Diablos y Congos Festival in Portobelo Panama

Thousands of Africans were brought to Panama’s Caribbean Coast where they were sold as slaves and sent to work in other parts of Central America. Some escaped, however, and their descendants now make up a self-described “Afro colonizer” population in the area. Two weeks after Carnival, communities in and around Portobelo hold the Diablos y Congos (Devils and Slaves) festival which is an exaggerated re-enactment of how their African ancestors used clothing and language to communicate and an over-the-top parody of Spanish colonizers.

Diablos y Congos Festival - Portabelo, Panama

A crew of angels tries to stop, punish, and banish a devil (representing Spanish colonizers) during the festival in Portobelo, Panama.

Inside the Diablos y Congos festival in Panama

Some men and boys dress as congos (slaves) by wearing old clothes worn inside out and adorned with found objects like dolls in imitation of the way Africans modified the clothes they were allowed to wear in order to make them their own. They also speak “congo” by saying the opposite of what they really mean, a re-enactment of how African ancestors managed to communicate even under the watchful eye of slave traders.

Congos slaves - Diablos y Congos Festival - Portabelo, Panama

Extravagant costumes made from rags and found objects are worn by men and boys representing congos (slaves) during the Diablos y Congos festival in Portobelo, Panama.

Congos king - Diablos y Congos Festival - Portabelo, Panama

The annual Diablos y Congos festival on the Caribbean Coast of Panama includes the crowning of a Congo King and Queen.

Female congos wear long, bright, pleated skirts, flouncy blouses that fall off the shoulder, and multiple necklaces in a costume that is a humble reflection of the pollera, the national dress of Panama.

The outfit worn by women taking part in the Diablos y Congos festival is a simpler version of the pollera which is the national dress of Panama.

Though most of the Diablos y Congos action takes place spontaneously in the crowded streets there are some scheduled performances on a stage in the center of town.

Performers take the stage as part of festival celebrations.

Dancing-Diablos-y-Congos-festival-Panama

More dance troupes.

Other men and boys dress up as diablos (devils) to represent the Spanish colonizers who ruled the region during slave trading times, donning intricate costumes and wearing grotesque masks many of which are made in nearby Puerto Lindo.

A group of diablos (devils) representing the Spanish colonizers on the streets of Portobelo, Panama during the annual Diablos y Congos festival.

Two kids dressed as twin devils pose with a young fan.

The devils whip the congos and even innocent bystanders and some are more vigorous about it than others. Meanwhile, a pitifully small crew of men dressed as angels try to capture, punish, and banish the whip-wielding devils/Spaniards.

During the Diablos y Congos festival, men representing the diablos (devils) play the role of the Spanish colonizers and use whips to try to punish the congos (slaves) and to fend off white-costumed angels who try to capture as many devils as they can.

The Diablos y Congos festival is a passionate, crowded, loud, and complicated re-enactment of a time of slavery and colonization on Panama’s Caribbean Coast.

It’s a chaotic, passionate, sometimes alarming spectacle involving hundreds of participants and thousands of spectators. Here’s more of the madness.

African culture and history are celebrated during the annual Diablos y Congos festival in Portobelo, Panama.