Leighton Levy, News Editor
El General poses with Adelaida E. Abre G, International Sales Supervisor at the El Panama Hotel in Panama City.
A TOYOTA Tercel taxicab pulls up to a nightclub a little before midnight, music thumping from inside. The heavy beats of Capleton's More Prophet resonate even more clearly when it stops and the doors open to let out three dazzling women dressed in spandex ankle length shirts and body hugging blouses.
Yet another cab pulls up. It, too, has reggae music pounding from its speakers.
Sounds like a scene outside the Asylum nightclub in New Kingston, doesn't it?
Well it's not.
This scene unfolded outside a nightclub called the Big House in Panama City!
Reggae is the music of choice in this Central American country and the natives never seem to get enough. There are more than 100 radio stations in Panama. Of that number, the top five all play reggae, the number one station, exclusively.
Professor Gerardo Maloney, a sociologist at the University of Panama, whose grandparents originated in the West Indies suggests that: "Panamanians have all embraced reggae music...They use Jamaica to identify with all the West Indies."
When the Americans took over the construction of the Panama Canal in 1904, hundreds, if not thousands of West Indians primarily from Barbados and Jamaica, went to Panama in search of jobs. When work on the Canal was completed in 1914, some West Indians migrated to the United States while others remained in Panama.
These days, there are third and fourth generation West Indian/Panamanians everywhere in Panama. Almost everywhere you go in Panama City there is someone who has roots in the West Indies, more specifically, in Jamaica.
One of those persons happens to be the greatest exponent of the genre in Panama. Edgardo Franco Lowe, a gentleman known as 'El General', is a grammy-award winning deejay from Panama City with Jamaican roots who got his inspiration from some of Jamaica's best.
"My grandparents, my grandfather on my mother's side is from Jamaica," he reveals. He confirms that reggae, Spanish reggae, is more popular than Latin music in Panama.
Now, 30, El General was recently named Ambassador of Culture in Panama.
He says his desire to become a deejay started way back in 1979 when as a little boy he would hear songs from Jacob Miller, Bob Marley, the Mighty Diamonds on 45 records from Jamaica. He would later hear Buru Banton, John Wayne, Toyan and other such deejays who were large at the time.
He eventually became a star and was huge in the United States deejaying his brand of Spanish reggae. He won a Grammy award in 1992 as Best Latin Artiste.
Over time, other 'Spanish' deejays arose. Names like Gabby, Renato and Reggae Sam are but a few of the more popular reggae artistes in Panama. Several of them have even been here to Jamaica recording with producers like King Jammys and Bobby Digital.
So, it seems then that Panamanians have much more in common with us West Indians than we had thought. The similarities are strong and they run deep because they are products of our collective roots.
contributed
