UWI Mona conference to spotlight Jamaica–San Andrés shared heritage

Colombia’s San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina archipelago sits roughly 482 miles (775 kilometres) northwest of the Colombian mainland and forms one of that country’s departments. San Andrés is the biggest island and houses the departmental capital, San Andrés City.

Ties to Jamaica stretch to the 1600s, when English traders and enslavers moved Africans from Jamaica to the islands. Their descendants are the Raizal people, who today use Spanish alongside an English-based Creole.

Those connections take centre stage at the Caribbean Continuity Conference on July 23 at the Regional Headquarters of The University of the West Indies, Mona. The single-day gathering is organised by the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica/Jamaica Memory Bank (ACIJ/JMB), working with the Embassy of Colombia to Jamaica and the Centre for Reparation Research (CRR).

Dr Kirt Henry, director of the ACIJ/JMB, said the programme shows the institute’s drive to link past experience with present-day cultural life.

“The preservation of cultural memory is not an exercise in nostalgia; it is a necessary foundation for informed policymaking, social cohesion, and sustainable development. The historical relationships between Jamaica and San Andrés have too often existed at the margins of Caribbean scholarship. This conference seeks to bring those connections into sharper focus by creating an interdisciplinary platform where historical inquiry, cultural practice, and community knowledge can collectively contribute to a richer understanding of our shared Caribbean experience,” he said.

Running under the theme ‘Shared Histories, Shared Futures: Pathways to Reparative Justice in San Andrés and Jamaica’, the meeting is one strand of a wider cultural exchange effort meant to deepen cooperation between Jamaica and the archipelago. Diplomats, scholars, researchers, cultural workers, policymakers and community leaders are expected to take part.

Organisers say attendees will look at the historical, linguistic and cultural bonds joining Jamaica and San Andrés.

“Through scholarly dialogue, community perspectives, and cultural performances, the event will explore how these shared histories can inform contemporary conversations on cultural preservation, identity, reparative justice, and regional collaboration,” they said.

Dr Alberto Gordon May — educator, theologian, community leader and president pro tempore of the Western Caribbean Peoples — will give the keynote. Two panel sessions are also lined up, drawing in voices from traditional communities such as the Maroons and Rastafari, plus officials from the partner institutions.

“Cultural performances by musicians from San Andrés will further celebrate the living traditions that continue to bind Caribbean peoples across geographical boundaries,” the ACIJ/JMB said.

Emiliana Bernard Stephenson, Colombia’s ambassador to Jamaica, called the conference a meaningful move to fortify bilateral ties through cultural work.

“The Caribbean has always been connected by more than geography. It is connected through memory, migration, language, and the creativity of its people. This conference recognises that our histories are deeply intertwined and that meaningful diplomacy must also be cultural diplomacy. By creating spaces where scholarship, community voices, and lived experiences converge, we reaffirm our shared responsibility to preserve our collective heritage while shaping a more just and collaborative future for our region,” she said.

On reparative justice, Professor Sonjah Stanley Niaah, director of the Centre for Reparation Research, maintained that the idea reaches past courtroom and money matters alone.

“Reparative justice is fundamentally about restoring relationships, recognising historical truths, and affirming the cultural identities that colonial systems sought to erase or diminish. The dialogue between Jamaica and San Andrés offers an important opportunity to examine how shared histories of displacement, resistance, and cultural continuity can inform contemporary models of justice that are rooted in dignity, mutual recognition, and regional solidarity. This conference demonstrates that culture itself is one of the most powerful vehicles for repair.”

Admission is free and the public may attend. People wishing to take part are asked to register interest by emailing [email protected].