#afro-panamanian

[kingofreturn41]

Afro-Panamanian

[otraspoeticas]

A little poem by Darrel Alejandro Holnes.

[forthosebefore]

Bayano, also known as Ballano or Vaino, was an African enslaved by Spaniards who led the biggest slave revolts of 16th century Panama. Captured from the Yoruba community in West Africa, it has been argued that his name means idol. Different tales tell of their revolt in 1552 beginning either on the ship en route, or after landing in Panama's Darien province along its modern-day border with Colombia. Rebel slaves, known as cimarrones, set up autonomous regions known as palenques, many of which successfully fended off Spanish control for centuries using guerrilla war and alliances with pirates, or indigenous nations who were in similar circumstances.

King Bayano's forces numbered between four and twelve hundred Cimarrons, depending upon different sources, and set up a palenque known as Ronconcholon near modern-day Chepo River, also known as Rio Bayano. They fought their guerrilla war for over five years while building their community. However, the most important primary source, written in 1581 by Pedro de Aguado, devotes space to their religious life, and describes the activities of a "bishop" who guided the community in prayer, baptized them, and delivered sermons, in a manner that Aguado believed to be essentially Christian. Bayano gained truces with Panama's colonial governor, Pedro de Ursúa, but Ursúa subsequently captured the guerrilla leader and sent him to Peru and then to Spain, where he died. Bayano's revolt coincided with that of King Miguel de Buría (1551/52-1553/55) and was followed by Luis de Mozambique (1579-1582) and dozens more during the following century.

Bayano's name has become immortal in the Panamanian consciousness through the naming of a major river, a lake, a valley, a dam, and several companies after him. Source: Wikipedia

[kingofreturn41]

[forthosebefore]

Bayano

Bayano was a fugitive slave and leader of anticolonial rebellion in Panama. He was born in the early decades of the 16th century in Africa, but nothing is know of his life prior to arriving in Panama. Some believe he was a Mande-speaking Muslim from west Africa.

In 1552 a slave ship carrying Bayano and 400 slaves arrived in Panama to replace the Natives that had died from small pox and mistreatment. When the slave ship that was carrying him ran aground, he and the other slaves escaped ashore. By 1553 Bayano had immersed as a formidable opponent of Spanish authority and slavery.

Sources written by Spanish authors describe him as being very handsome and spoke Spanish well. His Spanish opponents thought he may have been a king or leader in his homeland. They called him el rey negro Bayano (the black king Bayano).

Read the entire excerpt in the Dictionary of African Biography

[char-o]

A customer at work asked me what my nationality was. I told him a central American country because my family is from one. After I told him he told me he "knew I was mixed with something"....no the only thing I'm mixed with is more black. Race and nationality is not the same thing.

[dutchessofdork]

Former Chief Justice Graciela Dixon

The Former Chief Justice of Panama Graciela Dixon is one of the first Afro-Panamanian women to take the position.

  “Judges have the great and sensitive task of building peace in each of our rulings. Judges are one of the most important beings on earth because we have great responsibility-if we accept it. I think I am blessed to be able to take on these responsibilities.”-Graciela Dixon

Graciela has a Bachelor's Degree in Law and Political Science from the University of Panama, post graduate degree in Human Rights from University of Santa Maria La Antigua University in Panama. She received specialized judicial education with the Training Program for Court Judges and Magistrates at the General Counsel of the Judicial Branch in Barcelona, Spain, and training in constitutional law at the Carlos III University in Madrid, Spain.  

She was one of the representing attorneys for the victims of US intervention in Panama in the late 1980s. In 1995, she was a national consultant to UNICEF’s Technical Committee for the Implementation of Family Code for the Republic of Panama; and in 1996, she was an international delegate for the International Women’s Organization during the Presidential elections in Nicaragua.

She practiced as a litigation attorney for 22 years until 2005, when she was elected to the Chief Justice position for 2 year tenure.

If anyone has any other information on her, I would be glad to know of it.

[vintageblackbeauty-blog]

Woman of the Chagres region. (1913)