The Ngabe Community
The Ngäbe. Pronounciation: “gnaw-bay” Language Meaning: "the people.”
More commonly known as Guaymí, a misnomer applied to them by Spanish colonizers, the majority of the Ngäbe people have historically lived within Panama and the southern tip of Costa Rica’s Pacific slope. They resisted Spanish conquest and it was not until the 1930s they were forcefully expelled by cattle ranchers and banana companies into more rugged and marginalized lands.
Beginning with the construction of the Panama Canal in the early 1900's, livestock farms began moving into Ngabe ancestral homelands causing displacement of indigenous people of Panama further into Costa Rica. At the same moment in time, the United Fruit company began moving from the north of Costa Rica into the south Pacific where they concentrated massive tracts of land to prevent corporate competition in the banana trade. As a result, inhabitants were expelled and forced to settle in the most remote mountainous areas and steep slopes where they currently live and where their identity, culture and traditional knowledge has been sown deeply into the region.
In some ways Ngabe Costa Ricans have been forced to change ancestral practices and customs. Before colonization the people wore clothing made of natural fibers and the bark of trees. The tropical heat meant men and women wore few clothes. When Catholic missionaries showed up they introduced the concepts of shame and modesty into the culture and the women began covering thier bodies in fabric dresses into which are sewn, to this day, traditional patterns and designs.
Costa Rica’s government prohibits hunting of any wildlife to all people, including the indigenous. Today the Ngabe survive on subsistence agriculture and have access to very few resources. Families farm, children go to public schools and men typically work in manual labor building furniture, selling wood, and maintaining pastures, lawns and gardens for low wages. Despite the challenges brought by the industrial world to the customs of the ancients, the people today retain much of their cultural wealth.
Tourists visiting Pavones may see families in brightly colored traditional dress buying staple foods: coffee, rice and beans. They can also be visited at craft booths selling their artisan natural fiber hats and bags. They are highly skilled crafts people! If you ever have the opportunity to purchase a hand woven Ngabe bolsa or hat, you have purchased a true piece of living art.
Costa Rica hosts five distinct Ngabe territories within the southern zone within which about 6,000 Ngäbe men, women and children call home. When entering the Territory on a wildlife tour with a Ngabe guide, you may be provided hospitality in a Ngabe household where you may find the opportunity learn about Ngabe daily life, hear stories and observe traditions deeply connected to their rainforest home.
“These cultural experiences I learned from my community and nature are the best education. I would never have learned wisdom or carry an inner sense of peace from attending any university or by leaving my family’s lands to go to the city. I am always grateful and thankful for the knowledge that my ancestors and nature have given me.”
- Juan Miranda, Ngabe Community & Project Liaison @ sparkrootwild
“Facts alone can't save the world. Hearts can. Hearts must. We're working to make sure that hearts do.” — Carl Safina
