The term Cumbia refers to both a style of Colombian folk-dance music, which originated on the country's northern Atlantic coast, and its dominant rhythm., Cumbia was a synthesis of the traditions of three separate cultures: former slaves of African descent, who contributed the rhythms and percussion instruments; descendants of European colonists, primarily Hispanics, who influenced the music's melodic progressions; and native Americans descended from Andean tribes, who affected cumbia's melodic and harmonic sense and also contributed the flutes on which cumbia was initially played.  Cumbia's infectious, highly danceable beat found its way overseas, beginning around the 1960.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdktZJ-Qijk&NR=1