Our unbounded influencence

Very few people appreciate the role music played in lightening the load of our ancestors during slavery better than Colin Smith. 

Smith who was awarded a Badge of Honor by the Jamaican government in 2025 for his role in the preservation of Jamaican culture, is not only the Chairman of the Louise Bennett Heritage Council but is also founder/leader of  the Miami based Tallawah Mento Band. It's in that role that he was recently invited to Costa Rica in April 2026 to address the 2nd Marcus Garvey  Symposium on the topic "How enslaved Africans used music to lighten their burden."

The heart of Jamaican culture in Costa Rica is in the province of Limón where it is estimated that of the over 65,000 population there, 75% have Caribbean ancestry, and also in nearby Puerto Viejo (translation Old Harbour!) where Jamaican colors and food dominate. 

Some Tallawah band members pose beside the sign.

Like so many other places in Central America, thousands of Jamaicans moved there and settled after working on the Panama Canal and they retained their culture.

I first visited Limón decades ago after hitching a ride on a Jamaica Producers vessel which used to go there to fill up with bananas to meet its British quota.

What stood out in my mind then was not only how most people could switch from our patois to grammatical Spanish seamlessly but also how our favorite traditional dishes were easily available everywhere. 

On my second visit, I learned that Hon. PJ Patterson, Prime Minister was honored there in 2001. 

What I never knew then was that Garvey was held up in such high esteem there that each year on the 18th April, they put on activities to honor him. 

He had been working there as a timekeeper and between 1910-1911. When he saw the exploitation of the black workers on the banana plantations there, he not only established a branch of the UNIA but also a hub there for his Black Star Liner.

In 2023, Costa Rica declared Garvey an honorary citizen for his contributions to culture and human rights.

It was no doubt a great honor for the Tallawah Band, one of the last surviving mento bands, to be included in this year's festivities.  

They even performed on their first  night in Costa Rica at La Caribena in the Capital San Jose, before going  

on to Limón. 

The performance there  received overwhelming applause. 

I really don't know that too many of our countrymen really appreciate how our culture is revered in so many corners of the globe and the fact that we may even still have many relatives in diverse places that we know little about.

Below are snippets of Tallawah's performance in Costa Rica. 

Nb. Pics and videos contributed by Anette Smith.

Making opportunities

National Hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey summarized our long-established practice when he said; “Take advantage of every opportunity; where there is none, make it for yourself.”

After slavery was abolished, our ancestors who had been forcibly uprooted from their country and families, found themselves without any opportunities.  For whereas those who had enslaved them for years received monetary compensation for losing free labor, most who had labored free, got nothing, no land, no money nothing to start their free life with.

Some chose to go back to work for the wicked slave masters just to get food to survive. Others fled to unpopulated areas in the hills to find a piece of land on which to eke out a living. The really courageous ones found whatever could use to sail away from the island to shores unknown.

I say really courageous as they never knew where they would end up or even arrive alive at any place, but to them, even death was better than going back to work for those monsters.

They therefore took the ultimate sacrifice to try and make opportunities for themselves.

We have no idea how many of the freed slaves who embarked on those dangerous treks arrived alive anywhere. We know a large number found their way to nearby Cuba which was getting wealthier every day as a sugar and rum manufacturing hub. Some of us can still find our relatives in provinces such as Santiago De Cuba, Holguin, and Guantanamo Bay.

Work on the construction of the Panama Canal in 1881 was a next big opportunity for poverty-stricken Jamaicans. Thousands died on that project. In fact, it was suspended for many years because of the high mortality rate. However, among those who survived, places like Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and even some countries in South America were where they later pursued opportunities.

The next big migration of Jamaicans came during the world wars, whether it was to fight for the former slave owing country or later, to provide cheap labor to rebuild their economy.

In short, marginalized Jamaicans have never been shy about seeking opportunities abroad where none existed at home. So, when countries such as Canada and the USA started to make migration easier, thousands trekked there too. Ever heard of the ‘farm work’ programs? Thousands never returned too!

