Reflection: Angela Trotman on A People Without History: Memory and Barbadian Migrants in Panama

A Graduate of Cultural Studies, Angela Trotman, shares some reflections on last week's Humanities Festival 2015 panel discussion on Memory and Barbadian Migrants in Panama and the need to honour this connection with explorations in the Humanities:

To make an allegorical argument: As academics, we have taken lunches to Panama on several occasions, just like Biblical David. David, however, realized that lunch was not enough.  He recognized that while it was sustaining and strengthening and nourishing it was not enough.  He decided to bring his gutterperk and rockstone.  In making that decision he turned the tide, Goliath fell!

While the words historians use to explore this connection are vital and necessary, we should not leave our weapons behind: artists will make the difference; the singer will sing, the dramatist will perform, the poet will break the heart, the dancers will reenact and bring back memories of a connection in which so many migrants toiled and their contributions left forgotten.  Artists can make the words take wings and fly off the page and place them in the hearts of the people – here, in the descendants of Panama migrants, and in the leadership.  While the words are vital and necessary and engages the intellect, the artists will engage the heart, then we will have the whole man on board.  Goliath will fall and Phoenix will rise!!

 

I agree with the panelists that it will be ‘a long day’ before Panama truly embraces the contributions of West Indian migrants, and public awareness efforts should be repetitive.  That is why if we seek to make this a project we should engage the whole of Barbados, as there are the participants who perform at NIFCA every year with great usable talents; there are the people with money who might want to assist;  there are the people who speak Spanish; those who can make costumes, props, and also engage our communities; and there are also the international agencies we can reach out to. But hopefully we would have long term engagement, perhaps with student exchanges and social media connections. Outreach to secondary school students might convince them that learning Spanish can help to reconnect with the descendants of Barbadian migrants to Panama.  Filmmaker, Alison Saunders, who screened her trailer "Panama Fever" remarked that Barbadians must work to "heal ourselves" as we must also recognize the significance of the connection in Barbados. I think there was a saying somewhere which goes somewhat like this: “Give a man a noble cause and he will fight for what he believes in.”  This concept might help us to heal also, as in helping our overseas Bajan family we might learn a few things that just might help us on our own journey.