Malibu

The Malibu were riverine tribes of the lower Magdalena wetlands of northern Colombia, whose extinct and poorly recorded languages form a family of their own, once grouped with Chibchan but of uncertain kinship. Their tongues were heard along the river, beside the Zapatoza lagoon and south of Cartagena, country of seasonal floods, fishing and manioc fields.

The tribes had no single king but acted through alliances; at the conquest the most powerful chief was Mompoj, who could bring together some fifty small peoples, among them the Malibues and Kimbayes. Santa Cruz de Mompox, named after him, was founded on 3 May 1537 by Juan Quintero de Heredia after his troops defeated Mompoj and the Kimbay.

Encomiendas, river traffic and Old World diseases dissolved the Malibu communities. Their languages vanished, with only a handful of words preserved in the Spanish chronicles.