Communication Afrique Destinations

CULTURE/HISTORY - HONDURAS: The Garifuna or Black Caribs

The Garifunas or Black Caribs are considered to date to be the only slaves in the Americas to have escaped slavery as such. And for good reason, these black slaves who will be well received by the Arawak Indians with whom they will mix over time owed their fortune to misfortune. In this case, the sinking of two Spanish galleons which transported them in the waters of the island of San Vicente in the Caribbean Sea.

In 1635, after the sinking of the two Spanish galleons which transported the slaves from West Africa, and mainly from Nigeria and Benin Republic, many of them escaped death. They then found refuge in Saint-Vincent where they were welcomed by the Arawak Indians called the Caribs. The welcome by their new hosts from the Kalipuna tribe was obviously so human and warm that the shipwrecked African slaves settled on this island. According to several sources, the Blacks eventually conquered the Arawaks and intermarried with indigenous women. Thus began and was accomplished the miscegenation. It's not just limited to weddings. The Blacks adopted most of the customs of their hosts, namely their language and their way of life, without departing from their own.

A fierce resistance for freedom

Unfortunately, the good understanding between the two communities withered and the conflict that arose opposed the Red Caribbean to the Black Caribbean under the influence of the French and British powers. Thanks to the Franco-Anglo-Caribbean Treaty of 1660 which granted the Caribbean full ownership of the islands of Dominica and Saint-Vincent and what followed. From 1763 until 1783, the British and the French never ceased to eye the island of Saint-Vincent respectively. Each power apparently ignoring the Treaty of Paris of 1763 in the name of which the islands of Saint Vincent and Dominica were considered "neutral" islands. Faced with the very enterprising British for the conquest of Saint-Vincent, the Garifuna or Black Caribs repeatedly prevented them. They proved to be very good warriors and made them suffer many losses that they had to concede to the Black Caribs the right to live on their island as an "independent nation".

Only here it is: in 1782, the Treaty of Versailles which gave the English the island of Saint-Vincent delivered them at the same time to their worst enemies. Not without, however, that the French continued to incite the Black Caribbeans to rebel against the British. Thus, under the leadership of Joseph Chatoyer, their charismatic leader, they forced the English to retreat to the vicinity of Kingstown. The death of Joseph Chatoyer in combat, killed by an Englishman, will mark a turning point in the life of the Black Caribbeans. Because the British decided to take a drastic measure in advance in order to nip any new resistance in the bud.

In this battle of the powers of the time, the Garifuna suffered a second deportation to an island that is an integral part of Honduras: the island of Roatan. Nearly 3,000 of them died during this trip. Because of the 5080 who were embarked on British ships on October 26, 1796, only 2248 Garifunas remained on April 11, 1797 on arrival. And it was as a result of this that many Black Caribbeans chose to go to other countries in the Caribbean Sea. When we talk about the Garifuna we immediately think of Honduras. If this country is their cradle, they have however spread all over Central America. They have several communities, mainly in Honduras, but which are also found in the other countries of the Caribbean coast: Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Since March 14, 2002, Joseph Chatoyer has been proclaimed a National Hero in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. A decision that followed the adoption of the National Heroes Act the same year. A way of paying homage to the one to whom all Garifuna owe the right to continue to remain free, thus making them the only known Afro-descendants of the American continent to remain so.

Les Garifuna
Les Garifuna

A fertile interbreeding

It is in relation to the “Redskins of Canada that the French who called the Arawak Amerindians the Red Caribbeans called in contrast the shipwrecked slaves in the Caribbean Sea the Black Caribbeans.

The origin of the second name Garifuna by which they are called is still a subject of controversy. For some, this name would have a link with the fact that they are Cassava Eaters or Garinagu in the language of the Arawak Amerindians. No one seems to dispute this evidence. From there to conclude that their name Garifuna would be derived from the Arawak root "Karina" which would have been transformed into "Callinagu" or "Garinagu" or even "Karifouna" as some have long asserted, there is only one not. And we should be careful not to cross it without arguing. Although cassava originates from South America and was introduced to Africa by Europeans during colonization, there are still many lexical elements that argue in favor of a Nigerian origin. Especially since History specifies that it was the Spaniards who thus baptized the Garifunas Caribes, giving them this name which would mean "Cannibals". A name which has, moreover, given rise to that of “Caribbean” by which we continue to geographically call this part of the world.

In an article titled The Garifuna Dialect, a Means of Cultural Identity, Gloria Mayen Umukoro and Peter A. Agwu of the Department of Modern Languages and Translation Studies, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria write: "It is obvious that a name talks a lot about the one who owns it. A name can tell where someone is from, it can help identify someone's culture. The meaning of the word Garifuna has a significance that draws our attention in this communication. According to our finding, we notice that this name has a lot to do with people's culture. Garifuna is translated as 'cassava eating people'. This discovery also leads us to trace the origin of the people to West Africa, and Nigeria where we have ‘garri’ as a main food, and it is good to note that this food comes from “cassava”. If 'garifuna' in English is translated as 'cassava eating people', and garri is a product of cassava, then it is obvious that this Garifuna name comes from Nigeria”.

Apart from the Gari which is one of the main sources of food, to mention only this aspect, the Garifuna have well preserved other ancestral traditions. There is the language, the dances, the rites, etc. As Marcella Maria Perdomo Alvarado, ethnologist and Garifuna specialist, puts it so well: “The Dügü is a possession cult practiced by the Garifuna, an Afro-Amerindian people from the island of Saint-Vincent, located in the Lesser Antilles. Following their mass deportation to Central America by the British Crown in 1797, today the Garifuna are a homogeneous and transnational people spread across the Atlantic coast of Central America. Unlike the majority of African-American cults, which mostly house a pantheon populated by African deities, the Dügü is the domain of the spirits of deceased ascending relatives: the hiuruha and the gubida. A magico-religious cult that ignores dogma and whose ritual practice is the mark, the Dügü supposes the belief in the spirits of the ancestors capable of intervening in the bodies of individuals through possession. In the cosmogonic framework of the cult, the ancestors are supposed to follow a precise route from Yurumein, the island of origins, crossing the Caribbean Sea to finally land in Honduras, the land of exile. This past has remained engraved in the Dügü and survives underground in the unconscious spheres of individuals”.

Thus they celebrate through this ancestral survival their direct links with the land of origin of their ancestors, Africa. Because, in addition to the descendants of the shipwrecked, some slaves from French-speaking Central Africa, maroon slaves would have come to add to the large initial group.

In 2001, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the dance, music and language of the Garifuna. A recognition of the heritage of which they continue to be bearers. But for how much longer? Because for several years now, the greatest threat facing the Garifuna has been none other than the voracious appetites of the tourism industry for which the land of the Garifuna is only an opportunity to make money, alas. The Garifuna have therefore not yet finished fighting to continue to remain “free”.

By Alan Buster

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