Between rifles an accordions: A database of music produced by FARC-EP (1988-2018)

During the armed conflict in Colombia, the FARC-EP produced a significant amount of artistic material, as yet, scarcely researched or valued by the academics that study the country’s history of violence. In the case of music, the insurgency had a number of guerrilla artists who wrote over 500 songs since 1988, when the first guerrilla music compilation –Mensaje Fariano- was made public.

What are the contents and tendencies of these songs? How has this musical production transformed through time? What can the compositions tell us about the history of violence in Colombia and the history of the organization? These are the central questions that this exploratory study aims to answer based on the construction of FARC music produced between 1988 and 2018.

The project links former FARC-EP combatants as an active part of the research and as regional partners. We consider that the transition scenario obliges us not only to rethink our research designs to make them more participative but also to recognise the potential and skills of former FARC members to produce knowledge. We firmly believe that the active involvement of former combatants in research projects contributes to overcoming the epistemological extractivism that has permeated academic exercises for a long time, whereby people only participate in the data gathering phase, providing the researchers with their testimonials.