Linguistic Dispossession in Colombia: The Case of San Andres Island

This article examines the “linguistic dispossession” of the creole-speaking Afrodescendent communities in the Archipelago Colombian island territory of Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina. Considered are the socio-spatial re-configurative processes of linguistic dispossession and how it has transformed the landscape, livelihoods, and daily communitive practices of Afrodescendent communities on the island territory. It analyzes the processes through which the Colombian State deliberately carried out linguistic and cultural dispossession via strategies known as “Colombianization” and describes the relationship between the loss of the local languages, the production of space, and processes of dispossession through education and religion.