Emigration of the Garifuna
At the same time that the settlement was grappling with the ramifications of the end of slavery, a new ethnic group, the Garifuna appeared. In the early 1800s, the Garifuna, descendants of Carib peoples of the Lesser Antilles and of Africans who had escaped from slavery, arrived in the settlement. The Garifuna had resisted British and French colonialism in the Lesser Antilles until they were defeated by the British in 1796. After putting down a violent Garifuna rebellion on Saint Vincent, the British moved between 1,700 and 5,000 of the Garifuna across the Caribbean to the Bay Islands (present-day Islas de la Bahía) off the north coast of Honduras. From there they migrated to the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and the southern part of present-day Belize. By 1802 about 150 Garifuna had settled in the Stann Creek (present-day Dangriga) area and were engaged in fishing and farming.
Referenced, with kind permission, from the book "Garifuna History, Language & Culture of Belize, Central America, & the Caribbean" by: Sebastian Cayetano B. ED and Fabian Cayetano B. ED (p 105, 127,138)
Other Garifuna later came to the British settlement of Belize after finding themselves on the wrong side in a civil war in Honduras in 1832. Many Garifuna men soon found wage work alongside slaves as mahogany cutters. In 1841 Dangriga, the Garifuna's largest settlement, was a flourishing village. The American traveler John Stephens described the Garifuna village of Punta Gorda as having 500 inhabitants and producing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.
The Garifuna Culture
Garinagu, the people, whose language and culture is Garifuna, have a rich and interesting culture which in Hopkins is continued and preserved more than any other Garinagu settlement in Belize. The shipwrecked Africans (see our history page) quickly adopted as their own the Carib Arawak language, customs, traditions, occupations, music and dance, and traditional religion -- chugu, amuyadahani, and the highly celebrated "Dugu" --Aduguruhani-- the Feasting of the Ancestors, which is conducted by the Garifuna traditional healer --Buyae or Shaman. At the same time, the Garifuna African ancestry can be traced back to the region of West Africa, to the Yoruba, Ibo, and Ashanti tribes specifically, in Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, to mention only a few.
The British treated Garifuna as squatters. In 1857 the British told the Garifuna that they must obtain leases from the crown or risk losing their lands, dwellings, and other buildings. The 1872 Crown Lands Ordinance established reservations for the Garifuna as well as the Maya. The British prevented both groups from owning land and treated them as a source of valuable labor.
American Threat to a Proud Heritage
The Garifuna, descended from shipwrecked Africans, have fended off many dangers to their unique culture. But assimilation could be the greatest menace yet.
They were never slaves.
That is something Garifuna parents always tell their children about their shipwrecked African ancestors, whose inter marriage with indigenous Caribbeans created a fiercely independent New World ethnicity the European colonialists called the "Black Caribs."
| (kr´bz) (KEY) , native people formerly inhabiting the Lesser Antilles, West Indies. They seem to have overrun the Lesser Antilles and to have driven out the Arawak about a century before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The original name by which the Caribs were known, Galibi, was corrupted by the Spanish to Caníbal and is the origin of the English word cannibal. Extremely warlike and ferocious, they practiced cannibalism and took pride in scarification (ritual cutting of the skin) and fasting. The Carib language was spoken only by the men, while the women spoke Arawak. This was so because Arawak women, captured in raids, were taken as wives by the Carib men. Fishing, agriculture, and basketmaking were the chief domestic activities. The Caribs were expert navigators, crisscrossing a large portion of the Caribbean in their canoes. After European colonization began in the 17th cent., they were all but exterminated. A group remaining on St. Vincent mingled with black slaves who escaped from a shipwreck in 1675. This group was transferred (1795) by the British to Roatán island off the coast of Honduras. They have gradually migrated north along the coast into Guatemala. A few Caribs survive on a reservation on the island of Dominica. The Carib, or Cariban, languages are a separate family. Carib-speaking tribes are found in N Honduras, Belize, central Brazil, and N South America.|
Though commonly referred to as "Garifuna", the people are properly called "Garinagu" and the culture and language are "Garifuna". The Garinagu are recent arrivals to Belize, settling the southern coast of Belize in the early 19th century. The epic story of the Garinagu begins in the early 1600's on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent.
In 1635, two Spanish ships carrying Nigerian slaves floundered and sank off the coast of St. Vincent. The slaves that survived and swam ashore found shelter in the existing Carib Indian settlements. Over the next century and a half, the two peoples intermixed, intermarried and eventually fused into a single culture, the Black Caribs or Garinagu.
By 1773, the Black Carib was the dominant population of St. Vincent. But, European politics began to exert its influence throughout the Caribbean. A series of wars between the French and British on St. Vincent culminated in a final battle on June 10th, 1796, where the French and their Carib allies where forced to surrender and leave the island. Thus would start a journey by the exiled Caribs in search of a home.
