This is an essay on methodology and aesthetics, as well as a proposal regarding the religious and cultural history of two populations living in the Pacific coast of Colombia: Afro-descendant and Amerindian peoples: the Emberá and the Wounaan, also known as the Chocó. The approach to this topic is laid down by way of what I call archaeology of memory: a methodological formulation that makes it possible to reconstruct the aesthetic memory of peoples and cultures. In this particular case it is applied to African cultures transported by the slave trade to Colombia. The field to be researched/ excavated is the sculptural art of the Chocó people, who are linked to an indigenous religious system with evident African traces: canto de jai. So, springing from an Africanist perspective, this proposal Africa in an indigenous Latin American context.