Introduction

The "intelligent people who can talk" or U'wa, also known as Tunebo, are a Chibchan-speaking Amerindian people who live in the north-east of Colombia, near the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, spread between the departments of Santander, North Santander, Boyacá, Arauca and Casanare. Of the eight U'wa clans in existence at the beginning of the 20th century, there now only remain three: Kubaruwua (Cobaria), Tagrinuwa (Tegria) and Kaibaká (Bokota), each of which is comprised of various communities. The present-day population is almost 7,500, made up of a total of some 822 families.

The ancestral U'wa territory once totalled some 1,400,000 hectares; however, ever since the arrival of the first Europeans to the New World their lands have progressively shrunk. The conquistador Hernán Pérez de Quesada opened the way for colonisation of the region with the establishment of encomiendas such as that of Chita, in 1549, whereby the native communities were forced into servility. The U'wa resisted this imposition and fled to the woods or committed collective suicide. The threat of once more resorting to this latter strategy in the face of a multinational's intention to drill for oil in their territory has in recent times brought them to the attention of the world press. For the U'wa, their land is much more than a raw material to be exploited: it is the setting for the birth and life of their culture.

The conception of the land as origin and mother of all has led to a unique ecological consciousness and, linked to this, a great body of chanted myths; values and practices which have stemmed from their cosmo-centric view of existence. In the words of the anthropologist Ann Osborn, who lived with the U'wa for years: "One could not but be impressed by the kubaruwua, their all-night chants and rituals, the way in which they carefully plan all they do, their work consistent with seasonal timetables and guidelines, their continuous changing of abode moving up and down the mountainside, and their concern to conserve their land and customs."

Today, what is especially noteworthy about the U'wa is their view of the world as a fragile place which could easily lose its balance, with negative effects for all of us. They see their role as one of maintaining the natural balance through a variety of rituals, their agricultural methods and traditional chants.