14130: Bellegarde-Smith: KOSANBA: Colloquium V (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>

KOSANBA
The Congress of Santa Barbara


	The Executive Committee of KOSANBA, a scholarly association for
the study of Haitian Vodou, regrets to inform its members and others who
had wished to participate at its 5th International Colloquium, that was to
have been held in Santiago de Cuba, together with the 28th annual
conference of the Caribbean Studies Association (CSA), that both meetings
have been cancelled. The conferences were May 26-31, 2003.

	Operating under the umbrella of CSA, KOSANBA was informed that the
Cuban Convention Bureau was unable to welcome both groups at this
juncture. Then The United States government refused to grant the CSA
(and KOSANBA) a U.S. Treasury License that would have allowed U.S.
citizens to travel to Cuba.

	While CSA is relocating either in San Andres island (Colombia) or
in Belize, a decision to be made later, the Board of Directors of KOSANBA
is examining all its options and will announce its decisions soon.


Patrick Bellegarde-Smith
Vice-President

<pbs@uwm.edu>

Claudine Michel
Secretary and Treasurer

<mayoub@omni.ucsb.edu>