On Tourism and the Constructions of ‘Paradise Islands’ in Central America and the Caribbean

Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 21–34, 2011

On Tourism and the Constructionsof ‘Paradise Islands’ in CentralAmerica and the Caribbean

CARLA GUERRON MONTEROUniversity of Delaware, USA

A comparative perspective of the tourism industry in the islands of Colon,Panama and Carriacou, Grenada is presented in this article. The islandshave long histories of association with colonial powers, coupled withmore recent histories of ‘discovery’ as tourist destinations. The historicalconstructions of ‘paradise islands’ and the appropriation of tourism fornation-building purposes in these territories are analysed. The discussionassesses the underlying reasons for the differing responses by AfricanCaribbean populations toward tourism development, in spite of similarcolonial and postcolonial histories.

Keywords: African Caribbeans, Grenada, island, Panama, paradise,tourism.

Paradise would appear to be ruled by two warring sisters. . . a nexus of contrary meanings [that oscillates]between water and light (Paz, 1973: 91–92).

Introduction

The island of Carriacou, part of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles, and the archipelagoof Bocas del Toro (part of Panama), were both sites at which Admiral ChristopherColumbus landed during his ‘voyages of discovery’. He arrived in Carriacou on histhird voyage to the Americas in August 1498, and in Bocas in October 1502, on hisfourth and final voyage. In both cases, Columbus noted the beauty and idyllic natureof these islands, eager as he was to find the promised ‘Terrestrial Paradise’ (Johnson,1994: 691). Perhaps Columbus’s descriptions are the precursors of the numerous imagesthat fill tourism brochures about the Caribbean today, as destinations that are ‘discov-ered’, ‘conquered’ and ‘possessed’, figuratively and literally, by tourists and the tourismmarket. Despite the Caribbean being one of the world’s most socially and ethnicallyheterogeneous regions (Mintz and Price, 1985), tourism and popular media images oftenreproduce simplified, culturally uniform images of paradise-like places, characterised byexoticism and exuberance. European colonial history is replete with views of Caribbeanislands as lands of plenty, as never changing and timeless (Benítez-Rojo, 1989; Johnson,1994; Saunders, 2000; Sheller, 2004).

© 2010 The Author. Bulletin of Latin American Research © 2010 Society for Latin American Studies.Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street,Malden, MA 02148, USA. 21

Carla Guerron Montero

Social science scholarship has stressed that tourism is a complex cultural phenomenonresulting from a dialogue among hosts, guests, and tourism mediators – including localand national governments (Picard and Wood, 1997; Chambers, 2000; Bruner, 2004). Inthe Caribbean, this situation is heightened by the region’s global orientation throughoutits history, particularly since the sixteenth century (Amit, 2001). Although Caribbeanistanthropology has been concerned with global/local articulations (Slocum and Thomas,2003), a comparative approach to the study of island tourism specifically has been lessexplored (but see Ballerino Cohen, 1998).

Here I offer a comparative perspective of two insular territories with a long history ofassociation with colonial powers, yet with a recent history of ‘discovery’ in the tourismmarket. I compare Colon Island in the archipelago of Bocas del Toro, the ‘Galapagos ofthe 21st Century’ (IPAT, 2005), with Carriacou, the ‘Gem of the Grenadines’ (GrenadianTourism Board, 2005). I focus on the islands’ African Caribbean populations, and lookat the historical construction of paradise islands in these territories that were invaded bythe US during the 1980s – Panama on 20 December 1989, and Grenada on 25 October1983 – and rely on tourism as an industry. A key objective of this article is to respondto the question, ‘How do African Caribbeans in Panama and Grenada understand theirlandscape both as home and a tourism destination?’ I consider the responses of AfricanCaribbean ‘hosts’ to the representations of paradise islands proposed by tourismmediators (including governmental authorities) and ‘guests’. I understand ‘paradise’as a spatial utopia, as the identification and description of ‘a virtual or potentialgeographical order held to be perfect or much closer to perfection than any other onecurrently existing’ (Halpin, 2001: 301). I discuss how islanders from these stereotypical‘paradises’ define islandness, how they represent their islands through tourism, and theoutcomes of those representations.

The article is based on ethnographic field work undertaken by the author inPanama, between 1997 and 2006, and in Grenada between 2004 and 2005. Researchmethodologies incorporated participant observation and open-ended interviews withlocal African Caribbeans who were involved with, and marginalised from, tourism,public officials, and national and international tourists. Ninety-five individuals inPanama and 26 people in Grenada were interviewed. Interviewees were selected vianon-probability purposive sampling (Bernard, 2006) to discuss their participation inthe tourism industry. Interviews were used to assess the views of men and women, agedbetween 20 and 65 years old, from low, medium and high socio-economic classes.