Things took a different turn in the 1970’s though. For it was the threat of communism with all its ills, that caused mostly already-educated Jamaicans who never lacked opportunities at home as well as members of the affluent middle class to seek out countries where their safety and freedoms would not be in jeopardy.

That was when what is described as the real brain drain began.

And it has never ceased for as communication becomes better, individuals are finding that their skills and training can attract far bigger bucks in first world countries than they can earn at home.

Whatever the reasons, the fact is there are either about the same number of or even more Jamaicans living abroad as live on the island.

With a history like ours, it should surprise no one that the latest Fund for Peace data, shows Jamaica being second in the world in terms of migration. (See the table of the top 5 below.)

Countries	Human flight and brain drain, 2022	Global rank	Available data
Samoa	10	1	2007 - 2022
Jamaica	9.1	2	2007 - 2022
Palestine	8.8	3	2021 - 2022
Micronesia	8.7	4	2007 - 2022
Somalia	8.7	5	2007 - 2022

In most instances however, those Jamaicans who left their homeland for whatever reason, have never turned their backs on their country, for the record of their massive remittances sent to help those who were left behind, is living testimony of their love.

And, remittances have even on occasion topped tourism as our leading foreign exchange earner, especially after that horrible Covid virus struck.

Last year, the Business Observer carried an analysis entitled ‘Remittances — Jamaica's economic lynchpin.”

It said in part; even though the World Bank predicted global remittances would fall by 22 per cent, with the Latin America and Caribbean region expected to record a 19.3 percent drop, Jamaica has defied this fate as remittance inflows grew by 25 per cent to US $1.53 billion ($221.1 billion) and net remittances went up by 30 per cent to US $1.41 billion from April to September 2020.”

Although so many Jamaicans have made opportunities for themselves overseas, it has never been a risk-free enterprise.

Actually, it takes a great deal of courage to leave friends and families to pursue opportunities in countries unknown, at times even starting at rock bottom in places where neither the language or culture are familiar.

That is why so many in the diaspora took umbrage at the imbecilic pronouncement by the Deputy Mayor of Montego Bay, Richard Vernon.

I don’t know the level of education that Vernon has or even if he has any knowledge of our history, but by calling those who sought opportunities abroad cowards, he exposed a level of ignorance that is unacceptable for a so-called leader!

 

Cultural Penetration

Many philosophers and scholars have ventured to define and debate cultural penetration and whereas we may agree with some of their arguments for or against, the fact is, cultural penetration has been with us from the beginning of humankind and will be with us forever.

Because the British were such vicious and determined colonialist, building for themselves an empire 'on which the sun would never set', in modern civilization, it's the English language which has prevailed worldwide.

We in Jamaica, having been enslaved then colonized by the British, did not escape. And while I am happy to have learnt that Interational language, I am still upset about the lengths they went to, to demonize and even demolish the language and culture of my African ancestors. 

Despite the brutality, some things prevailed somehow so when you listen to the Jamaican Patois, our language, you realize that many of its words and phrases were adopted from the Twi language, the mother tongue of over nine million Ashanti people. 

I am mulling on the issue of cultural penetration and how a tiny little island like Jamaica has managed  to have its culture adopted worldwide.

This trend of thought began when I saw and listened to the video below.

This video also demonstrates the ridiculousness of still having words commonly used in Jamaca and internationally, labeled 'bad words,' (supposedly indecent language) and the use still being punished in by a fine!

These are totally innocuous words which the British oppressors could not understand when their slaves/colonial subjects used them to express defiance, surprise, frustration etc. hence they banned them and established a 40 shilling fine each time they heard them.

Despite us being independent for 60 years and the shilling not even being in existence anymore, these so-called 'bad words' continue to attract a menial fines. 

It has always been my opinion that the law has never been repealed only because it gives the police another stupid and unnecessary reason to continue oppressing us, although no one uses them more than the police themselves!

In fact, I had the experience some years ago, of a policeman stopping me for a traffic offence and during our heated exchange, he told me some of his badwords and I told him some of mine, only to have my arrest include a charge of using 'indecent language!'

So, the language persecution continues.

This is amusing in some respects, for while we continue with that nonsense, through cultural penetration, our badwords have been adopted by many people throughout world and awarded much love. 

