Festival de la Cultura Wayuu

Festival Types:
Indigenous festival

By Lorraine Caputo

The three-day Festival de la Cultura Wayuu draws participants from both Colombia and Venezuela. In Uribia’s plaza, three-sided huts called enramadas exhibit weavings and townsfolk serve gastronomic delights. In the evenings are various programs, like the yonna, a dance performed for socially or spiritually important occasions; its different movements are named for the region’s fauna. In other events, contestants out-vie each other in jayeishi, a sung poem relating personal experiences and Wayuu culture, and in the playing of such traditional instruments as kasha (a drum made of goat or cow hide), totoroy (flute) and wahawai (a wind instrument that imitates birdsong). The festival’s culmination is the election of the Majayut, or queen, who must demonstrate a profound knowledge of Wayuu traditions.

For an explanation (in Spanish) of the yonna and other dances and the music of the festival (in Spanish), visit: www.colombia.com/turismo/ferias_fiestas/2003/mayo/cultura.asp.