Uncovering Resistance: Dr. Eileen Tejada Breaks Down the Subversive History of Bomba on Hard Knock Radio

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In a powerful and expansive conversation on Hard Knock Radio, Associate Dean Dr. Eileen Tejada of San Francisco State University joined host Davey D to break down the revolutionary roots of Bomba, an Afro-Caribbean tradition often misunderstood as just dance and music”but which, at its core, is a weapon of resistance.

Reclaiming Erased Histories
Kicking off the conversation, Davey D framed the segment within the broader context of Junes Black Music Month and the current political climate that seeks to erase cultural memory. Theres a generational disconnection at play, he noted, and traditions like Bomba help rebuild that connection.

Dr. Tejadas work focuses on the Congrejo region of Puerto Rico, a space where formerly enslaved Africans”granted freedom by the Spanish in exchange for labor and conversion to Catholicism”were able to build autonomous communities. These communities, Tejada explains, preserved knowledge, healed the sick, developed agricultural and medicinal systems, and crucially, passed down the practice of Bomba out of sight of colonial powers.

A Ceremony of Alliance and Resistance
Tejada repositions Bomba not just as an art form, but as a ceremonial alliance between Africans and Indigenous Taino peoples”a spiritual and cultural weapon of survival. Contrary to colonial narratives that place its origin on plantations, Bomba developed in autonomous zones free from the “white gaze.” It fused Taino and African traditions: call-and-response, drumming, maracas made of higuera, and the ceremonial batey circle.

In Bomba, she emphasized, each participant must learn all roles. Its anti-capitalist, communal, and everyone plays for the sake of the collective.

Hidden Rhythms and Forbidden Drums
Dr. Tejada shared stories of Bomba rhythms so potent that colonial authorities banned the drum outright, fearing it could incite rebellion”because it did. There are rhythms that can take you out, an elder once told her. Some sacred rhythms are passed down only to elders, never shared publicly. This echoes drum bans in the U.S., Trinidad, and beyond”efforts to suppress the spiritual and strategic uses of music in Black and Brown communities.

Cultural Healing and Liberation
Through deeply personal reflections, Tejada described the transformative experience of participating in a Bomba batey. I no longer felt isolated from my people or myself in America, she said. Every sorrow dropped away. Her words painted Bomba not just as music or dance, but as a form of cultural healing that removes trauma markers from the DNA.

Davey D drew parallels between Bomba and Black church traditions, cipher circles in Hip Hop, and second line parades in New Orleans”where people enter collective euphoria and communion through rhythm. Its not that we lose ourselves, Tejada clarified. We gain access to our true selves.

Lessons for Todays Struggles
In a time when Black and Brown unity is often undermined, Dr. Tejada sees Bomba as a model for building unbreakable alliances. The lesson of Bomba is: form a union the colonizer cannot destroy, she said. Theres no Black-Brown divide. Thats a colonial myth.

As anti-Blackness, displacement, and censorship continue to rise, the interview closed on a note of radical joy and resilience. Even if the world ends, Tejada said, I intend to go out singing and dancing.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Uncovering Resistance: Dr. Eileen Tejada Breaks Down the Subversive History of Bomba on Hard Knock Radio appeared first on KPFA.

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