April 2025 - this is our latest initiative:
'Exploring our shared history: Wales and Jamaica - the Pennants Story'
Bangor based, Learning Links International, and Adult Learning Wales have teamed up with a range of organisations in Jamaica and Wales to pilot a new initiative. This will explore the shared history of just under three hundred years of plantation ownership in Jamaica by the Welsh Pennant family, as well as exploring the history of the community of Pennants in Clarendon and the other plantation areas owned by the Pennant family.
The 6-session programme will run in May and June in person on Monday evenings from 7 – 9 pm at Adult Learning Wales, Bryn Menai, in Bangor, with Zoom access as well, for those living further afield in Wales and those joining us from Jamaica and other parts of the world. The session will also be recorded for others registering as part of this innovative initiative to access.
The organisations involved in supporting the development of the programme include the North Wales Jamaica Society, the Bangor University Archives team, the Pennants Heritage Research Group and the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica / Jamaica Memory Bank.
Session 1 will introduce the partner organisations and individuals involved, with an outline of the Pennant family’s history of engagement with Jamaica in the context of British colonialisation.
Session 2 will explore the slave trade and consider some of the logistics involved
Session 3 will recognise the amazing resource of Pennant family papers held in Bangor University and the ‘Fi Wi Laif / Our Stories’ project will be introduced
Session 4 will focus on the development of the Jamaica Wales Alliance and introduce the activities being undertaken currently to explore the shared history and to build bridges of friendship.
Session 5 will explore the story of Robert Rumble and the successful strike by the tenants in Pennants which led to the Welsh Pennant Family to sell their remaining plantations.
Session 6 will provide opportunities to reflect on this shared history and consider how together we can progress and move forward to increase understanding of this shared history
NB This course is a pilot, the first of a range of opportunities to explore the shared history that Wales has with other parts of the world. It is also an introduction and update on this specific story, as Bangor and May Pen start their journey to build bridges of friendship. Participation will give a basis of understanding which can be developed over time, as we work with our Jamaican colleagues to learn more.
The sessions will be presented using the non-formal learning opportunities that have been successfully used by the Learning Links International team over the past few years, and this approach currently underpin the Taith project which is giving opportunities for adult learners from Wales who were registered with the North Wales Jamaica Society before March 2024 to take part on exchange visits to Jamaica.
However, there are other opportunities to get involved and to support the projects being developed and managed by the Jamaica Wales Alliance, including the provision of equipment for Clarendon’s Fire Service.
Additional information and updates will be provided each week.
NB – this is not an academic course, the Learning Links International team are all volunteers including retired teachers, and we engage with other community researchers as well as academics, historians and those engaged in community reparations. There will be short presentations by invited guests, but we also recognise the extensive research and understanding in local communities and we are happy to involve others.
The Learning Links International team also started to run weekly Black History Conversations after George Floyd’s murder and we have recorded over 150 sessions with leading academics, activists and authors, which are now being re-presented on a more accessible website.
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Ideas for flexible, experiential, blended, non formal, online learning have been undergoing development for the past few years and we held several more formal introductory sessions in 2024:
4th May 2024 – introduction / induction session - we introduced the new Bangor University online resources - the Pennants Plantation management records and encouraged all participants to visit Penrhyn Castle
1st June 2024 – we explored the range of things produced in North Wales that supported the port of Liverpool to encourage independent visits eg to Parys Mountain (copper) and Greenfield Valley (iron) as well as organising a visit to the International Slavery Museum
6th July 2024 – we will got feedback from visits and review the more formal course planned for Sept 2024 onwards - which may include international study visits – and we discussed the successful outcome of our Taith application and explored possibilities.
We made a draft outline of sessions to run from Sept 2024 - however we put this on hold as there was so much to do to take up the Taith funding and organise the first exchange visits.
However this was the plan:
Module 1 Wales links with Jamaica – including Plantation Ownership and Governance
1.1 Pennant family and Penrhyn Castle – introduction and history – Speaker from NT?
1.2 History of Pennant family plantations in Jamaica – and records held in Bangor University
- ? Speaker from Bangor University Archive
1.3 The Tenants Strike in Pennants, Clarendon and sale of Jamaican plantations
- Prof Barrymore Bogues
1.4 Eisteddfod in Jamaica - Dr Vivian Crawford
Module 2 Wales links with supplying slave traders from Liverpool
2.1 Africa, the Slave Trade and Wales, including Welsh Slave Ship Captains
- International Slavery Museum speaker
2.2 Wool - LM and BORN team
2.3 Copper and Iron – Anglesey and the Greenfield Valley
2.4 Building Slave Ships in Wales - Pwllelli
Module 3 Welsh participation in Slave Trade
3.1 Welsh Pirates - eg Henry Morgan - Terry Breverton
3.2 Taking roles on plantations – opportunities in Jamaica
3.3 The Anglesey links
3.4 Abolition efforts in Wales
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Background to'Exploring the shared history of Jamaica and Wales’
When Covid stopped us all from getting out and about, this innovative blended programme was developed to offer opportunities to take part in the online sessions each month on 1st Saturday at 2pm / 1pm in Wales – 8am in Jamaica – hosted by the North Wales Jamaica Society, managed by Learning Links International CIC, with an expectation to undertake relevant visits when possible. The sessions were lively and created the idea of the 'building bridges of friendship' initiaitive.
In March 2024 this non formal adult learning opportunitiy supported LLI's Taith application to fund exchange visits between Wales and Jamaica by some course participants, to undertake further research in Wales and Jamaica.
Those registered on this learning opportunity / course will be expected to keep a journal to record learning and the development of understanding related to the links between Wales and Jamaica. This is for personal reference, participants will also be expected to undertake relevant visits in their own country, funding permitting.
There were plans for opportunities to undertake visits in Wales / Liverpool, with options of engaging in personal / group research - which when formalised would have resulted with an award of LLI Certificates of Attendance at the end of each unit., to include recognition of additional activities undertaken, eg to visit Penrhyn Castle and Liverpool International Slavery Museum
In Jamaica there will also be opportunities to visit to the various areas that were Plantations or Pens owned by the Pennant Family, as well as archives and other places of interest / information
Participants will also have opportunities to undertake volunteer activities eg supporting / managing the exchange visits.
The plans have always been to move this learning forward in an informal way.
However interest from Adult Learning Wales has now led to plans to pilot an informal series of 6 sessions to be held in partnership with ALW in Bangor in May / June 2025:
Liz Millman - updated April 2025