Saturday, September 26, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
/ARTS WEEKLY/JAMAICA: Columbus ‘Discovery’ Sinks Further in Xmas Pantomime
Howard Campbell
- History books record that Christopher Columbus discovered this country in 1494. But to many Jamaicans, the explorer was nothing more than a mercenary who pillaged the land and directed the termination of the indigenous Arawak tribe.
Playwright Barbara Gloudon puts a humorous spin on the Columbus landing in ‘Combolo’, this year’s pantomime (a traditional British musical theatre performance) which opens here at the Little Theatre Dec. 26.
In her story, the explorer Combolo, a descendant of Columbus, sails to Jamaica to discover if any Arawaks are still living.
"He’s trying to find the Arawaks and tell them that he is sorry about what Columbus did to them," says Gloudon. "His trip really has a noble motive."
The Combolo expedition is caught in a horrific storm and its captain swept ashore. He is saved by one of the natives, Bitter Cassava, owner of the Club Slippers, a seedy version of the upscale all-inclusive hotels that dominate the tourist industry here.
Shrewd con-man that he is, Bitter Cassava immediately sees an opportunity to get back at the Spaniards and plots a way to fleece them of their valuables.
Meanwhile, the expedition finds little, if any, trace of the Arawak.
‘Combolo’ has a 25-member cast, most of who have worked before in pantomime, which has been an annual showpiece of Jamaican theatre for 60 years.
For Gloudon, who has written most of the pantomimes performed here in the past 10 years, it is her second production based on Columbus. The less sceptical 1970s’ ‘Hail Columbus’ was the first.
In 1992, another Columbus theatre musical, ‘Arawak Gold’, opened in Jamaica. It looked at the Columbus discovery from the natives’ perspective and had a limited run in the British Midlands in 1993.
Gloudon says her own view of Columbus has changed over the years, and that comes across in this year’s pantomime. "Times have changed. Globally there is a different feeling about Columbus," she said. "People are asking, ‘did he really discover’?"
Since the 1970s, when the Black Power movement swept Jamaica, many scholars and musicians have questioned whether Columbus actually discovered this country.
Roots-reggae singers Burning Spear and Culture have damned him in song as a liar who allowed his men to rape Arawak women and eventually terminate a harmless tribe.
Most history books show that Columbus first arrived in what is now known as North America in 1492.
Born Christopher Colombo in Genoa, Italy, he was an experienced and ambitious seaman who approached Spain’s Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand to sponsor an expedition to the Far East, one he promised would make the Spanish Crown even more powerful.
He reportedly missed his way and ended up on the other side of the Atlantic. Rather than returning to Spain as a failure, Columbus claimed several lands, now the Caribbean countries of The Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba and Jamaica, for the Spanish monarchy.
In their hunt for gold, the Spanish massacred the Arawaks throughout the region. They began inhabiting Jamaica in 1510 and governed until 1654, when the British invaded the island, defeated them and assumed control. Columbus died in Spain in 1506, a broken man.
‘Combolo’ is the most adventurous pantomime in some time. In recent years, there has been declining interest for what was once Jamaica’s most popular theatre event – throughout the 1980s, smaller, slapstick productions known as roots plays dominated, while 1990s theatre-goers chose to see dramatic pieces written by a new wave of Jamaican writers.
Crime in downtown Kingston, where the Ward Theatre (traditional home of the pantomime) is located, has not helped. Last year’s production of ‘Miss Annie’ had to be switched to the much smaller Little Theatre due to two gun-related incidents that took place just yards from the Ward.
As the situation in downtown Kingston remains tense, the pantomime will return to the Ward this year one day after Christmas.
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