| Visiting
The Wounaan In Panama |
| Looking
At Panama's Pre-Modern World |
| By Malcolm Couch |
| Most parts
of our planet are now succumbing to the relentless pressures of modernisation
and globalisation. One of the effects of that pressure is the abandoning
of traditional cultures and their replacement by the “one size fits all”
pseudo-cultures of fast food, cable television and the personal lives of
movie stars. Panama, which has just celebrated its first hundred years
as an independent nation, is an example of a country where the ancient
and ultra-modern co-exist. The capital, also called Panama, is characterised
by its skyscrapers (which would not look out of place in many US cities),
brand new shopping malls and the vibrant, exciting chaos of a growing latin
american city. Although the country has had its fair share of political
problems in the past, and retains a few to this day, at present it is stable
and peaceful, and is certainly one of the safest places to visit in the
Americas. |
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| Getting to
Panama is easy, and one of the activities that you might want to consider
during a trip is a visit to one of the indigenous people who live in the
rainforest. One such people is the Wounaan.
As there are
now probably less than 3,000 Wounaan people following the old ways, spending
a day to visit them not only gives you exposure to living history but also
allows you to help directly without interfering with their way of life.
There are other
peoples in addition to the Wounaan living in the virgin rainforests of
Panama, mainly in the province of Darien. Darien is inaccessible,
far from the city and, as it harbours a number of paramilitaries from neighbouring
Colombia, not safe for travellers to its interior.
Luckily, there
are some Wounaan communities living very close to Panama City. A
40 minute car ride, followed by a 20 minute trip in a boat will get you
to the villages on Isla San Antonio. This small island is at the
Pacific end of Lake Gatun, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. |
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| It is not
well known that most of the Panama Canal is actually Lake Gatun.
When the lake was created, tens of villages were submerged and tens of
thousands of people displaced.
Robin Baily
is a retired British businessman who has been supporting the Wounaan of
San Antonio for a number of years.
He first met
them through the introduction of a friend who was teaching sustainable
agricultural methods, and has been a regular adviser and friend of the
communities since, always helping out with full regard to the wishes of
the people themselves. Robin will arrange a rendezvous point in the
city and then guide you to the pick-up point for the boat. He can
also translate for you if you are not Spanish speakers. The Wounaan
have their own language, but their village elder, Felipe, speaks fluent
Spanish also. |
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Offshore
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| I have been
living in Panama with my family for almost a year now. As we come
from the UK, one of our main aims is to see as much of the region and its
culture as possible. That is sometimes limited by having a two small
children (aged three and five) with us, but we don’t let it hold us back
too much.
We contacted
Robin after hearing about the work that he does with the Wounaan, and we
joined one of his visiting parties, made up of ourselves, some Germans
and some Swedes – all of us a long way from home base!
San Antonio
is not far from the Gamboa Rainforest Resort, a well-known hotel and eco-tourism
centre. The drive from Panama City to Gamboa is interesting and beatiful
in itself. After leaving the city, you go past the Pacific lock systems
of the Canal, which are also well worth a visit. A little further
along, is a serene green hillside covered with white crosses. This
is the “French Cemetery”, where many of the people who died during the
first attempt to build a Panama Canal are buried. You then get to
the construction site of the second bridge across the Canal. The
towers are already in place, and it is obvious that another modern marvel
is being created. |
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| On the road
to Gamboa proper, you pass Summit Park, home of Panama’s national zoological
and botanical gardens. Again, I would advise you to visit this place
as the plant collections in particular are stunning. You are now
driving with rainforest on each side of the road. If you wind down
the windows of your car you can here a steady background noise hiss made
by the millions of insects in the forest. You will also see irridescent
blue butterflies flashing across the road that are so pretty you want to
just stop and watch them.
Once at Gamboa,
the real adventure starts. For water transport, the Wounan use the
cayuco, a long canoe made from a hollowed-out tree trunk. We were
warned that the vessel would roll a lot, but not actually roll over.
We experienced the rolling before setting off, as it is the best way to
free the boat from the mud at the lake’s edge. |
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Offshore
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| It really
felt like we were all going to fall in, but we were safe. The first
stage of the journey is through a dense carpet of water plants similar
to lilies. You then break through onto a lake surface so still and
shiny, it is like a mirror. Being in the cayuco, you are very close
to the water, and can trail your hand in it; assuming, of course,
that you are not afraid of cayman (small alligators) that live in the lake.
Once at the
island you are greeted by Felipe and the people of the village. Robin asks
each visitor to give a small monetary donation to the village. The
villagers also set up a bench of art and basketwork when they have visitors,
and you can help them some more by buying something.The art of the Wounaan
is based principally on wood carving and basket weaving, with all of the
materials, including pigments, coming from the forest around them.
Felipe takes
you on a 30-60 minute forest walk, explaining how his people use the various
trees and plants for construction, food, medicine and magic charms.
One favourite description was of a plant from which a lotion can be made,
in which a man must bathe in if he fears that his partner is about to leave
him. Apparently, it works every time! Another plant has leaves
with psychotropic properties and is used by the shamans when they are communing
with the spirits. There is some tension between the Wounaan way of life
and the modern Panamanian state, as Isla San Antonio is now part of a ntional
park. As a consequence, certain activities, such as felling trees,
are against the law. Felipe described how they need to wait for a
tree to fall down before they can make a new cayuco.
The Wounaan
can obtain a rich diet from the forest and lake when times are good.
Fish can be caught in abundance, and the lake also provides turtle and
caiman, both of which are edible. Jungle animals are also hunted. The tapir,
peccary, deer, armadillo, iguana, and monkey can make a good meal.
Some plants are cultivated, including yucca, yams and beans together with
fruits such as plantains, bananas, pineapples, papayas, guavas and avocados.
Back at the
village, Felipe invites visitors up into one of the houses. The dwelling
is basically a platform raised on posts several feet above the ground.
Overhead is a roof of thatched palm leaves, the joints tied with vines.
There are no walls between the platform and the roof. Access to the platform
is up a ladder made by cutting notches into a pole or a log. At one end
of the floor, which is made of cane is a cooking area, consisting of logs
placed on a clay mound. A small fire can be lit at the centre. Carved
wood provides kitchen utensils. The Wounaan sleep on the floor of
the houses on beds made from the bark of trees which women have made soft
by beating it under water. There is no “bedding”. A wooden block serves
as a pillow. The people have no protection from the excessive heat, from
insects or much protection from the heavy rains..
As I mentioned
at the beginning of this piece, many things are threatening the traditional
way of life being followed by people like the Wounaan. An intrinsic
pride, resourcefulness and the help of some enlightened people like Robin
keeps them going. Visiting San Antonio amazed and fascinated us,
but it also made us feel incredibly humble. We may feel that we “need”,
television, aeroplanes, cars and pizzas, but what we saw in the Wounaan
village was the same scene that greeted the Spanish five hundred years
ago. It proves that our species can cope with very little other than
that special piece of kit between our ears.
You can contact
me on malcolmcouch@hotmail.com,
and Robin on robaily@cwpanama.net... |
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