Peter Espeut

I spent last week on a small island (27 sq km) off the coast of Central America - one of a group of three which used to be a British Colony - which shares a boundary with Jamaica.

In fact, they were populated in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s by planters and slaves from Jamaica, and today they consider Jamaica to be their 'Mother Country'. Henry Morgan the adventurer based in Port Royal, Jamaica, assembled his ships and troops on these islands before his successful assaults on Panama and Santa Marta on the mainland, and his name is preserved in several places.

The main island is called San Andrés after the Jamaican parish of St. Andrew, and another island is called Santa Catalina after the Jamaican parish of St. Catherine; the third is Providencia or Old Providence (as opposed to New Providence in the Bahamas). The long-time residents speak 'braaad' Jamaican creole, eat Jamaican food and play dominoes. They celebrate Emancipation on August 1 every year. These islands - along with Bluefields (Nicaragua), Col- (Panama), and Puerto Lim - (Costa Rica) - are strong cultural outposts of Jamaica in Spanish-speaking Central America.

Breakfast

The only thing missing was ackee; for breakfast the hotel served rundœn (rundown), liver, fried breadfruit, yam, bammy, fried dumplin', etc.; and otherwise, stew peas and rice, and more; you can buy patties on the street. As examples of their culture the hotel musicians played Jamaican folk songs, and they call their music 'Mento'. Common family names are Robinson, Sinclair, Williams, Willoughby, Henry, Morgan, Watson, and Taylor. The residents with the longest local ancestry call themselves the raizal people - the 'roots' people.

The three islands - San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina - are today part of Colombia, although geographically they are much closer to Panama, and they have suffered an influx of mainland Colombian businessmen rushing to cash in on a burgeoning tourism industry based on the same 'esses' as our own (sun, sand, sea, etc.).

Jamaicanness

The raizal people find themselves marginalised in their own country, and to compensate and to keep their identity, they strongly emphasise their Jamaicanness. Even the local Roman Catholic church uses the hymnbook published by the Roman Catholic church in Jamaica.

There is local resentment against mainland Colombians, who islanders call 'continentals'. Almost all the local fishermen are of the raizal people, and as I was being shown around town by fishermen, they lamented that the raizal people could not easily find employment in the shops and hotels owned by continentals, who prefer to bring in cheap labour from the mainland. In the government service, the heads of department are almost all continentals.

The fishers explained that when the islanders complain to the government in Bogota about the loss of their culture and way of life, and about domination from the mainland, Bogota thinks that the islanders want Independence, and so deepen their control of the islands. Even though there are many university-trained raizal people, the government prefers to place mainlanders in the top administra-tive positions.

I was invited to San Andrés to give an address on the environment, protected areas and sustainable tourism to a local conference, and I ended up delivering it three times: to the conference, to the officers of the Colombian National Armada at their local navy base, and to the San Andrés Chamber of Conference. Sad to say their tourism is just as unsustainable as ours - maybe a little more so, but they were very interested in the message. I was well received, and I was often told that they liked to have people visit them who 'spoke like them', meaning Jamaican creole. I felt quite at home.

The market for Jamaican products that these Jamaican outposts in Central America represent is not insignificant, yet I saw no Jamaican labels in the stores (except, of course, on the Reggae CDs). I believe that we should develop and deepen cultural links with these islanders, who are very interested to know more about Jamaica and their own history. I was constantly asked if I knew people in Jamaica with their 'title' (family name).

And as others look to us for guidance in environmental matters, maybe we should try to set a better example.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.