The British deposited the Caribs on the island of Roatan, Honduras. Shortly after, the entire marooned population migrated to the mainland of Honduras and allied with the Spanish in the fortress town of Trujillo. Unfortunately, a brief civil war in 1832 found the Caribs on the wrong side and once again many were forced to flee to neighboring British Honduras.
According to tradition, the first Garinagu arrived in then British Honduras on November 19th, 1802. This day is now a national holiday in Belize celebrated with drums, dancing and pageantry. Today, there is one town in Toledo - Punta Gorda - that is considered a Garifuna town, and two Garifuna villages - Barranco (the oldest Garifuna settlement in Belize) and tiny Punta Negra.
1997 the Black Carib culture known, as the Garifuna were reminded of their
ancestors’ resilient struggle to overcome the brutal racism put forth by
the European settlers in the New World. This day marked the 200th
anniversary of the arrival of the Garifuna on the shores of Central America
after being forcibly removed by the British from the island of St. Vincent
located in the Caribbean. Though this culpable relocation of their
entire culture by the British was meant to circumscribe the Garifuna, they
have survived like members of their ancestry did when they were enslaved
and brought from Africa during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade of the 17th,
18th, and 19th centuries. Today the Garifuna populations can be found in
Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and many have migrated to the United States.
The Garifuna, also known as the Garinagu, are direct descendants of the
“Island Caribs” and a group of African slaves who escaped two ship-wrecked
Spanish slave ships near St. Vincent in 1635(Garinagu Early History, 1).
The Island Caribs were descendants of South American Indians known as Arawaks
and another group, the Caribs, who migrated from South America to the Caribbean
at a later date. Through the admixture of these cultures as well as the
influence of European settlers in the Americas, the Garifuna obtained a
diverse culture that incorporates African traditions of music, dance, religious
rites, and ceremonies; Native American cultivation, hunting, and fishing
techniques; and a French and Arawak influenced language.
The Garifuna culture displays many influences of its African heritage,
and this is extremely evident when comparing their music with the indigenous
music of the African societies from which their ancestors originated.
According to one source, “most of the slaves brought to the Caribbean were
taken from the Niger and cross Delta regions in the Blight of Benin (present-day
Nigeria) in West Africa, and from further south in the Congo and Angola”(A
History of Belize 5th chapter, 1). Much like the music of these areas,
the Garifuna style of music relies heavily on call and response patterns.
These patterns are less overlapping than many traditional ones found in
Africa, but none the less the Garifunas’ “leader/chorus organization” is
very consistent with those of African styles (Franzone 1995,294).
In addition, the importance of the drum in Garifuna music is another similarity
to their African influence. Garifuna music relies heavily on the
drum, and in many instances their music is dictated by it. Often
times a particular drum style will call for two drummers (except for sacred
music, which usually uses three). Typically, one drummer will play a fixed,
consistent pattern. This drummer is usually called the segunda player.One of the most famous of these is called the Wanaragua.
This dance, which is also known as the John Canoe, is a dance that originated
in times of slavery and is performed around Christmas time. The participants
will dress up in white masks and venture from house to house in order to
receive food and drinks from that household. The dance is said to have
been started by both the Creole and Garifuna during encounters at mahogany
camps where they were forced to work, and the intent was to mock their
white slave owners (Palacio 1993,14). Other traditional dances are
defined as: “the Charikawi- a mimed dance where a hunter meets up
with a cave man and a cow, and the Chumba-a highly poly-rhythmic song,
danced by soloists with great individualized style”(S. Cayetano,
Another more intricate part made up of cross-patterns is normally played
by the primero player (S.Cayetano,1). The drums of the Garifuna are usually
made of hardwoods that are uniformly shaped and carved out in the centers.
The ends of the drums, whether it be one or two, are covered with skins
from the peccary, deer, or sheep (S.Cayetano, 1). These drums are always
played with the hands, and some drummers have been known to wrap metal
wires around the drumheads to give them a snare-like sound. Some musicians
accompany the drums with gourd shakers called sisira, and even instruments
like the guitar, flute, and violin have been adopted from early French,
English, and Spanish folk music, as well as, Jamaican and Haitian Afro-Caribbean
In accompaniment to their music traditions lie the Garifuna songs and dance
styles, which are an integral part of their culture. These songs
and dance styles that are performed by the Garifuna display a wide range
of subjects like work songs, social dances, and ancestral traditions. Some
of the work songs include the Eremwu Eu, which is sung by the women as
they prepare to make cassava bread, and the Laremuna Wadauman, a song men
regularly sing when collectively working together (S.Cayetano, 2).
As for songs and dances in the social context, pieces like the Gunchei
are quite customary. In this dance style the men take turns dancing
with each woman. Another very popular dance style performed by the
Garifuna is called the punta. According to one Garifuna author this
style is, “ the most popular dance performed at wakes, holidays, parties,
and other social events”(S.Cayetano, 2). It consists of different
couples attempting to dance more stylistically and seductively with hip
movements than their other competitors. While most of these songs
and dances is more modern in origin, the Garifuna still maintain many traditional