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The Garifuna Community
The Garifuna society, also known as the Black Caribs,
was first originated in XVII in San Vicente, about a century after the
conquering of Central America, South America, and the lower Antilles.
The conquerors were not interested in San Vicente and Dominica at first
because of its topographic features, lack of precious metals and grasslands
for cattle raising, but the Caribs did become interested because of its
magnificent areas for fishing. Formation of the Garifuna Society
The Africans were anxious to establish friend links to avoid being sent back to their owners as slaves; therefore they soon adopted their customs and native language. Short after, they married the Caliponan women who gave birth to a whole new kind of siblings. Their descendents preserved the height and skin color of their father, who on the contrary of the Caliponan were tall and corpulent. This new society (Garifuna) centered their family life in the sexual division of work as a base for their economic activities. Short after came the conquering of Barbados and Santa Lucia, and men, who could not accept the new rulers, accumulated goods and emigrated in canoes towards San Vicente (28 miles from Barbados). These men, along with the Caliponan, then became such powerful allies in their war against conquerors, that they were considered an allied and independent group. In the XVII century, a drastic change occurred in the Vicentinian society. The black society had become the dominant group due to their geometric growth because of the immigration of refugees. The constant fighting for power and territorial disputes soon divided both sides. Garifunas forced the Caliponan to move to the Western part and they move to the Northwestern part of the island. Both groups tried to resolve their personal difficulties, because they were aware that an internal division would drive the conqueror's attention to them. When news about their differences arrived to France, the French took
part in this division by supporting the Caliponan. They soon inhabited
Caliponan land, while Garifunas defended their land from any European
colonization. The French made many intents, but they soon were convinced
they had to stop interfering and had to maintain peace links with Garifunas.
French and English Interference The three coming decades, 1730-1762, were characterized by the constant disputes between France and Great Britain for the desire of gaining power over San Vicente, Dominica, and Santa Lucia. The occurrence of these acts can be described as follows: 1730: San Vicente, Dominica, and Santa Lucia are declared to be free
from European inheritance. Great Britain then declared war against the French; the disputing possessions were Martinica, and Santa Lucia. These acts of treason infuriated the French, who in reprisal, responded by exporting their revolutionary ideals to the Caribbean Islands in possession of the English. However, Garifunas understood that these philanthropic manifestations were not to be taken seriously, because most French wanted desired that Garifuna and English would destroy each other and consequently be force to leave the island. Therefore, Garifunas demanded sufficient warlike material from the French as a guarantee of their noble intentions. >> Top First Phase: the Garifunas led by Du Valleé were such a powerful
group that they constantly defeated the English. This group gained power
over Kingstown, Dorset shire Hill, and another group lead by Chatolier
gained power over Chateaubelair. Both groups soon joined forces, along
with men that they ha collected in their way, and became such a powerful
group that many feared them. Second Phase: In this stage, the hostility lasted a little more than a year, and was characterized for being a war of exhaustion. Set before the numerous losses of seven months of fighting, and finding no solution to solve their differences, the English governor accompanied by the military force of 4,000 men decided to attack the Garifuna-French alliance. Faced upon the military power force upon them, the Garifuna determined that it was convenient to stop the war and finally surrendered.
