# Political mapping of the resistance: biogeographic, regional and spatial contexts  
The biogeographical landscape of the Colombian Pacific was a determining factor in the mobilization of Afro-Colombian peoples, to such an extent that a 'political resistance map' has been woven, showing the relationship between Afrodescendant communities and their biogeographical environments. That is to say, a cultural and political construction and appropriation of the territory by Afrodescendant communities and other social groups, such as indigenous populations and mixed-race peoples, which enabled them, by means of various tools and strategies, to stand up to, evade, and settle into the enslaved and colonial society which exploited, controlled or punished them, or reduced them to an inferior class of person in discussions and representations within the ruling regime.  
The Colombian Pacific currently comprises the Colombian provinces of Nariño, Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Chocó and Antioquia. The macro-region or set of geographical areas on which we would like to focus can be called 'the lowlands of the Colombian Pacific', as a continuation of West's own idea (1957, 2000). It is, of course, a diverse regional set-up, notwithstanding that several common characteristics are to be found throughout. Its manifold, multi-faceted connections across the coast and inlets going up the western mountain range  
link it to inland areas and the valleys between the Andes, Antioquia, Cauca, Nariño, Valle del Cauca, Risaralda, Caldas and Quindío. In this context, Cali and Popayán represented two zones of seats of slavery and of landholders, estate and mine owners within the regional set-up.