Kunas celebrate with dancing and the haunting music of their bamboo pipes

The observance of the "Dule Revolution", the most important event of the year in the San Blas islands, will take place February 21-25. The festivity, which honors the 1925 uprising of the Kuna people against Panamanian colonial authorities, will be observed in the communities of Ailigandi, Tigre, and Ustupu with plays based on historical facts, dance shows and food and drink.

Kuna authorities will provide special amenities and translation services for visitors, who are allowed to film and take pictures of the celebration.

Dancing Kuna women. The Kuna inhabit the San Blas islands and the jungles of Darién. Photo: Andrés Villa

The festival, declared a holiday in the Kuna Yala Indian comarca (territory) in 1998, marks the almost succesful secession of the Dule (Kuna) nation from the Republic of Panama. The revolution was led by Nele Kantule (1868-1944) who from an early age, exhibited the traits of a leader, seeking to preserve the traditions of his people, who inhabit both sides of the Panama-Colombian border.

Becoming a respected traditional healer and tribe chief, he married and had eight children.

The continuous abuses by Panama's colonial police stationed on the San Blas islands, which tried to force Western cultural norms on the Kuna, angered Kantule, who sought the advice of a Mexican Indian named Manuel Olivares, who visited the islands in 1920.

Kantule's revolutionary sentiments also caught the attention of the U.S. Government which in those days was interested in launching scientific studies about the genesis of a "white race" among the Kuna (the Kuna have the highest percentage of albinos in the world).

With the support of Richard O. Marsh, a U.S. Adventurer, the Kuna attacked the colonial police station of San Ignacio de Tupile, killing the police chief, Miguel Gordón, and a number of officers. The proclamation of the "Republic of Dule" prompted Panamanians to send a government delegation to the islands to restore order. A peace treaty between the Kuna and the government of Panama was signed on March 4, 1925. Since then, the Kuna have enjoyed a high level of autonomy and legal protection.

The celebration of the "Dule Revolution" was established by law on April 16, 1998.