'Garífuna' refers to both the people and language of the 'Garínagu'. In their own language, 'Garifuna' is the singular and 'Garinagu' is the plural form. The Garifuna live along the
Caribbean Coast in
Belize,
Guatemala (
Livingston),
Nicaragua and
Honduras on the mainland, and on the island of
Roatán. There are also many Garifuna in the United States, particularly in Los Angeles, New York and Houston.
History
The 'Garifuna' are ethnically descended from
Amerindian and
African people; their language is a dialect of the
Arawakan language family. The British colonial administration used the term 'Black Carib' to refer to the Garifuna and distinguish them from 'Yellow Carib' - the Amerindians who had not intermarried with Africans. In recent history, Garifuna have thrown off their British appellation and encourage others to refer to them as Garifuna. The Garifuna population is estimated to be around 400,000 both in the Caribbean homeland and in the United States, the latter due to heavy migration from Central America.
[1]
One of the earliest accounts of the ancestors of the Garifuna comes from the Frenchman Père Raymond Breton. Living on the island of
St. Vincent in the 1630s, he recorded the Black Caribs' story of their migration from Brazil. According to legend, the Arawak speaking peoples of Northern Brazil came to St. Vincent long before the arrival of Europeans in 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-speaking men from the mainland. The Carib men slaughtered all the Arawak men and took the women as their slaves and companions. At some point, escaped African slaves arrived on the island and were successfully integrated into the population, adding an African element to the culture.
A more fantastic, but scientifically unproven, version of the origin of "Black Caribs" states that pre-Columbian African explorers intermingled with the indigenous population (see "They Came Before Columbus" by
Ivan van Sertima).
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 2,000 of them survived the voyage to Roatán. Because the island was too small and infertile to support their population, the Garifuna 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 Garifunas 'language, dance and music' as a "
Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" in
Nicaragua,
Honduras, and
Belize.
[2] In 2005 the First Garífuna Summit was held in
Corn Island,
Nicaragua with the participation of the government of other Central American countries.
[3]
See also
Notes
1. England 2006 Afro Central Americans in New York City: Garifuna Tales of Transnational Movements in Racialized Spaces
2. http://www.unesco.org/culture/intangible-heritage/masterpiece.php?id=1&lg=en
3. http://www.cancilleria.gob.ni/garifuna/index.html
References
★ 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 of Honduras/Cayos Cochinos
★
Garifuna of Honduras
★
The Garifuna on NationalGeographic.com
★
Garifuna.org
★
Garifuna of Honduras/Supportive Organizations
★
labuga.com
★
Photos of a Garifuna village in northern Honduras
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