Founded as a key Atlantic port and later transformed by the construction of the Panama Railroad and Canal, Colón has long been a vital center of Afro-Caribbean presence, labor, and political struggle. Generations of Afro-descendant communities, particularly West Indian migrants and their descendants, have navigated racial segregation, economic exploitation, and systemic exclusion while developing enduring forms of cultural expression and civic engagement. From early labor organizing and diasporic media to contemporary youth and women’s movements, Afro-Colonense communities have continuously asserted their autonomy, challenged inequality, and redefined the contours of Panamanian national identity.
Colón, Panama has been a crucial site of Afro-Caribbean resistance, labor, and cultural production from the colonial era to the present. Enslaved Africans first arrived in the early 1500s, with many resisting through shipboard rebellions, maroon communities, and the creation of palenques. The 19th and early 20th centuries saw major migration from the Anglophone Caribbean, as tens of thousands of Afro-Antillean laborers came to build the Panama Railroad and Canal. These migrants faced systemic racial discrimination through the U.S. "gold and silver roll" system and were segregated into "silver towns." Despite this, Afro-Caribbean communities in Colón fostered powerful political and cultural networks, especially through institutions like The Panama Tribune and the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) at Liberty Hall, which became sites of early Black feminist writing, labor organizing, and anti-racist advocacy. Today, Colón remains majority Afro-descendant and continues to challenge racial inequality through grassroots activism, cultural memory work, and demands for state accountability.
The arrival of enslaved Africans to the isthmus of Panama began as early as 1513. From the outset, Afro-descendants resisted the conditions of bondage through individual and collective rebellion. Shipboard uprisings, escapes from forced labor, and the establishment of maroon communities and palenques became vital forms of Black resistance. These autonomous settlements in the forests and highlands challenged colonial control and, at times, forced Spanish authorities to enter into negotiations with maroon leaders. Throughout the 16th to 19th centuries, these insurgent strategies carved out spaces of relative freedom, even amid brutal repression and a racialized caste system that sought to marginalize Black, Indigenous, and mixed-race populations.
Colón's modern history is inseparable from 19th- and early 20th-century waves of Afro-Caribbean migration. With the construction of the Panama Railroad in the 1850s and the French and U.S. attempts to build the Panama Canal in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the isthmus became a magnet for Black workers from across the British West Indies. Migrants came primarily from Jamaica, Barbados, Saint Lucia, and Martinique. By the time the U.S.-led construction of the canal began in 1904, hundreds of thousands of Afro-Antillean laborers had arrived in Panama, with many settling in Colón. These migrants were essential to the success of the canal project but were systematically exploited through a racially segregated labor regime known as the "gold and silver roll" system. White U.S. citizens were paid on the "gold roll" and received higher wages, benefits, and better housing, while Black and non-white workers were placed on the "silver roll" with significantly lower pay and inferior living conditions. This system extended to spatial segregation, dividing Colón and the Canal Zone into "gold towns" and "silver towns," reproducing Jim Crow-era structures in a Caribbean context.
The labor of Afro-Caribbean women was critical to the life of Colón and the broader Canal Zone. In addition to domestic work, food preparation, laundering, and caregiving, women engaged in unrecognized forms of emotional and reproductive labor that sustained entire communities. While often excluded from formal records, their work undergirded the success of the canal construction and the survival of Afro-Caribbean families in hostile conditions. These women also played key roles in early Black feminist organizing, using newspapers, mutual aid societies, and civic associations to challenge gendered and racial exclusions.
Despite persistent racism and exclusion, Colón became an important site of Afro-Caribbean political thought, cultural production, and labor organizing. In 1920, Afro-Caribbean workers in Colón helped lead one of the largest labor strikes in Panamanian history, demanding better wages and working conditions. The strike garnered the support of 90% of workers and marked a watershed moment in the history of diasporic resistance.
