Girvan, Caribbean ties to the Atlantic side

Last October 11, the city of Bluefields on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast celebrated its centenary. The Government of President Enrique Bolaños turned the occasion into a regional event that celebrated Nicaragua's Caribbean connections and gave recognition to that country's its ethnic and cultural diversity. Among the specially invited guests were the Prime Minister of Belize, the Foreign Ministers of Jamaica and the Dominican Republic and the Secretaries General of the ACS and CARICOM. Their presence symbolised the often overlooked linkages of history and culture between the communities of the Caribbean coast of Central America and those of the island Caribbean.

In Jamaica, "Bluefields" is well known as a south coast community whose picturesque white sand beach is hugely popular. Belize, too, has a "Bluefields Cay". All the Bluefields' are said to derive their name from the activities of a Dutch pirate named Blaunveldt who roamed the western Caribbean islands and the Central America coast in the early 17th century.

Nicaragua's Bluefields, founded around 1602, came under British influence in 1633 and remained so until well into the 19th century. As such, it was part of a chain of British outposts on the Central American mainland that stretched from Panama to Honduras. Jamaica, being the nearest British colony on the islands, became a source of political and military authority and of population --- Bluefields was administered directly from Jamaica from 1730 to 1744, when it became the capital of the newly formed British territory of Miskotolandia. Not until 1894 did the independent Nicaraguan Republic establish military and political authority over the area, granting Bluefields municipal status in 1903.

For centuries, therefore, free people of African ancestry from Jamaica, Belize and Gran Cayman populated Bluefields, often intermixing with the indigenous Miskitos people. The latter part of the 20th century saw an influx of migrants from Nicaragua's Pacific Coast. Today, Bluefields's population of approximately 45,000 is around 57 percent Mestizo and 36 percent Creole (i.e. Afro- Caribbean) with the remaining seven percent being Miskitos and Garifunas.

Bluefields's culture retains a strongly Caribbean flavour. English is spoken with a distinctive Jamaican lilt and Jamaican patois is widely spoken by many people whose only contact with the island lies in the dim recollections of ancestors handed down from generation to generation. Blufileña cuisine is an often mysterious adaptation of Jamaican dishes to the local environment --- "run-dung", a popular local dish, is cooked with the meat of the wild pig. Anglo-Caribbean names also predominate among the creoles population. Reggae is heard everywhere and dreadlocks are very much in evidence. In the 1980s when Bluefields was made the capital of the Autonomous Atlantic Region of the South, whose Spanish initials --- RAAS -- - have a suspiciously Jamaican ring. Bluefields is a fascinating amalgam of 19th century West Indian and 21st century Central America.

As part of the centenary celebration a strong contingent of CARICOM businessmen, mainly from Jamaica, visited Bluefields and held meetings with the city's business community. Opportunities for trade and tourism were identified. An air link with Jamaica directly from Bluefields or via Managua or San Jose, facilitated by an upgraded airport, would be a big step towards this. At the centenary, President Bolaños inaugurated construction of a new airport control tower and several telecommunications projects. Hence Nicaragua's --- and Central America's --- Caribbean connections can serve as a vehicle for cementing new economic and cultural ties with the insular Caribbean.

opinion

Caribbean connections