Theses defended
Estar presente, performar memorias: Luchas y construcciones de vida de jóvenes afrochocoanos en Quibdó, Chocó, Colombia
February 23, 2026
Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship
Marisa Ramos Gonçalves
The present doctoral thesis explores what it means to be young in Quibdó - capital of the Chocó department in the Colombian Pacific -, having been born in a context of war and at the crossroads of multiple historical exclusions. The research looks at how, from the prism of youth agency, Afro-Colombian youth in Quibdó face their daily lives, and how, despite war and death, they build life and contribute to the construction of society and the imagination of futures. Through a productive combination of youth, memory and performance studies, this study approaches youth realities based on the memory practices of Afro-Colombian young people in Quibdó. These include discourses, commemorations, protests, rituals and artistic practices that (re)produce, mobilize, articulate, (re)signify and transform the memories of young people related to war, violence and the systematic murders of youth in the city.
Taking a multi-situated position, the research listens to Afro-Colombian young people in Quibdó through an ethnography of memory practices of youth artistic collectives in the streets and the city's dance and theater spaces. Faced with the systematic murder of young people, youth collectives engage in practices of confronting death, remembering and dignifying the victims. Burials and performances take to the streets to transform them into ritual spaces of memory and collective mourning, of care for the dead and of construction of life, which include a dimension of denouncement and dignity claim. On the other hand, for the youth collectives, dance and theater are creative life forces in the midst of a context marked by war. Dance becomes a voice to express embodied memories, questioning the colonial gaze that objectifies racialized bodies. Dance acquires a political dimension of claiming the dignity and creative presence of young Afro-Colombians. Similarly, theater in Quibdó responds to the daily experiences of young people, activating their memories. These memories are shared and collectivized in the practice of theater, which also allows the respectful embodiment of others' memories, mobilizing the relational capacity of memory that becomes a bridge between the individual and the collective, between past, present and future.
The different memory practices of Afro-Colombian young people addressed in the present thesis, are not only practices of voice, denunciation and life, but are also configured as pedagogies of presence (Mbembe 2015), claiming the existence, agency and dignity of Afro-Colombian youths. The study of these practices contributes to complexify the existing analyses on the Colombian Pacific, and to understand the continuities between different long-lasting forms of structural exclusion that go beyond the so-called Colombian armed conflict and that need to be addressed in order to imagine and build inclusive alternatives for a future in dignity. The creative agency of young people - their presence - challenges society in general, demanding a space in the Colombian political present and radical transformations for possible futures.
Keywords: Chocó; racialized youths; memory practices; pedagogies of presence; transitions
Public Defence date
Doctoral Programme
Supervision
Abstract
Taking a multi-situated position, the research listens to Afro-Colombian young people in Quibdó through an ethnography of memory practices of youth artistic collectives in the streets and the city's dance and theater spaces. Faced with the systematic murder of young people, youth collectives engage in practices of confronting death, remembering and dignifying the victims. Burials and performances take to the streets to transform them into ritual spaces of memory and collective mourning, of care for the dead and of construction of life, which include a dimension of denouncement and dignity claim. On the other hand, for the youth collectives, dance and theater are creative life forces in the midst of a context marked by war. Dance becomes a voice to express embodied memories, questioning the colonial gaze that objectifies racialized bodies. Dance acquires a political dimension of claiming the dignity and creative presence of young Afro-Colombians. Similarly, theater in Quibdó responds to the daily experiences of young people, activating their memories. These memories are shared and collectivized in the practice of theater, which also allows the respectful embodiment of others' memories, mobilizing the relational capacity of memory that becomes a bridge between the individual and the collective, between past, present and future.
The different memory practices of Afro-Colombian young people addressed in the present thesis, are not only practices of voice, denunciation and life, but are also configured as pedagogies of presence (Mbembe 2015), claiming the existence, agency and dignity of Afro-Colombian youths. The study of these practices contributes to complexify the existing analyses on the Colombian Pacific, and to understand the continuities between different long-lasting forms of structural exclusion that go beyond the so-called Colombian armed conflict and that need to be addressed in order to imagine and build inclusive alternatives for a future in dignity. The creative agency of young people - their presence - challenges society in general, demanding a space in the Colombian political present and radical transformations for possible futures.
Keywords: Chocó; racialized youths; memory practices; pedagogies of presence; transitions