Entrar en otro mundo. El proceso de cristianización de los esclavos en Cartagena,primera mitad del siglo XVII

This article will try to delve into the particularities of the process of Christianization of slaves in New Granada at the beginning of the 17th century and its significance. At the beginning of the 17th century, the largest number of ships, mainly Portuguese, arrived at the port of Cartagena, bringing black slaves from Africa. The poor health conditions in which slaves arrived raised a great desire for their conversion to Christianity, added to the fact that the most of them spent short time in the port. This urgency in the salvation of the souls of the slaves recently arrived in port led to raise several exceptions in baptism, which we will try to analyze, exposed by the Jesuit Alonso de Sandoval in his book De Instaurata Aethiopum Salute published in 1627 and carried out by Pedro Claver, since his final arrival in Cartagena in 1615. We will make special emphasis on the exceptions that were exposed and defended before the Roman Catholic Church, which were the rename, the use of several interpreters of diverse African languages, permanently, and at the same time throughout the Christianization process, in addition to orality, repetition and memorization as the only means of transmitting this religious knowledge.