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  • Writer's pictureJanishka Chugani

Association - Colonenses

Living in Panama all my life, I have had the opportunity to visit many places in the interior that are inhabited by micro-cultures within the Panamanian culture. Although many aspects are similar, there are some principles and practices that help distinguish these micro-cultures from the larger culture. But today I´m going to focus on Colon. For the most part of my life I lived in the province of Colon, 45 minutes away from the capital. This province carries its own culture much more different than the one you see in any other province in the country. Colon is characterized by the coexistence of two cultural aspects of African descent: The Afro-Antillean, which arises with the arrival of the Americans to the country to start the construction of the Panama Canal. They brought with them many West Indian blacks, mainly from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the Lesser Antilles, to do the heavy work in these constructions.


These immigrants brought their English-speaking West Indian culture and manifests itself to this day in gastronomy, religion and music. It should be noted that because the Afro-Antilles from the Caribbean to Panama were mostly Jamaicans, there is a cultural legacy left which is known as Rastafarianism, a religious faith that is still very much alive in many sectors within the population of the city of Colon.


The other cultural aspect is the so-called "Afro-colonial", which has existed since the Spanish conquest and is linked to the trafficking and transfer of African slaves. They left as a legacy the Congos Balls, where seduction and sensuality predominate between men and women, but the latter must prevent the gentlemen from kissing her. Their dresses are made with pieces of fabric left by their former ancestors. The dance is first and foremost a way of mocking the white masters, since they used to insinuate pacts between congos and the devil.


Colon´s culture has been influences by many associations the province has had in the past with other cultures which have laid their legacy that is still seen to this day.

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