Ceremonial Cacao Arhuaca Tribe, Colombia

Arhuaca Tribe

The Arhuaco people call themselves “Iku”, which means “people” in the Ika language. They are native to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and descendants of the pre-Columbian Tairona culture.

They are one of the best-known native peoples in Colombia, and represent 1.59% of Colombia’s indigenous population.

The Arhuaco tribe is established mainly in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and to a lesser extent, in the basins of the Don Diego, Mingueo and Guatapurí rivers (Valledupar, Mamatoco).

They guide their lives and their daily lives based on spirituality, respect for their gods who created the universe and solidarity with the members of the community and neighboring towns, conceiving the territory in which they live as a whole where living beings live. both from the material and spiritual worlds.

The Arhuaca women spend their free time spinning cotton and wool for their dresses, and twisting the fiber of the maguey (Agave in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs) for their backpacks.

They love and respect their fellow humans, considering as such, in addition to humans, animals, plants and inanimate beings.

They call the lion, king of the jungle, guiaj’ina, which means “Brother of all.” They are not hunters, and they never whip or heavily carry their oxen and horses.

The Arhuacos always carry toasted Háyu leaves (coca plant) inside their wool backpack; Upon meeting, their traditional greeting consists of exchanging a handful of these leaves.

Ambíra is the Mapacho that the Arhuacos use in extract form. They prepare it by cooking the Mapacho leaves over very low heat, obtaining a thick, dark-colored substance.

Arhuaco women do not take coca or ambíra, their use is reserved for adult men.

The other three native peoples that live in the Sierra Nevada along with the Arhuacas are the Koguis, the Wiwa and the Kankuamos.

The Ika or Arhuaco people live in the upper basins of the Aracataca, Fundación and Ariguaní rivers on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is a mountain range in Colombia that constitutes in itself an isolated system of the Andes Mountains, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, rising abruptly from the coasts of the Caribbean Sea to reach peaks that remain snow-capped throughout the year. , with a maximum height of 5,775 meters, being the highest mountain in the world on the seashore.