Colon Island and Carriacou are both Caribbean territories, historically and geo-graphically. They share a history of dual European colonisation, which generated thearrival of African enslaved peoples to their territories since the sixteenth century. Theywere both plantation economies with a tradition of overseas migration. Panamanianand Grenadian governments have struggled to overcome frequent representations ofpolitical instability, and the overt influence of external states. This history has served tolimit the attractiveness of these locations to the international tourism industry comparedwith neighbouring Caribbean destinations.

Despite historical similarities, the populations of Colon Island and Carriacou haveresponded differently to tourism development: the former have embraced tourism andthe resulting infrastructural and symbolic development; the latter have emphasisedsmall-scale tourism development, while limiting foreign-investment. There are threemain factors that explain this difference: (a) approaches toward national identitybecause of specific political events; (b) racial configurations; and (c) migration patterns.The following sections address these factors from a comparative perspective.

© 2010 The Author. Bulletin of Latin American Research © 2010 Society for Latin American Studies22 Bulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 30, No. 1

On Tourism and the Constructions of ‘Paradise Islands’

From Commodity Plantations to Tourism Transplantations

Images of Caribbean islands as tropical paradises have influenced European literature,philosophy and the arts, particularly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries(Carpentier, 1979; Abreu y Gomez, 1982; Johnson, 1994). In the eighteenth century,these views were modified to include representations that included plantations (whichjustified slavery and the conversion of wildlands to commercial agricultural produc-tion), while still maintaining reference to idyllic landscapes devoid of suffering (Grove,1995). These images are ‘the foundations for subsequent developments of the ‘‘touristgaze,’’ which have continued to imbue Caribbean landscapes and scenery with moralmeanings’ (Sheller, 2004: 172).

Caribbean island histories have been described as going from ‘sugar plantation totourist transplantation’ (Nair, 1996: 72). Metaphors of discovery, conquest, appropria-tion and possession are commonplace in Caribbean travel literature (Wilk, 1995; Amit,2001). The region has been unceasingly packaged and sold to northern consumers,‘who enter the ‘‘‘summer seas’’ with a set of preconceptions not only about the naturalscenery but also about the bodily pleasures to be found there’ (Sheller, 2004: 177).The Caribbean is sold to tourists as a series of fantasies and expectations multipliedad infinitum in tourism brochures (Nair, 1996): ‘bronze’ bodies against beautiful,untouched sceneries (Johnston, 1909); ‘attractive and colourful commodity fetish – ofsun, sea, sand, palm trees, colonial scenes, reggae music and the ‘‘relaxed spicy lifestyle’’of Caribbean people’ (Cook and Harrison, 2003: 297). These fantasies underscore astandardised representation of the Caribbean, conveniently dispensing with its var-ied histories of slavery, colonialism, globalisation and migration. The Caribbean hasbeen considered by the West as a place to be discovered, conquered, and possessedenvironmentally, socially and economically.

Tourism has been held as the panacea for developing world countries by interna-tional lending organisations such as the World Bank and the International MonetaryFund, whose pressure has motivated these countries to build tax heavens and diversifytheir economies to accommodate tourism (Hampton, 2003). In the case of small islandCaribbean economies, the move has been away from traditional exports of sugar, coffeeand cocoa towards tourism and related industries (Baldacchino and Milne, 2000).After the Second World War, more Caribbean economies turned towards beach-basedtourism: ‘Labour and capital were increasingly diverted from the chronically depressedagricultural sector to tourism. The resort hotel gradually replaced the plantation as theprimary model of production in an economy still organised by the principles of theplantation monoculture’ (Weaver, 1993: 135).

Colon Island and Carriacou are good examples of these changed landscapes. ColonIsland has become increasingly popular as an eco-tourism destination since the early1990s. The government promotes it as a ‘pristine’ environment, calling it ‘the Galapagosof the 21st century’ and more recently, ‘the Venice of the Caribbean’ (Guerron Montero,2005, 2006b). It has approximately 18,000 inhabitants distributed on nine islands.Colon Island, with almost 5,000 inhabitants, is the capital of the archipelago and theprovince. The Archipelago has been a multicultural site since colonial times, with apopulation consisting of African Caribbeans, Chinese Panamanians, indigenous groups(particularly Ngobe), Panamanian Latinos and, more recently, resident expatriates,mostly from North America and Europe.