The English began to worry about their future in the island in comparison to the unexpected number of Garifunas living in their new territory. Therefore, the search for new land where the Garifuna could settle began. Finally in February 20th, 1797, a total of 2,248 Garifunas along with
stored food supplies were set aboard ships and then headed toward the
Honduran Coast and Bay Islands. In April 12th, 1797, the Garifunas first
set foot in Honduran territory. Garifunas then asked the Spanish to take them to the Honduran Coast. The Spanish accepted gracefully because they knew, that by doing this, they would now own the Bay Islands, and they would also acquire an additional labor force. The Spanish kept their promise; Garifunas arrived in Trujillo, Colon (Honduras) on May 17th, 1797. In the early 1900s more then 100 enterprises had been exporting bananas from the Central American coast and Garifunas were involved in this commercial trading by helping these companies with the sowing and loading of banana. These companies soon extended their trading circle along the coast f Honduras and concentrated their fruit shipping along Punta Castilla (Trujillo), Tela, La Ceiba, and Cortés in Honduras; and in Livingston and Puerto Barrios in Guatemala, and finally in Belize City. Garifunas mostly concentrated in nearby towns because working for these companies had become a good source of income. However, in the 1940s some of these companies were shut down because their banana plantations had been greatly affected by plagues; this caused the unemployment of many Garifunas. Garifunas then got involved in the seafaring business where they immigrated to other parts of Central and North America. >> Top
Organizations in Representation of Garifunas · ONECA (Organización Negra Centroamericana/Central American Black Organization). The largest umbrella organization for Black communities in Central America and the Caribbean. President: Celeo Alvarez Casildo · ODECO (Organización de Desarrollo Étnico Comunitario) Objectives: Its Directive Board is composed of 15 members, nominated as follows: President: Celio Álvarez Cabildo Secretary: Zulma Valencia Website: www.caribe.hn/cumbrecontinentalafro/index.htm · OFRANEH: (Organización
Fraternal Negra Hondureña). Directive Board E-mail: ofraneh@laceiba.com >> Top LOOKING FOR OTHER GARIFUNA INFORMATION? TRY A SEARCH... |
Tuesday , April 29, 2008
La Tribuna
Punta Gorda, Bay Islands. - This community inhabited by garífunas is "the other side of the moon” and should be an attraction for tourist and investors because of its exuberant natural beauty and the ecologic conservation.
A few kilometers of the main road to Oak Ridge, the streets are similar to the lunar surface because they are in bad conditions. Punta Gorda is the first community where 5,080 garifunas arrived from the island of Saint Vincent on April 12 of 1,767. After 200 years the situation has not improved much.
While Roatan is an economic emporium because of the increasing growth of tourism, there is no private or government investment in this part of the island. The four thousand inhabitants of Punta Gorda remain invisible until now, surviving from their fishing, agriculture and remittances.
Punta Gorda is one of 16 garifuna communities located in the Atlantic coast of Honduras, but here the garifunas keep their ancestral traditions alive commemorating their arrival to Honduras every year on April 12th celebrating with dances and rites.
In the past years the decision of the members of this afro-Honduran community has been seen to work with the communitarian and cultural tourism.
This way the garifunas with the support of the Communitarian Development Organization (Odeco), are preparing to immerse themselves in to the tourism industry, developing their area in a sustainable way to avoid repeating the ecologic crimes Roatan is suffering.
The president of the Board of Water of Punta Gorda, Midencio Beneditt, said water is important for the development of their community, because of this, the minister of tourism is helping them improve their water distribution system.
Nevertheless, it is necessary to improve their water system and pave the access to this garifuna community for them to develop.
There is no access to public health, the inhabitants cure themselves with natural medicine, but if it’s a serious illness they have to travel to La Ceiba to be treated.
The people from this comunity are motivated because they know they can move ahead and their aspiration is to improve the life conditions of their people. They are now preparing for the inhabitants of this community to become visible to the public and private investment.
Monday, February 25, 2008
La Prensa
Sunday February 24th was an unforgetable night for our Honduran representatives in Viña del Mar International Song Festival that was in charge of the Honduran singer Jireh Wilson and the Garifuna National Ballet. Jireh received a Gaviota de Plata Award for best folkloric music interpreter with the song “Ay este amor”.
The Viña del Mar International Song Festival is held annually during February in Viña del Mar, Chile, and is one of the most important music events in Latin America. This festival reunites singers from all around Latin America.
After being absent from the Viña del Mar International Song Festival, Jireh Wilson and the Garifuna National Ballet have filled all Hondurans with pride by winning this important award.