For example, it is impossible to walk around Georgetown in Guyana and not hear one of our favorite 'badwords' raass, in common use.

I recall once being in Dominica in the Eastern Caribbean too and hearing a slew of 'raass, bumboclaat, etc. Thinking a Jamaican was around, I went to introduce myself, only to find that through cultural penetration, the user had been an Antiguan. 

On another occasion I was sitting on a park bench in Colon, Panama, when I heard a teenager shouting  a bunch of  'raass, bumboclaat' etc. on top of his voice. When I approached him, I discovered to my great amusement that he spoke no English, no Patois but was fluent in our 'badwords' which he learnt from his long-dead grandfather who had worked on the Panama Canal and had settled there when the project was completed.

So yes, thanks to cultural penetration, I could write pages on how our language, food and culture took wings long ago.

Let me instead address my favorite term; 'bumbo/bumboclaat ' which is still deemed a 'badword' in Jamaica.

Some years ago, when my grandson attended St. Peter and Paul Preparatory School in Jamaica, I heard him saying 'bumbo'. As it was deemed a 'big people word' in my house, I admonished him gently, only for him to show me the book he was reading entitled "Bumbo the Elephant'".

Horrified, but suspecting it was a misprint, since elephants were often called Dumbo or Jumbo, I approached his teacher the next day to demand that the book be withdrawn. She however insisted that  she had no authority to do so, as books were provided by the Ministry of Education.😓

Long story short, since then, the sanitized bumbo/bumboclaat  has become my favorite expression whenever I am astonished, hurt, impressed, unnerved, stupefied, dumfounded etc!

Thanks to the video above, I have now learnt that bumboclaat has taken on new meanings, in that it has been adopted as the name for a dog and the new definition declared as; ETERNAL PEACE.😅😅😅😅

I like this new trend.

All power to cultural penetration.

https://youtu.be/LYfi5487FEk

 

Jamaica an English-speaking country?

Every time I hear someone say Jamaica is an English-speaking country, I have a good laugh.  Not only because the last survey (2007) done on the topic showed that less than 18% of  us speak it, but because of the hilarious experiences I know about.

The first was when relatives from Nicaragua, Bluefields to be exact, sent their children here to learn English.

For the benefit of those who don’t know of our close connection to that part of the world, let me explain our links.

As you probably know, in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, thousands of Caribbean people including Jamaicans, went to Panama to seek work on the canal project. That was a dangerous project and thousands died, but when it was completed in 1914, some persons returned home. However, many others decided to seek opportunities in the region and those who did not remain in Panama, moved up to Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and even over to the San Andres Island among other places.

Interestingly, it was the Jamaicans who named an area on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua where they settled, Bluefileds, after our own Bluefields in Westmorland.

This is where some of my relatives settled and it was some grandchildren of one of my cousins there, who were sent to Jamaica to learn English. They went to live in Clarendon with another relative who operated a bakery there. While there, they attended elementary school nearby.

Well, that project failed badly, so after a few weeks the parents had to come and retrieve their children, for not only did they not learn a word of English, but also every second word out of the mouth of the babes was a bad word.

I heard an even more amusing story from a young lady I met in Florida where she was studying psychology. She told me she was born in East Asia, Myanmar to be exact and her parents who were doctors, wanted herself and her young brother to learn English. They found on the internet, this beautiful island in the Caribbean where it was revealed that English was spoken. Excitedly, they wrote to the government to enquire if there was any demand for doctors and were quickly recruited.

When they arrived here, they were posted to a quite large, supposedly progressive district in St. Thomas, where, she then nine, and her brother then seven, were enrolled into a local elementary school.

She enjoyed her time there and better yet, how quickly she was becoming proficient at  ‘English!’

Three years later, she was sent to a prestigious high school in Kingston and from the first day, every time she opened her mouth to speak, her colleagues in class laughed uproariously!

At first, she couldn’t understand why, then someone drew her aside to tell her she was speaking patois they were not allowed to do so in class!

Long story short, she eventually learnt English there and was happy to report that she is now tri-lingual, speaking her native language, patois and English!