The archipelago possessed one of the most productive banana plantations in CentralAmerica from the late nineteenth century until the 1920s. Cacao plantations were also

© 2010 The Author. Bulletin of Latin American Research © 2010 Society for Latin American StudiesBulletin of Latin American Research Vol. 30, No. 1 23


important. Between the 1930s and 1990s, the economy of the archipelago stagnated;production in banana and cacao plantations was drastically reduced by disease andovershadowed by greater production elsewhere. Subsistence agriculture, fishing andturtle hunting were the order of the day until an accelerated growth of tourism inthe 1990s. Since then, the archipelago has become a popular place for ‘eco-vacations’(Guerron Montero, 2005, 2006b).

Carriacou is the largest island of the Grenadines Archipelago with a populationof about 6,000 people, and part of the British Commonwealth as a dependency ofGrenada, which itself constitutes a three-island state comprising of Grenada and two ofthe Grenadines, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. The population of Carriacou is mostlycomposed of descendants of slaves from West Africa, and descendants of the offspring ofFrench, English and Scottish settlers and their slaves (Kephart, 2003). Sugar productiondominated the island historically. By 1776, the British had introduced a large-scalesugar operation, with some 3,000 enslaved labourers. As Kephart (2003) states, ‘Carri-acou has never recovered ecologically from this deliberate overdevelopment’ (Kephart,2003: 228).

African Caribbeans on Colon Island and Carriacou

Colon Island and Carriacou share a history of dual colonisation (Spanish and Britishin Colon Island; French and British in Carriacou). African Caribbeans settled on ColonIsland in the early 1800s as enslaved workers of Irish, English and Scottish planters fromJamaica and Barbados. After the abolition of slavery in Panama in 1852, former slavesformed a society of independent peasants living in small villages. Their economic systemwas based on subsistence agriculture, turtle fishing and work on banana plantations. Themigration of labourers after the construction of the Panamanian railroad from 1850 to1855, and the canal between 1880 and its completion in 1914, combined with work on,and later ownership of, banana and cacao plantations formed the basis for further settle-ment and concentrations of African Caribbean settlement on the island. Other migrantsarrived directly from the region to work on the United Fruit Company banana planta-tions (Lowe, 1975: 15; Diez Castillo, 1981: 70). The archipelago is one of three mainAfrican Caribbean centres in the country, the other two being Panama City and Colon.Most African Caribbeans in the archipelago speak a local variant of Creole Englishknown as Wari-wari (Aceto, 1996: 2), in addition to Spanish and standard English.

Most Kayaks (as Carriacouans call themselves and are called by other Grenadians)are also descendants of enslaved plantation workers brought from West Africa, first bythe French settlers during the seventeenth century, and then by the British during thelate eighteenth century (McLawrence, 1987). The recent history of Carriacou has beencharacterised by small-scale agriculture and fishing. Kayaks speak a variant of CreoleEnglish termed by linguists Carriacou English Creole (CEC) (Hill, 1977; Aceto, 2003:121–122; Kephart, 2003, 2006).

Both Colon Island and Carriacou are dependent territories of states that havehistorically neglected them, and thus share a history of relative isolation and remoteness.Until the advent of tourism in the 1990s, Colon Island was perceived as a wilderness ora ‘punishment zone’ for ill-behaved bureaucrats (Guerron Montero, 2005). Similarly,neglect and abandonment have characterised the history of Carriacou:

with the almost complete withdrawal of the European plantocracy [duringthe 1870s] and the consequent fragmentation of Carriacou into peasant



smallholdings, the governing powers have always been intent to keep theirdistance from the shores of Carriacou. (Searle 1982: 6)

Although deemed to be isolated and remote places, Colon Island and Carriacoubecame part of the global circuit of capital long before the development of thetourism industry via the aforementioned plantation economy and a tradition of overseasmigration. This tradition has produced populations with a strong sense of belongingto their island territories, but with well-developed ties and connections with the pan-Caribbean and pan-African worlds (Guerron Montero, 2006b). Colon Island had oneof the most productive banana plantations in Central America during the second halfof the nineteenth century (Stephens, 1989). Carriacou, and Grenada as a whole, was animportant exporter of sugar after the arrival of the British. Although there were no largesugar plantations in the second half of the eighteenth century, Grenada was the fourthlargest Caribbean sugar exporter after Jamaica, Antigua and St. Kitts (Sharpe, 1993: 53).In 1795, the slave rebellion led by Fedon impeded the development of sugar plantocraciesthat characterised other regions in the Caribbean, giving Grenada its particular characterof small plantations and peasant agriculture (Cox, 1982; Sharpe, 1993).

