This talk illustrates how linguistics and population geneticists have recently managed to reconstruct the precise African roots of descendants of African slaves that were transshipped some 400 years ago from Black Africa to Latin America. The talk focuses on Palenque (Colombia), where special African traditions and an unusual creole language have been preserved to this day.

Professor Schwegler’s research emphasizes the study of Latin America from a linguistic, social, and historical perspective. For three decades, this has led him to explore in depth the precise African origins of Hispanic communities whose roots are found in the transatlantic slave trade. Using population genetics (DNA) research to complement humanistic investigations, his work shows that “lost history” can indeed be reconstructed with precision. To that end, he has traveled widely and afar, and published several books and over 60 research articles

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx