Rey Congo from Portobelo.
As we enter the 21st Century we, the Panamanian West Indians, join the people of the world in Christian Hope, clinging to the God of peace and hope for mankind. For we are still hoping to fulfill the Spiritual mandate to our ancestors, to keep our head high despite the atmosphere of disregards for human kindness suddenly gripping the planet today. Continue reading
Image thanks to wikipedia.org
If many of the West Indians had been accustomed to the hard, laboring life on the plantations, then they would soon become the new urbanized classed of Panama upon reaching its docks; for urbanized West Indian laborers would make up the ranks of its first large urban community in Panama’s early history. With their arrival new West Indian laborers would soon be living as near to the areas of construction as possible, thus spurring the development of entire neighborhoods. These areas, even today, are known for their special West Indian cultural flavor, for these people survived and lived in the only two mayor cities known then and for the two previous centuries, Panama and Colon. Continue reading
Posted in Silver People of Panama, West Indian Panamanians
Tagged Arrabal, Jim-Crow, Ku-Klux-Klan, urban-life
Image thanks to classroomclipart.com
The people we will refer to as the Afro-Hispanics have been identified by Panamanian historians as Afro-Coloniales, those individuals of African racial descent of Spanish cultural heritage. We will later discover that these Afro-Coloniales, unlike their English speaking counterparts from the West Indies, never really experienced the full brunt of the Canal Zone Silver Roll system, rather they remained in the background for decades. Continue reading
Today, Wednesday the 23rd day of the month of May, of this year 2007 the United Nations has declared that this is the third anniversary of Africa Day. Our local daily, The Panamá America, has dedicated a large article in their section, The Global Village, calling for this day to celebrate Africa. The reporter highlighted the belief that Africa is a continent in rapid deterioration. Continue reading
Posted in West Indian Panamanians
Tagged Africa, Christianity, fruits-of-the-Spirit, joy, slavery, strength, work-ethic
Image of Wharf at Aspinwall 1855, thanks to classroomclipart.com
The story of the West Indian laborer in other parts of the country of Panama and the Central American region continues with its course of battles with the banana plantations. For the western end of the country of Panama the West Indian laborer would enter the twentieth century experiencing upheavals. At this time in history the Panamanian elite, as intellectuals, will start to show nationalistic cohesion. Continue reading
Posted in West Indian Panamanians
Tagged Colombians, Colonial-life, Gran-Colombia, Spanish-speaking-blacks, underground
Social Darwinism, even today, has its detractors and often faces ridicule.
In the beginning of the middle XIXth century experiment, scientists believed that their social Darwinist ideals would naturally control the black populations. However, the harsh treatment to the poor who had to settle for living in shacks constructed with mud and available bush material coupled with the diseases that the hot tropical climate gave rise to and the hardness of the back breaking labor offered on the mayor projects, distanced many prospective workers. Continue reading