Governmental Constructions of Paradise

Panama and Grenada share some similarities with regard to tourism, although Grenadahas had a longer relationship with the industry. The beginnings of tourism developmentin Grenada can be traced to the 1960s (Sharpe, 1993). Without the revolution in 1979led by Maurice Bishop, leader of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) and Prime Ministerfrom 1979 until 1983, it is likely that tourism would have followed a path similarto other islands in the Antilles: high-end facilities, an elite coastal strip with resorthotels and estate houses, and a local interior, ‘which lacks lucrative economic activitybut contains the labour reservoir that serves the tourism sector’ (Weaver, 1993: 135).Instead, Bishop’s government:

promoted a ‘new tourism’ aimed at non-high-income visitors. . . . High-risehotels, the private ownership of beachfront property, and the creation oftourist enclaves were banned. The Tourism [Ministry] specified that touristtrade must stimulate agro-industrial production and indigenous culturalexpression. Since Grenada’s economy was based on agriculture. . . and tourism, the revolutionary government was not opposed toimport/export trade or tourism. . . . Rather, it opposed the control ofGrenada’s economy by transnational corporations. (Sharpe, 1993: 51)

This approach also involved what Bishop called ‘a new psychology’, where smallerislands were encouraged to develop opportunities for tourists, on the basis of their‘tremendous cultural potential’ as expressed in folkore and cultural tradition (Searle,1982: 25).

The construction of an international airport with Cuban support in 1983 motivatedthe US government to accuse Bishop of building a Cuban/Soviet military base. Followingthe coup d’etat by government opponents and the execution of Bishop in 1983, US forcesoccupied the island to protect North American interests (Sharpe, 1993). HistoricallyGrenada has not been heavily influenced by US investment, because of a strong traditionof union organisation and relatively high labour costs (Sharpe, 1993: 52). Stiell points



to a period where the influence of the US black power movement was deeply felt,and fostered negative attitudes toward tourists and light-skinned people in authority(in Searle, 1982: 27). Tourism continued to suffer following the coup and militaryintervention; between 1979 and 1982 there was a 25 per cent decrease in tourist visits,although the late 1980s saw a steady increase in numbers.

Grenada’s motto, ‘The Original Caribbean’, harks to an era before the advent oftourism (Sharpe, 1993: 54). A Grenadian government tourism brochure reads: ‘Hometo spectacular natural beauty, incomparable beaches, unique history and culture, theseunspoilt islands offer guests an unparalleled collection of activities, entertainment andaccommodations. . . . Your choices are limited only by your imagination’ (GrenadianTourism Board, n.d.: 2). Grenada is ‘undiscovered’ only because, until relatively recently,international tourists were unwilling to visit the country or to make investments: ‘Beforeit could reinvent itself as paradise. . . . Grenada had to overcome its image of politicalinstability. In other words, it had to rewrite the text of its revolution’ (Sharpe, 1993: 55).

Panama was not a popular tourism destination until the governments of GuillermoEndara (1990–1994) and Ernesto Perez Balladares (1994–1999) declared tourism anational priority in the early 1990s. One of the primary reasons for this shift wasthe imminent return of the Panama Canal to national control, made effective from 31December 1999 (ITCA, 1993). The Instituto Panameno de Turismo (IPAT; PanamanianBureau of Tourism), formed in 1960, had previously only concentrated on the Canal,the Duty Free Zone in the city of Colon and the Comarca Kuna-Yala as foci fortourism.

As a result of these efforts, tourism is now the second most important source ofincome in the country (CIA, 2010). As the slogan, ‘Panama, more than a Canal’, exem-plifies, the main goal of tourism policy has been to diversify, promoting ecotourism,ethno-tourism, and heritage tourism (IPAT, 2005). A new focus on ethnic-based tourismhas motivated a fundamental turnabout in national cultural policy, from an emphasison a predominantly Latino history – a history of mestizaje – to one of multiculturalism,acknowledging a wider heritage, beyond Spanish and indigenous legacies. Prior to the1990s, only the Kuna indigenous peoples were commercialised as Panama’s ‘exotics’(c.f. Howe, 1998:7). With tourism as a key focus, ethnic diversity has been celebratedto attract tourists, by portraying the country as an ideal ecotourism destination, butalso as a place of ethnic and racial diversity.

