The indigenous people who lived near Colombia's Caribbean shoreline never thought their rhythm –later on enriched by African slaves and known as cumbia- would have eventually become a music landmark for the Andean country.

Scholars –still at loggerheads with one another over the origin of cumbia- suggest this rhythm picks up the very essence of indigenous music played in the past by Cunas, Kogis, Arawaks, Caribs and Wayuns, the same tribes that roamed the Colombian area before the coming of Spaniards nearly five centuries ago.

That aboriginal dance and rhythm took in the African beats that Guinean slaves brought with them. Moreover, these slaves put the lyrics and contributed with much of the way cumbia is danced today in every world stage.

But there's one thing that most sages do see eye to eye about: cumbia comes from the term cumbe, an African dance from former Spanish Guinea that makes up most of its two-pronged ethnic structure with some additional basic rhythms.

Percussion is the key After a full-blown development that occurred in the 17th century, cumbia turned out to be a percussion-laden rhythm based on three drums, aboriginal flutes (called pipes by the Spaniards) and maracas, with the occasional addition of accordions.

An in-depth look at its origin reveals that cumbia derived from old-timed, African-origin folkloric manifestations, like lumbalu and bullarengue (the former was ritual and the latter profane), with an array of sound ingredients and dance moves hailing from Indo-American beats and a pinch of Spanish music, too.

For most mavens, cumbia stands for a traditional expression of a geographical region stretching from Tiburon Cape (on the Panamanian border) all the way to the Cocinetas Lake, not far from Venezuela.

However, historian Benyi Arregoces Carrere believes cumbia was the aboriginal rhythm that the first residents of the Colombian Caribbean endowed the world with, the same rhythm that existed in this neck of the woods long before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors and the coming of African slaves.

Mr. Arregoces explains that those aboriginal people –though living different cultures- had some primitive trade ties among them and their traditions were similar regardless of speaking different tongues. Those similarities were very strong in the musical field and they even shared instruments like the wax-capped flutes that Spaniards dubbed pipes –that name has lived out through centuries- plus an assortment of drums, guachacaras, gauches and maracas.

Nevertheless –Mr. Arregoces goes on to say- the indigenous cumbia went through a slow transformational process as soon as Spaniards and Africans set foot on that land, and who eventually chipped in to its enrichment. Despite all that, the aboriginal elements of cumbia have managed to prevail over the rest of its contributions.

For this musical connoisseur, Africa's premiere contribution to cumbia was the addition of brisker and merrier drums. For its part, Spain brought in the current stanza metrics in lyrics.

How to dance cumbia? As to the way cumbia is danced, Arregoces says this rhythm is tapped differently to any other Caribbean beat. Women hold a lit candle in their right hands (called sperm) and usually wear long and wide skirts known as polleras).

As the dance evolves, men try to make a pass at women by using some flirting. Le femmes dodge them for a while as men start coming up to them little by little.

Then, a double circular move occurs. On both sides of the dance floor, couples go dancing in circles until they make up what it's known as a cumbia round. At the same time, all couples spin around themselves.

As far as top cumbia performers are concerned, Mr. Arregoces mentions Cumbia Soledeña (led by Efrain Mejia), Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, Checo Acosta, Juan Carlos Coronel, Toto la Momposina and Juventino Ojito & Son Macana.

In the realm of cumbia, Arregoces asserts this rhythm was never stripped of lyrics. It was first sung in indigenous tongues that Spanish settlers banned at the time. That explains –he says- why cumbia was only played in instrumental format for a number of years.

But in the 20th century, several cumbia hits panned out to be big-time blockbusters and hundreds of versions have been recorded ever since. A case in point is La Cumbia Cienaguera (by Esteban Montaño, Luis Enrique Martinez and Andres Paz), La Pollera Colora by Wilson Choperena, and Juan Madera or La Piragua by Jose Barros.

Cumbia, though, has spilled beyond Colombian Caribbean boundaries and reached out to all Latin America. Today, cumbia is played in other nations such as Peru, Mexico and Argentina, yet with styles of their own.

The best way to enjoy this magnificent rhythm is by paying a visit to the Carnival of Barranquilla, capital of that northern state of Colombia. In this city, both cumbia and residents explode in the streets and fill the nights with Caribbean beats.