Garifuna

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Garifuna

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Total population

200,000
Regions with significant populations
Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua[1]
Languages
Garifuna, Spanish, English
Religions
generally Christian
Related ethnic groups
Caribs, Afro-Caribbeans, Miskito

Garífuna is a Spanish term for the people and language of the Garínagu. The Garifuna live along the Caribbean Coast, in Belize, Guatemala (Livingston), Nicaragua and in Honduras on the mainland and on the island of Roatán.

The Garifuna are ethnically descended from Amerindian and African people; their language is a dialect of the native Brazilian language family Arawakan. The British colonial administration invented the term Black Carib under which the Garifuna went before they came to the Island of Roatán and eventually the Honduras mainland. The Garifuna population is estimated to be around 200,000 both in the Caribbean homeland and in the United States, the latter due to heavy migration from Central America.

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 invaded Saint Vincent, they were opposed by French settlers and their Carib allies. The Caribs 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 voyuge 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, the 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]

Contents

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/09/01/html/ft_20010901.6.html
  2. ^ http://www.unesco.org/culture/intangible-heritage/masterpiece.php?id=1&lg=en

[edit] 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

[edit] External links

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