I don’t how common it is for foreigners to move here to learn English only to learn that we are not really an English-speaking Country. Unfortunately, the problem does not only lie with school kids and some parents but teachers as well. For how well I remember how often I had to go in to see the English Teacher at a Spanish Town high school when I lived there, because she was marking things wrong in my children’s English homework book, when they were right!

I love patois to the point where I now have a you tube channel teaching whoever wishes, to speak Jamaican patois. I, however, love learning other languages for I totally agree with the Canadian, Yama Mubtaker, that “If people had the right skills and intention to communicate well, there would be no conflict. The better we are at communicating, the better our lives will be.”

You know, we have many young ambitious Jamaicans all over the globe teaching English. By not ensuring that all our own citizens master this international language, we are really stymieing their progress in the midst of the myriad of opportunities worldwide in so many different areas.

Why don’t we use some of these specially trained young people  who are teaching foreigners all over the globe, to teach English in those sections of Jamaica where people’s progress is being impeded because of their inability to communicate in this important international language?

Let’s start living in the real world instead of the land of make believe.

English speaking indeed!

 

https://youtu.be/EG_UIhU0uac

(268) JAMAICAN PATWAH - YouTube

 

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San Andres island

View of a section of San Andres from the steeple of the First Baptist church at Mission Hill

San Andres is a Colombian-owned coral island in the Caribbean Sea. This and the nearby islands of Providence and Santa Catalina form the department of San Andres, Providence and Santa Catalina of which San Andres is the largest. These islands are however closer in distance to Panama than Colombia.

A brief  history

According to Wikipedia, the Dutch went to these islands at the end of the 16th century and British settlers arrived in 1628.  

It is also mentioned that Columbus ran into the islands during his fourth voyage. 

Inside the Baptist church

During the 17th century, English Puritans from Barbados and England settled in San Andres and i they later brought in African slaves from Jamaica.

Signs of Jamaican culture visible almost everywhere

Around that period too, the competitive Spaniards saw the economic potential of the islands and attacked the archipelago but were driven out shortly after.

Pirates including the notorious Henry Morgan also used the area in the 1670s as a center of his operations. They attacked Spanish ships carrying gold and other precious material that sailed in the Caribbean waters and also attacked Panama and Santa Maria.

After the temporary Spanish occupation of the islands, they were controlled by the British from 1740 until 1787, agreeing to respect the Creole population.

 In July 1818, the independent forces of Simon Bolivar occupied the islands, and it became part of Gran Colombia on June 23, 1822.

In 1821, the issuing of the Constitution of Cacti determined that every child born in Colombia was born as a free.

When the construction of the Panama Canal ended in the early 1900's, thousands of Jamaicans (and a few other West Indians) workers who had toiled on the project, settled in Colon, Panama; San Andres; Bluefields in Nicaragua and Limon in Costa Rica instead of going home.

 The extremely pervasive Jamaican culture and use of patois in those regions are lasting
reminders of this history.

My introduction to San Andres.

My late cousin-in-law Harris

I first heard of the tiny island of San Andres (it is just over 10 square miles with a population of around 80,000) from a cousin-in-law, Harris, who was born there.

Lifelike statues are all over the island

As a ship's engineer, he had traveled extensively and always insisted that his island was just like mine, Jamaica, so I should go there and see for myself.

Unfortunately, I procrastinated until he died. However, I met several of his relatives at his funeral in August 2018 and they too insisted that I respect his wishes by visiting their island soon.

Finally, in December 2018, I made the trip and was not at all disappointed, for indeed the similarities are stark, especially the similarities to my favorite parish-Portland.

Scooters are the most popular mode of transportation

Downtown San Andres, Centro, also bears a remarkable resemblance to our own western tourism city of Montego Bay with the proliferation of hotels, tourists and great white-sand beaches.

The immediate contrast though is that San Andres has smooth pothole-free roads throughout the island, because unlike our flimsily built asphalted roads, their roads are made from  hardy concrete.

The Mule

There is significantly less traffic there too with the most popular mode of private transportation being scooters, whereas tourists use a larger and hardier variation known as the Mule.