Monday December 10, 2007
La Prensa
The remote community of Ciriboya jurisdiction of the municipality of Iriona in the department of Colon counts with their own hospital clinic as of December 08, 2007. Thanks to the Cuban medical brigades and the cooperation of union of workers from the United States of America represented by California vice-governor John Garamendi.
The Hospital inauguration was done during midday of December 08, with the presence of personalities such as the Cuban ambassador Juan Carlos Hernandez, the municipal commissioner from La Ceiba, Bernard Martinez and the building manager Doctor Luther Castillo.
This work was also built with the collaboration of the first garifuna doctors graduated from the Cuban Medical School ELAM and the communities that worked hand in hand everyday.
The California vice-governor arrived along with his wife the day before the inauguration to Honduras and shared the culture of the Honduran black communities.
The Luagu Hatuadi Waduheñu Foundation (For the Health of our Town), was founded by the ELAM first graduates, they started by donating 15 of their vacation days to give medical assistance and medication around 19 garifuna communities.
Bernard Martínez said this Project comes to a remote community to cover all the urgent basic necessities of a town that has been historically marginalized and forgotten by the different administrations. He also said he is thankful to the Cuban community and the town of Sacramento, California, because together they made this social Project of big interest to the Garifuna people of Iriona.
He then added that the new professional leadership of the garifuna community breaks with the norms established by the traditional leadership that has solely made actions of ungenerous form that doesn’t cover in the minimum with looking for alternative solutions to the problems raised.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday June 15, 2007
The Guardian 'Look at us now!'
The Garifuna people were forgotten even in places they called home. But a new musical project has brought them worldwide attention, writes Robin Denselow
Music is often used to highlight a particular cause, but it's a rare album that suddenly brings attention to a little-known community struggling to preserve its identity. Watina, by Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective, is a remarkable reminder of the rich culture and extraordinary history of a people scattered across the Caribbean coast of central America. It is also one of the most unusual, intriguing and rewarding albums of the year.
Andy Palacio, the best-known musician and spokesman of the Garifuna community, has spent much of his life exploring and promoting the culture of his people in a career that has taken him from local pop idol to senior government official. Now, at 46, he has a new role, recording and touring with the Garifuna Collective, an unlikely band of young and elderly musicians who could prove to be a central American answer to Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club.
Their story starts with a 17th-century shipwreck: the Garifuna are the descendants of Africans who escaped from slavery in 1635, after two slave ships sank off the island of St Vincent. The survivors intermarried with the local Carib and Arawak people of the island, and from that union came the hybrid culture known as Garifuna. However, in 1797 the island was attacked by the British, who shipped the Garifuna off to the island of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras.
"They were just dropped there," says Palacio. "The British must have thought that we would just vanish, but look at us now! There were just 2,000 on the slave ships, but now there are half a million Garifuna worldwide."
Some of those dumped on the island escaped to Honduras, on the Central American mainland, where the majority of the Garifuna communities can still be found today. From there, others migrated to Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize, where Palacio was born.
The Garifuna have a distinctive culture, "with our own language, music, dances and cuisine," says Palacio. But in some countries, they struggled to survive and were not recognised for centuries. He describes a visit he made to the Garifuna community in Nicaragua back in 1980, soon after the Sandinistas had taken over.
"I couldn't find anyone under the age of 50 who could hold a conversation with me in our own language. The Somoza government had never acknowledged the existence of the Garifuna community, and the Sandinistas didn't know they were there. I told one of their commanders about it, and he asked the press corps to interview me. I said, 'These black people you see here are not the same as the black people you see over in that village,' and the newspaper the next day had the headline that a new race had been discovered on the Atlantic coast."
Palacio's mission to preserve Garifuna culture started early. Born in Baranco, the southernmost coastal village in Belize, near the border with Guatemala, he was inspired by his father, a sailboat captain who sang for his passengers, to start a band while at school. From playing mostly reggae and R&B, he decided to focus on Garifuna music as his "contribution to the survival of the culture".
