Garifuna

Garinagu

Flag
Regions with significant populations
Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua
Languages
Garifuna, Spanish, Belize Kriol, English
Religion
generally Catholic & Christian
Related ethnic groups
Caribs, Afro-Caribbeans

The Garinagu (singular: Garifuna) are an ethnic group of mixed ancestry who live primarily in Central America. They live along the Caribbean Coast in Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras including the mainland, and on the island of Roatán. There are also diaspora communities of Garinagu in the United States, particularly in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and other major cities; and on the Caribbean islands of Trinidad, Dominica, and St. Vincent.

History

The Garinagu are descendents of Carib, Arawak and African people. Garifunas language is made up of Arawak, Carib, English, French and Spanish to a lesser degree. The British colonial administration used the term Black Carib to refer to the Garinagu to distinguish them from Yellow and Red Carib, the Amerindian population that did not intermarry with Africans. The Amerindians who had not intermarried with Africans are still living in the Lesser Antilles; Dominica, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, etc. In recent history, Garinagu have thrown off their British appellation and encourage others to refer to them as Garifuna (Garinagu-plural). The Garifuna population is estimated to be around 300,000 both in Central America, Yurumein (St. Vincent & The Grenadines) and The United States of America. The latter due to heavy migration from Central America, has become the second largest hub of Garinagu outside Central America. New York has the largest population heavily dominated by Hondurans, Guatemalans and Belizeans. Los Angeles ranks second with Belizean Garinagu being the most popular followed by Hondurans and Guatemalans. There is no information regarding Garinagu from Nicaragua having migrated to either the East or the West Coast of the United States. Nicaraguan Garinagu are very few and are in the process of relearning the Garifuna language and reacquiring the different cultural aspects like dancing and drumming.

One of the earliest accounts of the ancestors of the Garinagu comes from the Frenchman Père Raymond Breton. Living on the island of Saint Vincent in the 1630s, he recorded the Black Caribs' story of their migration from South America's Orinoco region. According to legend, these Arawak speaking people of the Orinoco came to St. Vincent long before the arrival of Europeans to the New World. They lived for a long time in peace and tranquility until one day the island was attacked by a group of Carib men from the mainland. The Carib men slaughtered all the Arawak men and took the women as their companions. At some point, two West African slave carrying ships on their way to the Americas arrived on the island and were successfully integrated into the population, adding an African element to the culture.

When the British took over Saint Vincent after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, they were opposed by French settlers and their Carib allies. After a series of Carib Wars which were encouraged and supported by the French and the death of their leader Satuye (Chatoyer), the Carib eventually surrendered to the British in 1796. The Black Caribs were considered enemies and were deported to Roatán, an island off the coast of Honduras. The British separated the more African-looking Caribs from the more Amerindian looking ones. They decided that the former were enemies who had to be deported, while the latter were merely "misled" and were allowed to remain. Five thousand Black Caribs were deported, but only about 2,500 of them survived the voyage to Roatán. Because the island was too small and infertile to support their population, the Garinagu petitioned the Spanish authorities to be allowed to settle on the mainland. The Spanish employed them as soldiers, and they spread along the Caribbean coast of Central America.

They are known for their dance, which is called Punta, and for its associated musical style, which has the dancers move their hips from right to left in a circular motion.

In 2001 UNESCO proclaimed the language, dance and music of the Garinagu as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Belize. In 2005 the First Garífuna Summit was held in Corn Island, Nicaragua with the participation of the government of other Central American countries.

See also

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Bibliography

• Breton, Raymond (1877) Grammaire caraibe, composée par le p. Raymond Breton, suivie du Catéchisme caraibe. Maisonneuve, Paris. - from 1635 manuscript OCLC 78046575
• Flores, Barbara A.T. (2001) Religious education and theological praxis in a context of colonization: Garifuna spirituality as a means of resistance. Ph.D. Dissertation, Garrett/Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. OCLC 47773227
• Gonzalez, Nancie L. Solien (1988) The Sojourners of the Caribbean: Ethnogenesis and Ethnohistory of the Garifuna. University of Illinois Press, Chicago, ISBN 0-252-01453-7
• Gonzalez, Nancie L. (1997) "The Garifuna of Central America" In: Wilson, Samuel M. (ed.) (1997) The Indigenous People of the Caribbean Virgin Islands Humanities Council, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., pp. 197-205, ISBN 0-8130-1531-6

External links

• Garifuna.com
• Examining the impact of changing livelihood strategies upon Garifuna Cultural Identity, Cayos Cochinos, Honduras
• The Garifuna on NationalGeographic.com
• Garifuna.org (features a very different history from the one presented above)