Explore Black History

ca. 2006-2008

CAPTION:
In 2006, a group of women in Mampuján, Colombia formed a textile collective in the aftermath of a devastating paramilitary attack. The collective draws upon Afro-Caribbean storytelling and local textile art traditions, to create tapestries that document their history and the atrocities their community has suffered, past and present. The community Mampuján, one of 20 historical Palenques or maroon settlements formed by escapees in Colombia, has faced violence throughout its existence, from colonial extermination campaigns in the 16th and 17th centuries to the paramilitary attack. Sewing tapestries is one method women from this community have used to address and heal from trauma.
This tapestry, Libertad (Freedom), depicts the self-emancipatory founding of the Mampuján Palenque by formerly enslaved peoples in Colombia. From the artist's statement:
This work has a blue sky with white and various mountains that represent cold or hot climates--that is to say that slavery had no limits. The woman's body is synonymous with freedom. On a little boat, she carries the shadow of a baby up from her head to symbolize her fervent desire for freedom.
Around them are shadows of people who show desire to escape from something, from a threat, from the slavers, from the war of evil.
It demonstrates how to leave behind the painful past and move on to see a path to freedom with the new generations that can have political, economic, social and cultural rights without domination. — Juana Alicia Ruiz.
The Mampuján tapestries have been displayed in museums in Colombia, including a piece on permanent display at the National Museum of Bogota and in the Mampuján museum newly opened in 2023. In 2015, the weaving collective won the Premio Nacional de la Paz award, an important peace prize in Colombia for their community organization and projects around the sewing collective.

One (1) cotton quilt tapestry, Libertad (Freedom), crafted by Mujeres Tejedoras de Mampuján (The Weavers of Mampuján), circa 2006 to 2008.
The tapestry is vertically oriented with a red cotton border, and depicts a scene constructed of colorful pieces of cloth shaped and sewn together in a storytelling display. At the top of the tapestry is the title in Spanish [LIBERTAD] in red cloth. The tapestry depicts a scene of a small boat in blue water in front of a multicolored mountain range beneath a blue and white sky. The high peaks of the mountains are created by patterned fabrics of yellow and white, purple, black floral, yellow snakeskin, orange and white rings, and glittering mauve. Below the mountains on the left are two different sequin pieces, one beige and black and the second purple and black. Below the mountains on the right is a cactus-patterned cloth. At the center is the purple mountain with a large rounded bright tan beach below it. A palm tree, with an ikat patterned strip of cloth for the trunk, intersects the beach from the right. An outline of black birds in flight are depicted above the beach on the left.
Below the mountains taking up the bottom half of the tapestry, is a blue ocean with a green boat at the center of it. Inside of the boat is a black woman figure standing and raising a black baby figure in the air. There are pieces of gold links sewn as broken chains around the woman figure’s wrists. There are three smaller black figures in the boat beside her and three more in the water surrounding the boat, including one with a baby on her back. Blue and turquoise sequins representative of seafoam are sewn below the black figures that surround the green boat. On the left of the tapestry is an embroidered strand of leaves made of green velvety cloth. The reverse of the tapestry is red cotton.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Textiles and Quilts

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Juana Alicia Ruiz Hernandez, Mujeres Tejedoras de mampujan

National Museum of African American History and Culture

2024.2.3

tapestries

© Women Weavers of Mampujan
Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.

cotton and linen with batting and thread

H x W x D: 39 1/4 × 41 × 1/8 in. (99.7 × 104.1 × 0.3 cm)

Title • Libertad

nmaahc_2024.2.3

NMAAHC

LIBERTAD

National Museum of African American History and Culture

CC0

2010s • 2000s

Mujeres Tejedoras de Mampuján • Hernandez, Juana Alicia Ruiz

South America • Mampuján • Montes de María • Colombia • Bolívar • Latin America

African diaspora • Slavery • Women • Self-liberation • Free communities of color • Freedom

African Americans • Africans

City • Mampuján • County • Montes de María • State • Bolívar • Country • Colombia • Region • Latin America • Continent • South America

Images

Limited Use