Kombilesa Mi

Kombilesa Mi comes from San Basilio de Palenque, a town in the northern coastal region of Colombia, which was founded in the 17th century by the first free slaves (cimarrones) in the Americas. It has pioneered a distinctive blend of Afro-Colombian culture. The locals speak their own creole language, ‘Palenquero’, a mixture of African Bantu, Portuguese dialects, French and English.

Kombilesa Mi experiments with the instruments created by their ancestors (and introduced to them when they were young), interspersing them with new sounds. They rhyme and rap in Spanish, and in traditional Palenquero over traditional percussion, handmade steel drums of their own design and marimbula. The band has performed in wonderful venues in recent years such as Kennedy Center (NY), Tiny Desk NPR, Petronio Alvarez Festival (Cali), COP16 (Cali).

June 2025 will be the first time Kombilesa Mi brings their music to Canada. As heirs and responsible for their cultural legacy, the band's purpose, in addition to opening a new bridge of exchange for Palenquero music, is to create a space where they can transmit their messages of resistance, style and Afro-Colombian Cimarron identity. Their shows can be accompanied by workshops on turbans and braiding to share with the multi-ethnic and multicultural Canadian community.