The Garifuna people are an Afro-Indigenous people of mixed free African and Amerindian ancestry who originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and traditionally speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language. The Garifuna are the descendants of Indigenous Arawak and Kalinago (Island Carib) people, and Afro-Caribbean people. The founding population of the Central American diaspora, estimated at 2,500 to 5,000 persons, were transplanted to Roatán from Saint Vincent, which was known to the Garinagu as Yurumein, in the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.
Saint Vincent and colonial resistance
The Garifuna developed on Saint Vincent, an island in the Lesser Antilles that they call Yurumein. Their ancestry brings together Indigenous Carib and Arawak peoples and Africans. Colonial accounts often called them Black Caribs. Their history belongs to the island's struggle over land and sovereignty as well as to the meeting of African and Indigenous cultures.
European powers competed for Saint Vincent while its Indigenous inhabitants resisted attempts to settle and control the island. These conflicts became known as the Carib Wars. In 1795, the Garifuna leader Joseph Chatoyer headed resistance to British colonial expansion. He was killed on 14 March of that year. His death was a severe blow to the resistance, although the struggle and its consequences continued.
Exile and coastal settlements
British authorities imposed exile after defeating the Garifuna. In 1796 they began rounding up inhabitants and transporting captives to the small island of Balliceaux. Many died during this confinement. In 1797, survivors were forcibly carried to Roatán, off the coast of present-day Honduras. The British removal separated the Garifuna from Yurumein, but the deported communities maintained a shared identity and carried their language and traditions across the Caribbean.
From Roatán, Garifuna settlers moved to the mainland around Trujillo. During the nineteenth century they established communities along the Atlantic coast of Honduras, choosing locations close to the sea and its resources. The wider diaspora spread through Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Nicaragua. A nineteenth-century travel account examined by Honduras's National University depicts Garifuna settlements at Tulián and Cienaguita, recording coastal houses, boats, food preparation and music. Those records also contain the prejudices of their foreign authors.
Language and cultural memory
Garifuna oral culture preserved more than memories of migration. Narratives known as úraga were traditionally recited at wakes or large gatherings. Songs carried history and practical knowledge about fishing, growing cassava, building canoes and constructing houses from baked mud. Their melodies joined African and Indigenous American elements, while drums and dances invited participation from listeners. Some songs also used satire. Such performances made language a means of sharing skills, remembering experiences and commenting on community life.
The Garifuna language belongs to the Arawakan family and has absorbed influences from European and African languages through centuries of contact. Its vocabulary includes some terms traditionally associated with women and others used primarily by men. In 2001, UNESCO proclaimed Garifuna language, dance and music a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. In 2008 these traditions entered its Representative List, recognizing the heritage associated with Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Migration also established Garifuna communities in the United States, where language teaching and cultural celebrations became ways of passing that inheritance to another generation.
In 2005 the First Garifuna Summit was held in Corn Islands, Nicaragua, with the participation of the government of other Central American countries. In contemporary Belize there has been a resurgence of Garifuna music, popularized by musicians such as Andy Palacio, Mohobub Flores, and Aurelio Martinez. These musicians have taken many aspects from traditional Garifuna music forms and fused them with more modern sounds. Described as a mixture of punta rock and paranda, this music is exemplified in Andy Palacio's album Watina, and in Umalali: The Garifuna Women's Project, both of which were released on the Belizean record label, Stonetree Records.