In both Grenada and Panama, social and political circumstances caused tourism toremain relatively under-developed. In Grenada, the revolution led by Bishop and thePeople’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) in 1979 was explicitly cast as a ‘socialist-oriented path to development’, which aimed to address the ‘trade deterioration, fallingdemand for commodity exports and tourism arrivals’ (Kirton, 1983: 123). In Panamain 1989, Operation ‘Just Cause’ was the basis for US military intervention to oust thePanamanian leader, General Manuel Noriega. Only after political turmoil subsided (inthe mid-1980s for Grenada and early 1990s for Panama) did tourism begin to develop.

Tourism is now one of the most important industries in these two countries. McElroy(2003) places tourism development in Grenada at the intermediate level in comparisonwith other Caribbean states; between 1993 and 2000 there was an increase of 30–50 percent in room availability (McElroy, 2003: 239). In Panama, tourism accounted for 5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product by 1998, and was accompanied by US$200 millioninvestment in infrastructure, mostly in Panama City (Guillen, 2000: 5). Today, tourismremains Grenada’s main industry, and the largest contributor to Panama’s economy(about 76.8 per cent) (CIA World Factbook, 2010).



The governments of Grenada (with the exception of Bishop’s government) andPanama have tended to represent Colon and Carriacou as remote, unspoilt and idealtourist ‘paradises’ (Government of Grenada, 1988; ITCA, 1993). Tourism brochuresadvertise Carriacou as a one-day vacation site to escape the hustle and bustle of citylife. Tourists interviewed noted that they were often discouraged by Grenadians fromtravelling to Carriacou, or from spending more than a few days on the island. Carriacouwas caricatured as a drowsy, passive and docile place, its population submittingeagerly to slavery. The Grenada Handbook published in 1946, after describing Fedon’suprising, noted that the slaves in Carriacou were ‘faithful and well-behaved duringthe rebellion’ (in Searle, 1982: 7). For Panamanians, Colon Island was perceived,until quite recently, as an unattractive jungle. My research indicates that the tourismgrowth of the 1990s has transformed some of these perceptions for Grenadians andPanamanians.

Colon Island has developed at a more accelerated rate than Carriacou. By 2008,Colon Island had 40 hotels, hostels and boarding houses, 28 restaurants, two travelagencies, nine tour operators, three flight lines, 26 taxis and six vans, and 10 rentingbusinesses (bicycles, motorcycles, kayaks and scuba diving equipment); compared tothe three hotels and four restaurants in 1990. In Carriacou by 2008 there were 6 hotelsand 14 guesthouses, with a total of more than 200 rooms available, 16–20 restaurantsand three water sports facilities.

With tourism becoming a major source of revenue, the sites that were represented asremote became ideal ‘hidden treasures’ to promote. Both Colon Island and Carriacouare now major tourist attractions. The long-term settlement of African Caribbeanson both islands has contributed to establishing traditions that have become touristattractions. In Carriacou, its size, historical isolation and absentee proprietorshiphave served to perpetuate traditional practices (Smith, 1962; McDaniel, 1992: 396).However, in government portrayals, ‘cultural’ are often secondary ‘natural’ attractions,although the Grenadian government has also marketed Carriacou’s history, including‘the diversity of cultural resources, Carib archaeological sites, historical sites coveringover 400 years of history . . . , and living cultures representing unique ways of social,economic, and cultural life . . . artisanal fishing [and] boat building’ (Government ofGrenada, 1988: 14).

Constructing Paradise

Marketing strategies often play upon stereotypical notions of a unified Caribbeanidentity to attract tourists to Colon Island and Carriacou. This section of the articleaddresses how African Caribbeans in Panama and Grenada have come to understandtheir landscape both as home and as a tourism destination. My findings point tocomparable conceptions of each island as home. Similar to the message relayed bygovernments and the tourist sector, African Caribbean residents in Colon Islandand Carriacou emphasise that these islands offer incomparable beauty and naturalenvironments. However, contrary to governmental and industry-related portrayals,‘islandness’ does not relate to remoteness, isolation or confinement among interviewees,but to uniqueness, closeness and familiarity. Notions of rootedness and belonging aretherefore emphasised by residents. Insularity, quietness and peacefulness are qualitiesthat have allowed islanders to develop and maintain an African Caribbean culture thatthey view as unique.



The concept of islandness as ‘a poetic form, as a figure for self-imposed structure’(Scharfman, 2003: 15) has been recurrent in the work of Caribbean intellectualsthroughout the last century, from Franz Fanon to Aime Cesaire. African Caribbeansinterviewed as part of the current study stressed that belonging to a small islandmeant that family networks were intensely connected and that children were morelikely to be nurtured and learn appropriate behaviour from their parents, relativesand neighbours. Although the territories appear politically and spatially marginalised,long-term migration and connections with the wider circum-Caribbean region haveenabled islanders to act as cosmopolitan world citizens (Yelvington, 2006).

