Nidia Góngora

A champion of Colombia’s Pacific coast Afro-Colombian cultural heritage, Nidia Góngora highlights a folk genre known as curralao, which is performed with marimba and percussion. At the same time, she builds bridges between the acoustic, folkloric repertoire of her home culture of Timbiquí, in Colombia, and other world music genres. Nidia says, “Timbiquí’s traditional music is a sound that comes from the jungle, and the sea, it’s a sound that represents the natural elements. So we have the marimba de chonta [a percussion instrument], which sounds like rain, we have the bombo and the cununo [Indigenous percussion instruments], which are drums that represent the thunder, the strength, and power that inhabits the jungle. All of them are made with materials found there. That’s why the music made in the Pacific region is always reminding us that we live amongst nature, and we have to live in harmony with it. Singing is also part of that, women learn to harmonize, and through singing collectively, our voices preserve an ancestral oral tradition.” The result is “a dancefloor-ready intercultural dialogue” (grammy.com).