Claudia Mosquera Rosero-Labbé, Emiro Santos and Silvia Valero in conversation with Cindy Herrera

La maraca embrujada por Jibaná, a novel by Manuel Zapata Olivella, published in 2023 by the University of Cartagena, explores the conflict between scientific medicine and the ancestral knowledge of Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities in Colombia during the early 20th century. Set in Condoto, a town on the Pacific coast, it narrates the story of a young doctor attempting to impose Western medicine as the sole legitimate knowledge, encountering various forms of resistance and negotiation from the local inhabitants. The study of the novel’s manuscripts and the reconstruction of its writing process have been carried out by Silvia Valero and Emiro Santos García, researchers and professors at the University of Cartagena, and published as Manuel Zapata Olivella: hacia una medicina nacional en el Pacífico colombiano. Estudios críticos y edición genética de ‘La maraca embrujada por jibaná (2023). Claudia Mosquera Rosero-Labbé, Colombia's ambassador to Senegal and advocate of epistemic pluralism, academics Silvia Valero and Emiro Santos will engage in a discussion with Cindy Herrera about Zapata Olivella's legacy.