My ethnographic fieldwork suggests that African Caribbeans in Colon Island andCarriacou differ in the concept of each island landscape as a tourist destination. Panama-nian African Caribbeans have responded to isolation and aspersions of ‘backwardness’by largely embracing tourist development as a welcome modernising step. Althoughthey unequivocally lament the lack of control they have over tourism expansion, theiroverall view of the industry is positive. This is true for African Caribbeans who areinvolved in tourism and for those who are connected to it only marginally.

The Panamanian government tends to represent Colon Island simplistically as anecological paradise. African Caribbeans present a more complex picture, emphasisingcultural traditions and practice rather than the biophysical environment.

During interviews, African Caribbeans on Colon Island repeated the dominantstereotypes about their ‘Caribbeanness’ and the island paradise they inhabit: a carefreelifestyle; tranquillity; a leisurely pace of life; virile and insatiable men; beautiful and exu-berant women; contrasting themselves with allegedly innocent and asexual indigenousmen and women (Guerron Montero, 2006b: 75).

African Caribbean residents of Carriacou have responded by accepting, but notwholly embracing tourism. There is a strong emphasis on maintaining family net-works, and a general distrust of foreign influence and presence. Kayaks accentuatethe importance of controlling tourism development with regard to the numbersof tourists, activities offered to tourists, and the management and ownership offacilities.

These different understandings of the consequences of modernisation and globalisa-tion produce different ways of looking at tourism, interacting with tourists and certainlybenefiting from tourism. For instance, the tourism that is offered in Carriacou empha-sises the cultural history of African Caribbeans (Mills, 2004). Many of the culturaltraditions and folk performances with a strong West African contribution that have lostpre-eminence or disappeared altogether in other parts of the Anglophone Caribbeanremain vibrant in Carriacou (Kephart, 1991: 81; Fayer, 2003). Fayer (2003) arguesthat this is partly the result of the historically high number of slaves in proportion tothe white population (Fayer, 2003: 221). In 1833, just before emancipation, there were3,200 slaves in a population of about 4,000 people. Plantation owners and managerswere often absent from their estates, and this enabled the enslaved workers to express,create and re-create cultural manifestations with a relatively higher degree of freedomthan elsewhere, a legacy that continued after emancipation (Fayer, 2003). Importantcelebrations include the Shakespeare Mas festival during Carnival; the Parang Festivalin December; the Regatta Festival in August; the Tomb Festival and Nation DanceFestival, carried out at different times throughout the year, and the Maroon Festivalin April. The Parang festival started in 1977 and consists of organised village stringbands competing for cash prices and a trophy. The Regatta Festival originated in 1965.Although tourists attend this festival, it is a celebration intended for Kayaks to celebrate



their boat building abilities – considered among the best in the Caribbean – and toreconnect with their relatives living abroad or on the nearby islands.

The Maroon Festival was established by the Tourism Board in 2002 to showcasesome of Carriacou’s cultural traditions, including the parang, Big Drum Dance, quadrilledances and calypso. According to Glenn Callwood, a Kayak marginally involved withtourism, before the festival was implemented, tourists could visit several times withouthaving the opportunity to experience these traditions. ‘Now with this festival, touristscan plan ahead for their vacations and come to see our cultural manifestations.’ As tothe degree of ‘authenticity’, Glenn stated, ‘these events are obviously staged and thusless authentic, but this has not prevented Kayaks from continuing their own events intheir parishes. In fact, some of these manifestations have been revitalised as a result ofthe Festival’ (Interviewee 1, 2005).

Although the Grenadian government supports and promotes cultural and ecologicaltourism in Carriacou, Kayaks have been at the forefront in establishing Carriacou asideally suited for cultural tourism. However, while everyday life is one of the mainattractions for visitors to Carriacou, Kayaks are generally unconcerned with (and attimes suspicious of) tourists, and do not strive to become the ‘ideal host’ as so commonlyhappens in the Caribbean (Abbink, 2004). A general consensus among interviewees wasthat although tourism is welcomed, there remains a degree of distrust and insecurityregarding the changes that the presence of tourists might produce in Carriacou’s tightlyknit and complex society. This distrust is commonly extended to native Kayaks whomigrated to Europe or the United States and return to Carriacou to retire or to start upbusinesses, for whom non-migrant Kayaks use the term, ‘Just Come Back’ or ‘JCB’. JCBsare considered to be a modernising force, a sub-population with a different outlooktoward insularity, and they tend to be more open to tourist development.

