Manuel Zapata Olivella: Contemporary Reflections on Muntu Philosophy, Political Literature and Latin American Triethnicity

Abstract

This essay presents a complex view of the intercultural thought of Manuel Zapata Olivella. Three central points in his intellectual work are discussed based on fields such as anthropology, philosophy, and literary studies: Muntu philosophy, political literature, and Colombian and Latin American triethnicity, in which he was a pioneer and pillar. His ideas are approached resorting to the hermeneutics of his most representative works, such as Changó, el gran putas, La calle 10, and El hombre colombiano, based on which a documentary work is elaborated from an anthropological, literary, and philoso-phical perspective in order to approach his work from the three aspects he proposed. The article shows that there are historical-social keys to understanding Colombian society, evident from African conceptualizations such as Muntú (the human being articulated to creation). It also offers an understanding of the paradigm of multiculturalism based on the perspective of African traditions in the formation of the nation-state in Colombia. The study concludes that, despite their silencing and cultural invisibilization, Afro-Colombian populations have made their presence felt in the national intellectual, literary, and historical-social world; that the phenomenon of identity and ethnic, linguistic, religious, and musical diversity are the key that has defined Colombia; and that works such as those of Zapata Olivella were fundamental to placing the Afro-Colombian population in the academic and political arena, understanding them as a central subject in the formation of the nation-state.