Malibu

The Malibu were riverine peoples of the lower Magdalena wetlands of northern Colombia. Their languages, now extinct and poorly recorded, form a family of their own, once grouped with Chibchan though the kinship is uncertain. They lived by fishing and manioc fields in a country of seasonal floods.

They 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. Encomiendas, river traffic and disease then dissolved the Malibu communities.