Throughout the 20th century, organizations like the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) played a foundational role in organizing Black Panamanians and promoting pan-African and diasporic solidarities. Liberty Hall in Colón served as a community center, school, and meeting place for political debate and strategy. The Panama Tribune, an English-language newspaper founded and run by Afro-Caribbean Panamanians, became a critical platform for challenging anti-Black racism, promoting Afro-Caribbean pride, and sustaining intellectual and political dialogue across the diaspora.
Through editorials, advice columns, and cultural commentary, Black feminist thinkers such as Amy Denniston, Amy Jacques Garvey, Maymie de Mena, and Leonor Jump cultivated Afro-diasporic kinship networks, articulated critiques of xenophobia and sexism, and foregrounded Black women’s voices in political life. Their writing emphasized the importance of education, cultural pride, and civic engagement, helping to shape a feminist praxis grounded in everyday life and collective empowerment.
Figures like George Westerman and Pedro N. Rhodes also played pivotal roles. Westerman, a prolific writer and political advocate, chaired the Liga Cívica Nacional and helped revise Panama’s 1946 Constitution, using international platforms to expose labor discrimination in the Canal Zone. Rhodes, a trained lawyer and elected official, fought against nationality laws that targeted Afro-Caribbean Panamanians and was central in campaigns for constitutional reform and legal recognition. Together, these leaders and the broader communities they represented forged a rich tradition of Afro-Caribbean cultural and political organizing in Colón, laying the groundwork for continued resistance and advocacy into the present.
Throughout the 20th century, Panama cultivated a national identity that minimized racial difference, often promoting a narrative of racial harmony or mestizaje that obscured the realities of anti-Black discrimination. Afro-Caribbean Panamanians, especially those in Colón, were often denied access to state resources, political representation, and basic services. Despite making up a majority of the population in Colón, Afro-descendants were systematically excluded from decision-making and faced high rates of unemployment, poverty, and limited access to health care and education.
Efforts to assert Afro-Caribbean presence and rights have continued into the present. In the 1990s, the Black Movement in Panama gained momentum, pushing for constitutional reforms, anti-discrimination laws, and international advocacy. The creation of the National Secretariat for the Development of Afro-Panamanians (SENADAP) in 2016 marked a step toward official recognition, though many challenges remain. Organizations such as the National Coordinator for Afro-Panamanian Organizations (CONEGPA) continue to demand justice, investment, and inclusion for Black Panamanians.
● Fundación de la Etnia Negra de Panamá (FEN) — FEN is a civil society organization dedicated to promoting Afro-descendant culture in Panama. It has partnered with international organizations to strengthen Afro-descendant civil society organizations in Colón.
● Fundación Ubuntu — Afro-descendant community of Colón.
● PANAMAAFRO — A comprehensive and evolving registry of Afro-Panamanian organizations across the country, created to address the lack of an official state record of Afro-descendant groups. The directory includes legally recognized associations, informal community collectives, and grassroots initiatives that engage in cultural, political, and social advocacy relevant to Afro-Panamanian life.
● Priestley, George, and A. Barrow. "The Black Movement in Panamá: A Historical and Political Interpretation, 1994–2004." Souls 10, no. 3 (2008): 227–55.
● Lowe de Goodin, Melva. Afrodescendientes En El Istmo de Panamá 1501-2012. Panamá: Editora Sibauste, S.A., 2012.
● Doig-Acuña, Maya. "The Most Caribbean of Stories." Southern Cultures 26, no. 4 (2020): 12–23.
● Corinealdi, Kaysha. Panama in Black: Afro-Caribbean World Making in the Twentieth Century. Durham: Duke University Press, 2022.
● Flores-Villalobos, Joan. The Silver Women: How Black Women’s Labor Made the Panama Canal. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023.
● Wallace, Javier L. "Lost In Translation: Reverted Black Panamanian Sporting Networks." Southern Cultures 29, no. 2 (2023): 24–37.
BCA is a platform dedicated to amplifying Black Central American history, culture, and scholarship. Through curated content, innovative programming, and collaborative initiatives, we explore the collective memory, cultural and political organizing, and creative place-making practices of Black Central American communities across the isthmus and its diasporas.
