Africa in Panama / África en Panamá

Toshi Sakai and I have been doing field research on manifestations of the Africanity of Panama for more than a decade. A major element of this Africanity is the amazing number and density of African place names throughout the nation. We have visited many of these places. What has surprised us as much as the presence of these names has been the fact that we didn’t meet anyone who knew what the names meant, including both people who lived in these places and people presumably involved in learning about their African heritage. This article appeared in several Panamanian newspapers, in all cases without the map that made it meaningful.

To read, New Africa in Panama article in English click here.

Para leer el artículo Nueva Africa en Panamá haga clic aquí.

ILLUSTRATION:

Map by Toshi Sakai