Garifuna Homeland: Southern Belize

The Garifuna people are located predominantly in the Stann Creek district of Belize, in towns such as Dangriga, Seine Bight, Hopkins, Punta Gorda, Barranco, Georgetown, and Libertad. Dangriga, the largest town in southern Belize, is considered the spiritual capital of the Garifuna people. The Garifuna first arrived in Belize in 1802, settling in the Stann Creek area, and have since dispersed across the country.

Garifuna Settlement Day

The Garifuna people are descended from West African slaves and indigenous Arawak and Carib peoples. The slaves were brought to the Caribbean by the British from around 1635, and over time, intermarriage between the two groups led to the formation of the Garifuna ethnic group. After rising up against the British, the Garifuna were pursued through the Caribbean and eventually settled in Belize on 19 November 1802 (or 1832, according to some sources).

The Garifuna Settlement Day celebrations occur across Belize, especially in the town of Dangriga, where the first Garifuna people landed. The holiday is marked by parades, street music, drumming, dancing, traditional food, and the re-enactment of the first landing of the Garifuna. The yellow, black, and white colours of the Garifuna flag are also prominently displayed across the nation. Traditional Garifuna dishes such as serre (fish boiled in coconut milk), hudut (mashed plantain), and cassava bread are also a significant part of the festivities.

Garifuna food and drink

Plantain and banana are used both ripe and unripe (green) in Garifuna cuisine. A popular dish is "hudut" or "hudutu", a fish and coconut milk stew served with mashed plantain, which is a combination of around three parts green plantain to one part ripe plantain. Both are boiled and then pounded together until a moist dough is formed. Mashed plantain is also served with other Garifuna dishes such as "Tikini" and "Tapado". Green bananas are used in savoury dishes such as green banana fritters, "bundiga" (a stew), and "darasa" (banana tamales). Dried banana and plantain powder are also used to make a Garifuna porridge called "gungude".

Other traditional Garifuna dishes include "sere", a savoury stew with a coconut and fish base, seasoned with onions, garlic, cilantro, and other spices, and often served with coconut-infused white rice; "tapou", a fish, root vegetable, and green banana soup seasoned with garlic and red achiote paste; and "conch soup", made with conch meat, coconut milk, and fresh vegetables and spices.

Garifuna music and dance

Music and dance are integral to the Garifuna's cultural expression and serve multiple purposes within their communities. They are used to celebrate life and release pain, communicate struggles and ideas, and explain their daily lives and surroundings. Garifuna music and dance are also closely tied to spiritual and religious practices, often accompanying rituals, ceremonies, and celebrations.

The Garifuna's musical traditions are characterised by the use of drums and percussion instruments, with the main traditional instruments being drums and maracas. The primary drum is the Segunda, a bass drum made by hollowing out logs and stretching antelope skin over them. Other drums include the primera, the lead tenor drum, and the tercera, which maintains the bass line. Drumming plays a crucial role in Garifuna rituals, such as the Adügürühani (dügü) or "feeding the dead", where it is believed to have a calming effect on individuals possessed by ancestral spirits.

The Garifuna have various musical genres and dance forms, including punta, paranda, punta rock, chumba, hunguhungu, mascaro, and yankunnu. Punta is the best-known and most popular traditional dance in Garifuna culture. It is a vigorous and sensual dance performed by a man and a woman moving separately in a circle formed by spectators. The dancers mimic courtship, with rapid movements of the hips and feet while the upper torso remains motionless. Punta is often combined with chumba and hunguhungu, circular dances performed in triple rhythm.

Paranda is another important Garifuna dance, usually performed by women. It is characterised by energetic movements of the shoulders, torso, and feet, following the rhythm of the music. The chumba is also performed by women and involves a three-beat rhythm with hips moving from side to side. This dance has a social consciousness element, often used to raise awareness about current social issues.

The Garifuna's musical and dance traditions are not static but have evolved over time. For example, punta rock, a modern version of punta, incorporates electronic instrumentation and contemporary sounds. Additionally, the roles of women in Garifuna music and dance have expanded, with women increasingly taking on roles as singers and drummers, which were traditionally reserved for men.

The Garifuna's music and dance are not just a form of artistic expression but also a means of preserving their history, identity, and ancestry. In 2001, UNESCO recognised the Garifuna language, dance, and music as a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity", highlighting the importance of these cultural traditions.

Garifuna religion and spirituality

The Garifuna people are of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry, originating in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. Their religion and spirituality are a blend of the rituals and beliefs of the Arawak, Island Caribs, and West African cultures.

The Garifuna have a strong belief in ancestral spirits and their influence on the living. They acknowledge these spirits through different ceremonies, such as the Dugu and Chugu, which take place exclusively within the Garifuna temple, the Dabuyaba, under the direction of a shaman, or Buyei. All Garifuna rituals and ceremonies include abundant drumming, dancing, and singing.

The Garifuna religion has developed to become an integral part of Garifuna culture, but it is under threat from the encroachment of Pentecostal churches into Central America, which has contributed to a rise in public derision of Garifuna spirituality. Many Garifuna people are also loyal Catholics, and while their religious practices have long been considered suspect by established churches, some Buwiyes have served as Roman Catholic priests or nuns.

Garifuna spirituality is characterised by ancestor worship and a belief in a higher God, or Bungiu (also called Sunti Gabafu). They also believe in spirit helpers, or Hiuruha, which assist shamans in curing and locating lost objects.

Garifuna religious practices include the Dugu, a ritual feast held to appease the ancestors when they are thought to be angry, and the Chugu, or "feeding of the dead", a ceremony lasting one to two days and officiated by a shaman.

Other important ceremonies include the Beluria (ninth night), and the John Canoe (Yankunu) dance, performed at Christmastime.

Garifuna language

The Garifuna language is an Arawakan language, also known as the Black Carib language. It is spoken by approximately 190,000 people in Central America, especially in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, and also by members of the Garifuna diaspora in the US, including New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Miami, and New Orleans.

The language is descended from the language of the Arawak people, an indigenous tribe from South America. The Arawak language was adopted by the Garifuna people when, according to the most widely accepted account, West Africans being transported to South America as slaves escaped due to a shipwreck off the island of St. Vincent (known to the Garifuna as Yurumein) and intermarried with the Arawak tribe. Contact with the Carib tribe also led to the presence of a large number of Carib loanwords in the language, even in the basic vocabulary. The Garifuna language also contains loanwords from French, English, and Spanish.

The Garifuna language is unique in that it has male and female registers based on two different languages, from the Carib and Arawak families, respectively. Some concepts have two words to express them, one for women and one for men. The terms used by men are generally loanwords from Carib, while those used by women are Arawak. For example, there are distinct Carib and Arawak words for "man" and "woman", four words altogether, but in practice, the generic term "mútu" ("person") is used by both men and women. However, grammatical gender agreement on a verb, adjective, or demonstrative distinguishes whether "mútu" refers to a man or a woman.

The basic word order of a Garifuna transitive clause is Verb-Subject-Object. The language is agglutinative, with grammatical tense, aspect, mood, negation, and person (both subject and object) expressed by affixes (mostly suffixes) and particles.

In 2001, UNESCO recognised the Garifuna language, along with Garifuna music and dance, as a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity".

Frequently asked questions