TRIBUTE WITH ROSES

Remembering those who built the Panama Canal

08-13-2009 | DAVID YOUNG

Panama Star The memorial event, organized by the Society of Friends of the Afro-Antillean Museum (SAMAAP) has been taking place since 1989, and this year was part of a week of activities commemorating the 95th anniversary of the official opening of the Canal in 1914.

Two vessels, the Calamar and Gaviota IV, packed with descendents from across the country and the US, halted in the gap for a commemorative service conducted by the Reverend Luis Veagra of the Balboa Union Church.

A representative of the Canal authority praised the role played by West Indians, who provided the largest part of the labour force for the French attempt, and the American completion

The passengers then scattered armfuls of rose petals on to the waters. Thousands of Jamaicans were recruited for the French endeavor in the 1890’s and suffered massive loss of life from yellow fever malaria, accidents and even a massacre by Colombian soldiers.

The slaughter with guns and machetes, while the workers lay sleeping in their billets was described by the Star and Herald (the successor to the original Panama Star) as “ a massacre pure and simple”

Over 3,500 workers died each year, and many more were crippled.

A contemporary report in the Montreal (Canada) Gazette said: “They die on line and no attention is paid to the matter.” Many were buried in unmarked graves, and at time the British consul had to organize the collection of bodies from the streets of Colon and Panama.

Reviewing the official death statistics later, Dr William Gorgas said that for every death in hospital, there were likely two outside.

< When the Americans restarted construction deaths from disease dropped dramatically, largely due to the efforts of Dr Gorgas, who was sent to Panama after a successful campaign against yellow fever in Cuba.

But deaths from pneumonia, disease, and on the construction sites came to over 25,000, and thousands lost limbs.

The West Indian workers on the US projecte were largely recruited from Barbados, as the previous death toll, and the stranding of over 7,000 Jamaicans in Colon when the French attempt was abandoned, cooled enthusiasm for canal building.

They were subject to a rigid apartheid system and the infamous Gold and Silver pay schedule. US citizens were paid at a higher rate, the Gold.

They were regarded by both the French and American builders as cheap and expendable.

But those who survived retained pride in their role of helping to build one of the greatest human achievements of all time.

Their descendents who sailed to the Culebra Gap on Tuesday, carry that pride forward.