THE MONA Campus of the University of the West Indies will be hosting a Forum on past associations and future links between the Caribbean and the Republic of Colombia, from July 9-11, 2003.This will be done within the framework of the Fourth Annual Intra-regional Migration Seminar co-ordinated by the Latin American-Caribbean Centre (LACC) of the University of the West Indies in co-operation with the Embassy of the Republic of Colombia in Jamaica.
Presenters from Colombia and the Caribbean will be tracing the socio-economic and cultural links resulting from regional migratory movements and will exchange information on current trade negotiations and commercial relationships between CARICOM countries and Colombia.
The first day of the forum will address issues related to the common heritage of Colombia and the Caribbean as evidenced in the literature, history and culture of these societies. Of particular interest to Jamaicans will be the study of Mara, the Jamaican-Colombian novel written by Jorge Isaacs and the founding of St. George's College by exiled Colombian Jesuits. The origins of the communities of San Andres and Old Providence in Colombia will be also traced to the arrival of slaves from Jamaica, who settled in the Archipelago.
SEMINAR
The strengthening of this association through bilateral and regional trade arrangements will be the focus of the panel presentations on the second day of the seminar which opens on Wednesday, July 9 at 7:00 p.m. in the Undercroft on the Mona Campus. Seminar sessions will run from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday in the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre (N1) in the Faculty of Humanities and Education on the Mona Campus. The public is invited to attend. For further information, kindly contact the Latin American - Caribbean Centre at 702-4721 or 970-0244.
