Cumbia is originally a Colombian folk dance and dance music and is Colombia's representative national dance and music along with vallenato. The Cumbia is an autochthonous dance and music from the Caribbean Coast of Colombia, with variants of equally folk in Panama.It is a popular music and dance in different Latin-American countries, where it has followed different variants as the Mexican, Argentine, Peruvian, and others.

Modern cumbia includes instrumental mixing; guitars, accordions, bass guitar, modern flutes and modern deep-toned drums and other percussions. The basic rhythm structure is 4/4. Cumbia is the net intersection of two cultures that settled in the region of what is now northern Colombia at different times; the Amerindians and African slaves. Cumbia began as a courtship dance practiced among the slave population that was later mixed with the European instruments and influence.

Origins
Cumbia is a variant of the African Guinean cumbe music. Cumbia started in the northern region of Colombia, mainly in or around Cartagena during the period of Spanish colonization. Spain used its ports to import African slaves, who tried to preserve their musical traditions and also turned the drums and dances into a courtship ritual. Cumbia was mainly interpreted with just drums and claves.

The slaves were later influenced by the sounds of Amerindian instruments from the Koguis and Kuna tribes settled between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Montes de María; like the millo flutes, gaita flutes, and güiros. Africans and Amerindians working together as slaves created a mixture from which the gaitero (cumbia interpreter) appeared, with a defined identity by the 1800s. (These gaiteros are not to be associated with the Venezuelan Zulian gaiteros.) The European guitars and accordions were added later, through Spanish influence