In case you are a little bit disappointed that the blog has ended, here is a small bonus feature.
While the neighbouring countries around Panama are quite well known for their colorful indigenous populations, we have never heard of any in Panama. So it was more than a pleasant surprise when we first came across the diminutive Guna Yala women selling their handicrafts in the old city quarter of Casco Viejo. Despite their short stature (Wikipedia says they are the smallest people in the world after the Batwa Pygmies in Africa) they cut an impressive figure with their bright clothing of hand made molas and geometric beaded leg coverings.
As it often is around the world the women are the keepers of the culture and language. No wonder our home language is called mother tongue, not father tongue. It is very much so with Guna Yala women that have kept their clothing and traditions alive. What is more unusual is that the women have a significant place in the society because the inheritance goes through the matrilineal line. When we visited a tiny island with a restaurant and a few tourist bungalows we were told it belonged to the grandmother of the clan. Our translator claimed that Guna value girls more than boys and when we visited the preschool on their main island we were surprised that 3/4 of the class were girls and only 1/4 boys. Yet all the Guna women we met had pretty much equal number of sons and daughters. While the old men had the official title of the Guna Yala Congress representative, they were mostly spending their time “thinking” in the hammocks in their community house, while the women were out there organizing the community, running schools, checking on sick neighbors and clinic’s medical supplies and organizing a Cultural week and dance competition for the schoolkids. We met a young woman law student Nailini who organized an indigenous festival in Panama City and she was the only one of the whole comittee who could speak English. She had a posse of other young women helping with the finances and logistics while the guys were relegated to moving furniture and taking photos. She said it was difficult to maintain the Guna identity in the city and keep the traditions and especially the language alive. It was sad to see that most of the school kids on the islands could not speak their ancestor’s tongue. Even the simple Nue gambi? (How are you?) that we learned from the elders got no response.
The 50,000 Guna Yala are rather unique because they have autonomy within the country. There is no federal police allowed on their lands and islands and no businesses or hotels can be owned by non natives. They won these concessions after their Dule Revolution in 1925 when they staged an armed uprising against the Panamanian government who tried to “civilize” them by prohibiting amongst other the women’s dress and gold nose rings. The nose ring was a part of the puberty ritual in which the girls also had their long black hair cut and covered with a red scarf. The older women still wear their hair short and covered but the young girls like their hair long and definitely consider gold only for earings or necklaces. The Guna people live on the land by the sea in Panama and Colombia and on 365 islands formerly known as Saint Blas. All of them are small and only 50 are inhabited. There is no potable water, bad sanitation and no garbage removal. The overcrowding contributes to poor health and the one clinic we visited was in a very poor condition with dedicated staff fighting mainland beaurocracy, lack of equipment and medication as well as salt air corrosion that quickly destroys the little equipment they have. The schools and library are besotted by the effects of humidity that penetrates the books. The students we talked to might be slow to pick up languages but as everywhere around the world the teens are quick to pick up cell phones.
There are other smaller Indian groups like Ngobe-Bugle and Embera, but that is a story for another day.
