Zenú

The Zenú, Sinú or Cenú is a pre-Columbian culture and Indigenous people in Colombia, whose ancestral territory comprises the valleys of the Sinú and San Jorge rivers as well as the coast of the Caribbean around the Gulf of Morrosquillo. These lands lie within the departments of Córdoba and Sucre. The Zenú civilization peaked from about 200 BCE to about 1600 CE, constructing major waterworks and producing gold ornaments. The gold that was often buried with their dead lured the Spanish conquistadors, who looted much of the gold. With the arrival of the Spaniards, the chiefdom was decimated over a 25-year period (1510–1535) by disease and warfare. The Zenú language disappeared around 200 years ago. However, the 2018 Colombian Census showed 307,091 Zenú people in Colombia. In 1773 the King of Spain designated 83,000 hectares in San Andrés de Sotavento as a Zenú reserve. This reserve existed until it was dissolved by the National Assembly of Colombia in 1905. The Zenú have fought for the restoration of the reserve, and in 1990 San Andrés de Sotavento was restored as a Zenú reserve with a land area of 10,000 hectares (later 23,000). Since then, and especially in the first decades of the 21st century, more and more lands in Antioquia Department have been transferred to Zenú people.