African Caribbeans in Colon Island have also witnessed a revitalisation of some oftheir cultural traditions as a result of the tourist industry, such as quadrille dances,calypso and local cuisine, but to a lesser degree (Guerron Montero, 2003, 2004,2006a). Unlike in Carriacou, where tourism has played a secondary role in Kayakcultural production, the renaissance of African Caribbean identities has been powerfullymediated by tourism in Colon Island. Tourism has opened the door to a complex culturalpolitics whereby this historically neglected minority strives to improve its status withinthe ethnic spectrum of Panama’s multiculturalism, simultaneously constructing nationaland diasporic identities. In this context, African Caribbeans have maintained, rejected,marginalised, replaced and reinvented certain aspects of their identities.

African Caribbeans have chosen to maintain what I call their ‘Jamaicanness’ or morebroadly speaking, their ‘Caribbeanness’ (Guerron Montero, 2006b). The choice of musicplayed during events and the interactions with tourists are situations in which islandersoften emphasise their ties to Jamaica (because of the large number of Jamaican workersthat landed in Panama) and the Antilles. Many African Caribbean men appropriatethese ties to replicate stereotypes of machismo and sensuality, often to attract femaletourists (Pruitt and LaFont, 2004; Guerron Montero, 2006b).

While the depiction of Jamaicanness is underscored, African Caribbeans also empha-sise their condition as a ‘mixed’ rather than exclusively black population. The beautifulwoman and the handsome man are imagined as racially mixed, as men and womenwith ‘delicate’ facial features, straight or wavy hair, a voluptuous body and light ortanned skin (Guerron Montero, 2006b). African Caribbean interviewees often chose todownplay their blackness and accentuate their Caribbeanness. African Caribbeans arealso inventing and reinventing ‘traditions’ for tourism consumption. They have restored



and re-created the Blue Monday experience, which is the continuation of customaryweekend parties until Mondays.

A central theme in the construction of ‘African Caribbeaness’ is cosmopolitanism.Although Kayaks also stress their cultural networks across the Antilles and the Africandiaspora in Europe and the United States (particularly through knowledge of worldmusic and migration), African Caribbeans in Bocas recognise themselves as globalcitizens, with interests in world music, international cuisine, new technologies andfashion that may very well (in some instances, at least), exceed that of their non-Caribbean tourists. They have been concerned with growing as persons within thecontext of ‘traditional’ gender roles, interacting with tourists and becoming recognisedas valued contributors to the Panamanian nation (Guerron Montero, 2006b: 77). Whileprojecting these facets of identity, African Caribbeans have also rejected the notion thatthey belong to an isolated place and that they are oblivious to the environmental impactof their actions.

By maintaining, reinforcing, replacing or marginalising certain elements of theirculture, African Caribbeans might be seen to be defying the tourist industry in Panama,which have often portrayed them in a simplistic manner, as the ‘authentic’ blackpopulations of the country, and who have not changed their customs throughoutgenerations, thus ignoring complex multicultural histories. Interviewees indicated thatthey wished to present themselves as belonging to colonial and postcolonial interracialencounters, as modern societies who still maintain some of their traditional customs(Guerron Montero, 2006b). In the emerging context of multicultural awareness, AfricanCaribbeans are exploiting their ambiguities to reposition themselves as part of the nationas well as the wider region. They do so as Panamanian citizens contributing to thedevelopment of a national tourist industry. These evolving images of Caribbeanness andblackness do not translate into economic and social improvements for African LatinAmericans or other minorities. Social and racial hierarchies have not been destabilisedby these ethnic-centred tourism policies (Guerron Montero, 2006a).

Conclusions

Students of tourism have argued that the likelihood of the industry benefiting the ‘hosts’increases when they are directly involved in the management of activities (Chambers,2000; McLaren, 2003). In Colon Island, tourism has only marginally benefited AfricanCaribbean residents, providing some job opportunities in construction, hotels andrestaurants. Up until 2004, investments were low and dependent on US and Europeaninvolvement (IPAT, 2005). Since 2004, US companies have invested more heavilyin residential projects on Colon and other islands, supported by Laws 8 (1997)and 2 (2006), which provide incentives to foreign investors and long-term beneficialconcessions. Tourism continues to be managed by resident expatriates, who arguably aredirecting investment away from small-scale, low-impact facilities, to high-end, luxurygated tourist complexes. The consequences of this transformation remain to be seen,but similar world trends point to unsettling cultural, social and ecological consequences,some of which are already occurring in the archipelago (McElroy, 2003).