 Anyway, the island does resemble Portland a great deal in that it is extremely green and fruitful with wonderful white-sand beaches.

It is not quite as mountainous though and most importantly it has no rivers or waterfalls.

They, therefore, get their water from wells and have also constructed a desalination plant at place called Cove.

 We visited that area where I was re-introduced to the lifelike statues that the government erects throughout the island to beautify it, and also something called  Babia.

Downtown with its numerous hotels, beaches and tourists reminds me a bit of our own Montego Bay

These tiny croc-like creatures clearly do not like red meat!

The Babia is a small crocodile-like creature that lives in the pond close to where the desalinated water is processed.

What fascinated me about these tiny reptiles is how tame and peaceful they are!

 I just could not believe my eyes as they swam around looking for fish to eat while small dogs and birds were in close proximity, each ignoring the other.

Because the island is so beautiful, I was not surprised that despite their small size, they welcome over half a million tourists annually. 

The attractions that I personally found extremely enticing were the Cays, the stingrays and the Blowhole.

I had always thought of stingrays as being extremely dangerous creatures because of their lethal tail,  even if they do not mean to do harm!

The young man plays with a huge stingray.

However, the captains of the boats that take visitors to nearby Aquarius and Rose Cays apparently do not think so, as they had no problem interacting with these interesting creatures that heavily populate an area close by.


Rose and Aquarius Cays are close to each other, allowing visitors to easily walk

from to the other.  Rose Cay has great beaches and Aquarius, a wide variety of restaurants mainly specializing in seafood.

They are both visited by hundreds of visitors daily as boats arrive and leave in droves non-stop, up to 4pm.

Other Cays that also attract hundreds of visitors are Johnny Cay and Rocky Cay.

A section of Aquarius Cay

While you need to take a boat to Johnny Cay, you can actually walk from the huge white sand beach on the mainland to Rocky Cay.

The attraction that I found most fascinating however was the Blowhole.

The western side of the island is extremely rocky and the water is quite rough but it is still very beautiful.  This is where you find the blowhole which is in fact a big hole in the rocks through which the huge waves forces the water upwards, dousing all who are close by, much to our enjoyment..

Getting doused by the fierce sea spray coming up out of the blowhole

I really enjoyed the bath there.

I think Harris is finally happy that I followed his suggestion to visit his homeland as not only is it as absolutely beautiful as he described but I discovered such a warm and welcoming "family" there. Well, all except for this goose that lives at his cousin Kathleen's home, where I was hosted for my entire stay on the island.

The only unfriendly inhabitant of San Andres that I met!

 He made it known every time he saw me, that I was unwelcome.

However, the humans showed the very opposite attitude as cousins and new friends, made every effort to ensure that my stay was comfortable and most rewarding.

I have rarely felt more welcome and loved elsewhere and considered this visit a mere taste of what I hope will become a giant meal one day. 

Hopefully, San Andres will remain as quiet and peaceful as it is today, although based on some troubling information I garnered during my visit,  I am having a few doubts. 

I enjoyed riding around on the back of 'cousin' Colagio's scooter

As I understand it, there seems to be a major thrust by some "Spaniards" from the mainland to take over the beautiful island and even introduce racism in what I found to be the most integrated society I have ever seen.

Posing with some of my new 'family members' at Cove

 Due to the threat of over-population and excessive pressure on the infrastructure, the government passed laws a few decades ago preventing people from the mainland, living or working on the island unless they marry a native there or have a skill that is not available locally.

 However, an ominous sign that autonomy on the island is in danger arose from the government in Colombia, recently imposing a military person from the mainland to replace the civilian governor on the island.

Further, they have built  a huge police station downtown, which is mainly manned by "Spaniards" from the mainland, many of  whom are not shy to make racist statements against
the local people, it is reported.

 Troubling too is the fact that many from the mainland who sneak into the island through the porous beaches, are wanted for crimes on the mainland and are accused of escalating the drug smuggling industry and introducing a really scary form of extortion to vulnerable local young people on the island.

You can walk from the mainland to Rocky Cay

Hopefully, these trends will be nipped in the bud as San Andres is too close to being a real Garden of Eden to be destroyed.