AFRO-CARIBBEAN

African-Caribbean origins in Panama date back to populations of immigrants from the Caribbean islands that immigrated to Panama during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of these immigrants were brought in to help with the construction of the Panama Canal, and they included West Indians from Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique & Barbados to name a few. More than 25,000 immigrants came to Panama from the islands and workers from Barbados, Jamaica, and Martinique made up 2/3 of the canal labor team. The majority of the descendants of these populations live on the Atlantic coast in Colon and other cities and towns.

From early periods Afro-Panamanians have played a significant role in the creation of the republic. Some historians have estimated that up to 50% of the population of Panama has some African ancestry.

The descendants of the Africans who arrived during the colonial era are intermixed in the general population or are found in small Afro-Panamanian communities along the Atlantic Coast and in villages within the Darién jungle. Most of the people in Darien are fishermen or small scale farmers growing crops such as bananas, rice and coffee as well as raising livestock.

Traditionally and for festivals the Afro-Caribbean men in Panama dress in tattered clothes, with painted faces and cones on their heads representing crowns. They sometimes carry sticks with bells and feathers hanging from it and many wear belts with all kinds of crazy trinkets hanging from them like heads of dolls and shells. The women wear brightly colored dresses with huge tropical flowers in their pulled back hair. They dance to a style of music called Congo, an outlandish dance tradition that is a satire of the colonial Spaniards and their traditions. Congo originates from back in the time of the slave trade, when some slaves escaped to the rainforests.

People take on the role of the escaped slaves and the songs are sung in a slang they created so the Spaniards wouldn't understand them making fun of them! The dance looks more like a game, with men circling around often on all fours trying to 'trap' the women who always seem to escape as they shake their hips to the fast rhythms.

Important Afro-Caribbean community areas include towns and cities such as Colon, Cristobal and Balboa, in the former Canal Zone, as well as the Rio Abajo area of Panama City. Another region with a large Afro-Caribbean population is the province of Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean coast just south of Costa Rica.