In Carriacou, the opposite phenomenon is taking place. Tourism businesses aremainly managed by Kayaks, especially returnees who migrated to Europe and the US,and have now re-settled on the island as investors and in retirement. Resident expatriatescontrol the two main tourism enterprises of scuba diving and real estate. There are three



scuba diving facilities in Carriacou, all owned by non-Kayaks, but who have lived onthe island for several years. Kayaks benefit directly or indirectly from these businesses,through work and training opportunities. Three real estate companies cater to the needsof international clients looking to buy an island vacation home, often leasing it for partof the year. The low-impact, low-scale tourism development of Carriacou is, however,changing. By 2010, foreign investors had built the Tyrell Marina and a second complexwas under construction. These and other projects have caused severe environmentalproblems and urgent concerns over sand mining (Interviewee 2, 2007).

Beyond the economic outcomes of tourism development, the different responses totourism among African Caribbeans in Carriacou (generally accepting but not embrac-ing tourism, with broad distrust shown toward foreign influence) and Colon Island(embracing tourism in spite of minimal economic benefits and negative environmentalconsequences, with an interest in cosmopolitanism brought about by tourism) can beattributed to several factors: i) different racial configurations, ii) migration patterns, andiii) different approaches toward national identity because of specific political events.

Colon Island is a complex inter-ethnic hierarchy composed of different groupscompeting for status, resources and positions within Panamanian society. Indigenouspeoples, Chinese Panamanians, Latinos and resident expatriates share territories andresources with African Caribbeans, and have different understandings of their ‘islandparadise’. Carriacou is ethnically and culturally more homogeneous; people ‘retainknowledge of their African ancestry and maintain ties with them’ through socialand cultural expressions (Kephart, 1991: 81) such as kinship relations (primarily bypatrilineal descent), music, dances, ceremonies and cuisine. They are represented asunspoilt, remote, isolated sites where nature reigns over culture. ‘Natural pleasures’are sold in Grenada (Grenadian Tourism Board, 2005); the ‘route to be discovered’ ispresented to tourists in Panama (IPAT, 2005). This relative homogeneity is reinforcedthrough strong family networks and cultural affiliation to African Caribbean identities.The heterogeneity of Colon Island, coupled with limited state support for ‘Antilleanidentity’ in Panama, restricts the potential for communal development.

African Caribbeans in Panama have maintained a tradition of overseas migrationacross the region and between Colon Island and the United States. The degree ofmigration and associated remittance monies are minor compared to Carriacou. TheLesser Antilles have experienced very high levels of external migration, especially sincethe 1950s, and initially to the UK and North America (McElroy and de Albuquerque,1990). This migration tended to be different in that many migrants were from young,reproductive (especially female), working-age cohorts (McElroy and de Albuquerque,1990). Carriacou experienced dramatic migration patterns. Between 1955 and 1960Carriacou lost nearly 20 per cent of its population each year (Conway, 1986: 202),first to Trinidad and Aruba and later to the UK, Canada and the United States. Thisconstant migration has supported revenues in the form of remittances. Migrants withsizeable savings often invest in small businesses, tend to be self-employed and rely onsupportive family networks, and to be agents of change (Gmelch, 1980: 150).

Finally, the recent political histories of each island have shaped mindsets. Panamaexperienced a nationalist revolution, establishing General Omar Torrijos’s regimebetween 1968 and 1981. His government financed social and economic improvementsat the state level, but also led a creolisation campaign that promoted Spanish-indigenousrepresentations of culture over any other, leaving African Caribbeans outside theconstruction of the Panamanian ‘imagined community’ (Anderson, 1991). In Carriacou,even though the Grenadian revolution was short-lived, it had lasting consequences in



the minds of Grenadians, granting a sense of cultural pride and entrepreneurship notpresent among Panamanian African Caribbeans. African Caribbeans were consideredtemporary migrants and were suspected of not being ‘real Panamanians’ in a state thatwas self-defined as Hispanic (Guerron Montero, 2006b). With the emphasis on tourismpromotion, accompanied by a shift in official discourse to multiculturalism as the sourceof national identity, African Caribbeans have been able to underscore selectively, perhapseven exaggerate, aspects of their distinctive Caribbean culture as a source of ethnic pride,while at the same time proclaiming loyalty to the ‘new’ multicultural Panamanian nation.

As this article suggests, a comparative perspective of the study of tourism in islandnations yields insights that are useful in disaggregating the factors – historical, economic,political, environmental and social – that structure attitudes and behaviours of localpopulations toward tourism development, and influence the outcomes of interactionamong hosts, mediators and guests.

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On Tourism and the Constructions of ‘Paradise Islands’ in Central America and the Caribbean

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