale\u201d, while each person commits to not working, resting or sleeping for three nights.<\/p>\n Kilinito, pictured, is carried by two people due to exhaustion. The four-day celebration is so demanding that no one rests, especially the female singers and the Manacillos, who begin to fall asleep while singing and dancing in the streets of the village as they wait for each day\u2019s activities to begin.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The people dressed in white represent the souls of their ancestors and loved ones who gave their lives for the lands. Every element of the Manacillos\u2019 clothing is crafted with great attention to detail. The men, young and old, build custom-made masks with wood from local trees.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n A group of 40 men known as the Manacillos \u2013 said to represent the spirits of those who punished Jesus \u2013 secure their custom-made masks and tie whips to their waists. They stage a symbolic clash, attacking the community who seek to protect Jesus. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first act of resistance,\u201d says Mercado.<\/p>\n Afterwards, the celebration turns to traditional preservation methods and defending the geographically isolated territory. Songs<\/a>, passed down generation to generation, are sung outside each house, celebrating abundance, denouncing violence, and calling for protection of the land. Beating drums reverberate down the streets.<\/a><\/p>\n Today, the community is being forced to defend the territory \u201ctooth and nail\u201d, says Valencia Renter\u00eda.<\/p>\n Alongside illegal loggers and goldminers, narco-traffickers are vying for control of the land, drawn by its geostrategic location \u2013 the river runs straight to the Pacific Ocean. With no state presence, the land is also coveted for coca cultivation, the plant needed to make cocaine.<\/p>\n \u201cThe territory is the backbone of a people, it is our life, and life is not for sale; it is loved and defended,\u201d says Valencia Renter\u00eda.<\/p>\n A man poses and shows the chains he carries with him: among them, a gold weapon that has worn away, a cross and a red-and-black necklace used for prayers, although some people associate it with the colour of an armed group.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n That defence comes at a cost. In November 2021, two community leaders, Abencio Caicedo and Edinson Valencia, were kidnapped and disappeared<\/a>, prompting two years of mourning and a pause in the festival. It returned in 2024, tentatively. Last year, attendance surged to an estimated 1,500.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were disappeared because they weren\u2019t afraid. They fought against the use of psychoactive substances, illicit crops, and illegal mining,\u201d said Valencia Renter\u00eda.<\/p>\n An important part of the celebration takes place during the first nights of the festival, when the residents of Juntas and visitors spend the night away from their homes, with the community sleeping in the village church.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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