Next NWJS Open Zoom Meeting
Join our next Zoom Meeting on Sat 7th October at 2pm in Wales / 9am in Jamaica:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85409200121?pwd=ZUU0T3Z1S2xOLzI2TjJma1ZDcUhUQT09
Meeting ID: 854 0920 0121 Passcode: 407328
PLEASE PASS THIS INVITATION ON TO ANYONE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED.
The North Wales Jamaica Society has teamed up with locally based 'Learning Links International’, a social enterprise that explores our shared history and provides opportunities to learn about Wales links with the wider world.
One of the strands of this work has been to explore the links with the Pennants families activities in Jamaica on their estates / plantations over there and the use of the wealth generated by the African people they enslaved, back in Wales. The Pennants Project engages with local people from the Pennants area and others with an interest from North Wales, in weekly Zoom sessions. The Pennants Project team are working with the Custos of Clarendon’s Office with descendants of the Pennant family on various reparation initiatives.
Learning Links International now have Welsh Government funding to enable visits to be made to Jamaica and to welcome Jamaicans from the community of Pennants, and others working on the Pennants Project in Jamaica, over to Wales. This is an adult learning project and some of the people in North Wales registering to take part in the range of flexible learning opportunities planned, can extend this exploration by taking part in one of the planned visits to Jamaica. The first delegation from Wales travelled over to Jamaica for a week in early November. Further visits will be organised next year.
Unfortunately we are only able to welcome a limited number of our Jamaican colleagues to North Wales, but we welcomed the Director of Education for Clarendon, Barrington Richardson, in October 2024, to building bridges to link local schools with schools in Jamaica, and in November 2024 we hosted Dr Kirt Henry, the Director of the Institute of Jamaica / Jamaica Memory Bank, who will be exploring ways to access The Bangor University’s Penrhyn Papers relating to plantation management in Clarendon + Kings Valley.
If you are interested in finding out more about these opportunities, you can join the North Wales Jamaica Society monthly open meeting on Zoom (first Saturday in the month) on Saturday 7th Dec at 2pm
Email lizmillman@yahoo.co.uk if you have any questions or use Contact Us
The NWJS have agreed to give an hour following the Open Meeting session to welcome 'adult learners’ ie people who want to learn more about centuries that the Pennant family owned land in Jamaica from late 1600’s to 1940. Speakers will join us from Jamaica, as well as researchers from Wales and wider UK. We will be delighted to welcome anyone who has undertaken any research into the Penrhyn Papers.
For example: we will explain more about the opportunities and you are welcome to ask questions. Lesley Evans willkeep us up to date about the groundbreaking research she is engaged in at present going through the Penrhyn Papers to record the names and understand the lives of the enslaved workers as part of a project to memorialise these African ancestors of Jamaicans today.
Then we will go on to explore the opportunities of the ‘Building Bridges of Friendship’ project between Bangor and May Pen, extending across Clarendon and Gwynedd. The number of organisations involved is growing, Rotary links have been developing over a number of years, and now the North Wales Fire Service is working with Fire Aid to get the reconditioned Fire Engine requested by Clarendon Fire Brigade, who are badly under resourced.
Civic links to build a bridge of friendship are now underway between City of Bangor and May Pen in Clarendon, Jamaica.