Kogi: The Indigenous people of the Colombian desert
The Kogis are one of the few indigenous people in South America who were able to maintain their pre-Columbian culture. Being a pacifistic ethnic group they never attempted to fight colonists and preferred to move to more isolated areas up the mountain, where they could continue to live their lives without much influence from western culture. They call themselves the “elder brothers” who are taking care of the “Heart of the World” (the Sierra Nevada) and protecting it from the “younger brothers” (non Kogi or Arhuaco Amerindians) who are destroying it. They believe if the “Heart of the World” get's out of balance it will affect the whole world. Having survived the Spanish colonizers, the [Colombian] colonials in the beginning of the century, the Marijuana bonanza of the 80s, the coca planting of the drug cartels and the armed conflict among guerillas and paramilitaries the Kogi are facing their biggest fear now, the destruction of “Heart of the World” due climatic changes.
- Alexander Rieser
