Before they became part of Colombia... San Andres, Providencia, & Santa Catalina were colonized by the British. Their culture is similar to other Creole English-speaking locations in the Caribbean. San Andres Kriol is strikingly similar to Belizean Kriol.
These islands form their own department within Colombia. You have to fly from either Colombia or Panama to get there.
San Andres is the larger of the three and most developed. Providence you can get to by boat or a 15 minute flight.
Providence has kept more of the Kriol English speaking culture. San Andres has had many mainlanders move there from the Colombian Caribbean coastal cities of Cartagena, & Barranquilla with also inland city people like Medellin.
Because of that, the native San Andres islanders are not as common, and the language is not heard as much as Spanish is.
Native islanders from San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina are called Raizales. Raizales as a group fell under the broader AfroColombian category, like "Palenquero" did, in the 2005 Colombian census.
These days a lot of the Kriol English is mixed in with Spanish. So think of Spanglish but both the English and Spanish is Caribbean.
Creole preservationist groups are fighting to keep the language alive. They don't like the hispanicization of the islands, and the loss of Creole English-speaking culture.
It's funny that even in San Andres there's racial stereotypes around language. I've heard comments there that the Black people speak English. Yet, there are Black mainlanders present who only speak Spanish and not a lick of English.
A term I disagree with is when Black islanders call Black mainlanders, 'Paña'. No, our people aren't Spaniards, just because Spanish is spoken. Remember the Spanish enslaved us, so stop calling your brothers and sisters Paña.
Despite that con, there has been Afro cultural fusion in San Andres. With Afro-Cartageneros and Afro-Chocoanos marrying native Afro Raizal people.
Afro music genres have fused. Cartageneros brought their Champeta with them. This song has influences from Champeta mixed in with traditional San Andres music
@threadreaderapp pls unroll 
