---
title: "Colón hosts first national gathering on Afro-Panamanian living heritage"
date: 2026-05-18
modified: 2026-05-19
author: ""
url: https://panamadaily.news/2026/05/18/colon-afropanamanian-heritage-meeting/
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "News"
tags:
  - "Afro-Panamanian heritage"
  - "calypso"
  - "Colón"
  - "CRESPIAL"
  - "intangible cultural heritage"
  - "Ministry of Culture"
---

# Colón hosts first national gathering on Afro-Panamanian living heritage

## What Happened

Colón became the venue for the first National Meeting of Bearers of Afro-Panamanian Intangible Cultural Heritage, bringing together cultural representatives, tradition holders, specialists and community managers for a day focused on protecting living heritage. The gathering was held under a regional safeguarding project linked to the Afro-descendant Intangible Cultural Heritage framework for the SICA region and Cuba.

The opening included a formal ceremony and dialogue sessions centered on the value of Afro-descendant living heritage and its preservation in Panama. Participants shared experiences and expectations around Afro-Panamanian cultural expressions from different provinces, along with progress in the national inventory of intangible cultural heritage.

## Why Colón Matters

Holding the event in Colón carries special weight. The province has long been one of Panama’s most important cultural crossroads, with a strong Afro-Caribbean presence reflected in music, food, language, religious traditions and community celebrations. Bringing the meeting to Colón placed those traditions at the center of a national conversation about how to document, protect and transmit them to younger generations.

The meeting also aligns with Panama’s broader effort to strengthen cultural policy around intangible heritage, which includes practices, knowledge and expressions that are passed down through families and communities rather than preserved only in museums or monuments.

## Activities and Regional Cooperation

The program included a symbolic offering ceremony, a workshop on analysis and commitments, conceptual sessions on cultural safeguarding, presentations of regional experiences, exchanges of good practices and working tables designed to strengthen agreements among participating countries.

Beyond the academic agenda, attendees visited the Cacco, the Art and Culture Center of Colón, where they watched a film about calypso, one of the musical traditions closely associated with Afro-Caribbean identity in the province. They also toured Colón’s historic center with guide Joel Ceras and visited San Lorenzo Castle with support from the Patronato de Portobelo and San Lorenzo.

The event was organized as part of Panama’s role as host country, with Colón serving as the local venue for a regional effort that combined cultural exchange, institutional coordination and heritage tourism. That mix is important for communities in Colón and across the country, where cultural preservation is increasingly tied to education, identity and local development.

## Institutional Support and Next Steps

Technical support came from CRESPIAL, while CECC/SICA provided guidance and coordination alongside the Intangible Cultural Heritage team at the Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture. Cultural managers involved in protecting and promoting Afro-descendant heritage in the region also took part.

For Panama, the meeting reinforces a long-term challenge: ensuring that Afro-Panamanian traditions are not only celebrated at public events, but also systematically recorded, supported and passed on. The national inventory process and the cooperation links built through this gathering will be key areas to watch as cultural institutions continue working with communities in the country’s provinces.