The development and focus of the Jamaica Wales Alliance (JWA) — what it is, how it came to be, and what we aim to do.
Origins and Founding
The Jamaica Wales Alliance began from a small delegation from Wales that visited Jamaica in 2016. They were invited by Jamaican poet Yasus Afari to explore building sustainable links between Wales and Jamaica. That trip included meetings with the Jamaican Commission for Cultural Development and the Institute of Jamaica — giving the initiative a strong cultural and institutional footing.
The delegation met Welshman, Jonathan Greenland, Director of the Museum of Jamaica, and was supported by Learning Links International (LLI) managing the early development of links.
Over time, what began as a series of exploratory contacts grew into a formal alliance. By 2023, the links were formalized under the name Jamaica Wales Alliance.
Structure and Leadership
As of 2025, the JWA Advisory Group includes:
- Dr Lola Ramocan — Patron of the Alliance.
- Coy Roache — Chair of JWA.
- Dr Vivian Crawford — Chair of JWA Heritage Developments.
- Liz Millman — Secretary / Zoom session facilitator; also involved via Learning Links International.
- Other roles include chairs and co-chairs for sub-projects (e.g. “Fire Summit Co-Chairs,” school links, etc.)
Committee meetings are held regularly — weekly via Zoom on Thursdays at 8am in Jamaica — reflecting the Alliance’s ongoing commitments despite geographic distance between Wales and Jamaica.
Mission and Focus Areas
The primary purpose of JWA is to reconnect Wales and Jamaica — not only through historical remembrance, but by building active, contemporary relationships and supporting community development. Key facets of their work include:
• Acknowledging and Exploring Shared History
A central thread in the Alliance’s work is confronting a difficult shared past. The Welsh Pennant family owned plantations in Jamaica — particularly in the parish of Clarendon — dating from the late 1600s through to the mid-20th century.
This history includes the forced labour of enslaved Africans and subsequent ownership transfers; JWA supports research and education around this heritage — including the uncovering of plantation records, the legacy of slavery, and stories of the communities affected.
As part of this, the Alliance, has enabled the Learning Links International Team to support members of the North Wales Jamaica Society to undertake research into the shared history by learning together and with Adult Learning Wales, they have piloted an online programme in 2025 under the name “Wales and Jamaica – the Pennants Story” to educate learners about this history and to explore community reparations.
• “Building Bridges of Friendship” — Cultural, Educational & Community Exchange
The name “Building Bridges of Friendship” describes the Alliance’s commitment to active links: school-to-school connections, poetry workshops, cultural exchanges, and community development. These exchanges engage adult learners, youth groups, and diaspora communities.
For example, in 2019, Yasus Afari led a “Black History Month Tour of Wales,” working with schools in both Jamaica and Wales to use poetry to tell a shared history.
• Linking Institutions and Public Services Across Borders
JWA supports more institutional or community development–oriented links as well. One prominent example is building connections between fire services: a link has been fostered between the Jamaican Fire Service in Clarendon, Jamaica, and the Fire & Rescue Service in Bangor, Wales.
More broadly, through adult-education initiatives, via Learning Links International, community development committees in Jamaica, and heritage-research groups in Wales and Jamaica, the Alliance seeks to establish ongoing cooperation on issues like education, heritage preservation, civil society, and social justice.
• Reparation-influenced Development — Supporting Jamaica Communities
While not always framed strictly as “reparations,” part of the Alliance’s motivation is to address inequities rooted in the colonial-era plantation ownership. For example: funds donated by descendants of the Pennant family have been used for tangible community improvements — like installing flushing toilets at a basic school in Pennants, Jamaica.
Further, the Alliance works with local Jamaican community organisations (e.g., the Clarendon Parish Development Committee Benevolent Society) to manage and sustain these projects — with an emphasis on community-led development and long-term engagement rather than one-off charity.
Recent Developments & Activities (2022–2025)
- During the COVID years (2020–2022), the JWA primarily operated online — maintaining contacts and building its Advisory Group structure.
- In 2024, thanks to funding from the Welsh Government through their Taith initiative, exchange visits began: adult learners registered with the North Wales Jamaica Society in Wales started visiting Jamaica, and Jamaican colleagues visited Wales.
- In 2025, the “Pennants Story” programme was piloted — a six-session course through Adult Learning Wales to educate participants about colonial history, the slave trade, the Pennant family plantations, and the journey of reconciliation and friendship.
- Also in 2025, collaborations continue between heritage-research groups, Jamaican and Welsh community organisations, and diaspora activists to document names, histories, and lived experiences of those impacted by plantation slavery — efforts aimed at remembrance, reconciliation, and restorative justice.
Why the Jamaica Wales Alliance Matters
- Bridging history and healing: By confronting difficult shared histories — especially slavery, colonialism, and displacement — the Alliance offers a model for honest, transnational reckoning and memory work.
- Cultural and educational exchange: Through poetry, storytelling, adult education, heritage research, and community engagement, JWA helps build mutual understanding, respect, and solidarity across generations and continents.
- Concrete community development: Rather than symbolic gestures alone, the Alliance supports real-world projects — from school infrastructure to fire-service links — that improve living conditions and foster sustainable cooperation.
- Reconnecting diaspora, heritage and identity: For people with Jamaican or Welsh heritage living abroad (in the UK or elsewhere), JWA creates a space to reclaim history, honour ancestors, and build future-oriented ties.
Challenges & Next Steps
While the Jamaica Wales Alliance has made substantial progress, there remain challenges typical of transnational heritage and reparative-community work: securing long-term funding, ensuring projects remain community-led (not donor-driven), dealing with the legacy of historical trauma in a respectful and meaningful way, and maintaining momentum across different geographies and generations.
Looking ahead, further expansion of educational exchanges, deeper archival research, broader community involvement (both in Wales and Jamaica), and possibly more civic or institutional linkages (e.g. cultural institutions, schools, municipal twinnings, diaspora networks) could help consolidate JWA’s impact.
Conclusion
The Jamaica Wales Alliance is more than a cultural or historical society — it is a living bridge between Wales and Jamaica: one that acknowledges a painful shared past, but seeks to build meaningful relationships rooted in respect, education, community development, and reparative solidarity. In doing so, it points the way toward a model of cross-national friendship where memory, justice, and mutual growth go hand in hand.
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JWA Project Management Committee Updated Nov 2025
The JWA Project Management Committee meets each Thursday at 8.00am in Jamaica and 1.00pm (at present - Nov 2025) in Wales
- Chaired by Coy Roach, with Liz Millman as the Facilitator.
We are putting in place a programme for the weekly sessions, and we are managing this but the updates from meetings are proving more challenging:
1st Thursday - Fire Summit ie discussing progress to get protocols in place and funds raised
2nd Thursday - Civic Links ie meeting and greeting and exploring Bangor, Gwynedd and May Pen, Clarendon
3rd Thursday - Heritage and Community Focus
4th Thursday - School Links
5th Thursday (if there is one) general catch up !
The Zoom link is
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81053267057?pwd=7T07OgU00Q4fIue4GohbqMUxWItzae.1
Meeting ID: 810 5326 7057. Passcode: 353928
Please let us know if you are interested in joining via contact us