The notions of "negritude" and, at minor grade, "Africa", have had a cultural and political importance during the Colombian history since the XIX century. These terms and their different lexical variations have changed historically, according to several social factors, where play the racial, social class and gender hierarchies. In this article the autor does an analysis of the musical s associated to "negro people", constantly seen by non-black people as "primitive" but, at the same time, as "exciting". Therefore, the main content of this article is the analysis of the terms "Africa" and "negritude" through Colombian popular music between the decades of 1920s to 1950s, in particular the music from the Caribbean Coast, although these terms are studied in relation to the mestizo cross-bred ideology. It describes the phenomenon of nationalization of popular music s (cumbia and porro) during this time when they became music of national representation. The article talks about, in the case of the city of Cali, the presence of groups composed by young black people that identify with the black culture. Some of these groups have connections with academic groups and result from processes led by exterior agents. To these groups, the reference to Africa is a very important symbol. So, it is essential to the author to show the role of the urban and rural social - historical contexts of those people that reinvented and recreated the terms "negritude" and "Africa".
historical contexts; cultural construction processes; whitening process; negritude; primitive; popular music; nationalization of music cultures; embodiment; black culture; Cali; Colombia