It was then that he discovered punta rock, a dance style that mixes Garifuna influences with other Caribbean styles such as zouik and soca. It mixes electric guitar and bass with the catchphrase hooks and aggressive beats associated with punta, which Palacio describes as "a sensuous, flirtatious dance that focuses heavily on the pelvic area".
After leaving school, he hosted a Sunday afternoon radio show in which he featured punta rock musicians such as Pen Caytano and the Turtleshell Band, and helped popularise the style within Belize and across Central America.He started writing punta rock songs of his own; a visit to London led to a series of eight-track recordings in a Hackney studio that made him a celebrity back home, and his career began to take off in Central America and beyond. He even appeared in Britain at a punta rock tour in 1992. With the help of producer Ivan Duran, founder of Stonetree records, Palacio began to expand his range, moving away from punta to explore other Garifuna styles like the Latin-influenced paranda, and to work with other Garifuna musicians, including the singer and songwriter Aurelio Martinez.
But by 2000, Palacio's musical career seemed to be slowing down. "I reached a point when I needed a secure wage. I didn't feel I was realising my dreams for my entertainment career, so I figured I should put it on the back burner. I have training as a teacher and in community work, so thought I should restart a public service career."
And so began his successful new role as a civil servant. Palacio started as a rural development officer and is currently the deputy administrator of Belize's National Institute of Culture and History, as well as a cultural ambassador for his country.
None of this stopped his involvement with music, or the Garifuna community. He recalls recording the Watina album: "I would leave the office on a Friday evening, and travel to Hopkins, a small village by the sea where Ivan Duran had set up the recording equipment. I would return from the sessions on Monday morning, and go straight back to work." The aim behind the project, he says, was to "not play punta rock - to go beyond paranda to explore the more soulful and spiritual sounds of the Garifuna repertoire". It was not just a Belize-based project but also involved musicians and songwriters from the communities in Honduras and Guatemala. They were, he says, "fantastic players, but very few are professional. For most of them, music is something you do in your free time."
The cast who assembled at Hopkins village included fishermen and wage labourers, along with Aurelio Martinez, who is now a congressman in Honduras, and an extraordinary singer-songwriter called Adrian Martinez, a schoolteacher. They were joined by Paul Nabor, another singer-songwriter-guitarist, who is now 79 and, Palacio says, "legendary in the Garifuna community for playing in village festivities". The album includes a gently percussive song by Nabor, in which he is joined by Palacio and a rhythm section using anything from Garifuna hand-drums to rum bottles, telling the story of a fisherman who loses his canoe, and pleads for God to save him. Other songs feature the gently rousing electric guitar work of Eduardo "Guayo" Cedano. Then there is Adrian Martinez's exquisite and powerful prayer Baba. "He wrote it recently but it sounds like an old song," says Palacio. "It's now sung regularly at Catholic church services." The song is, he says, an example of dugu, "the highest form of spiritual expression that we have". It is both a musical style and a complex healing ceremony that involves mediation with the ancestral spirits through dance, prayers and medicinal herbs, in a community where "Catholicism and Garifuna spirituality now coexist".
The album was intended as a way of documenting Garifuna culture and showing how it could be a "foundation to create contemporary material", but the project has gone far beyond the musicians' original intentions. In other words, this varied, soulful set has been so successful (it's currently No 1 in the European world music charts) that Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective have embarked on their first lengthy tour.
Before leaving for Europe, they gave an emotional show in Belize, where Palacio was delighted by the outpouring of support from the younger generation: "The album is inspiring them to return to their roots and reconnect."
-----------------------------TELA, Honduras -- The three women in pumpkin-colored skirts, with sand clinging to their naked feet, held maracas over their heads and shook them in rhythm with drumbeats.
Nearby, bare-chested men with colorful headdresses moved with snakelike motions. The men and women then joined for an explosive Baile de Guerra -- a 200-year-old war dance commemorating their ancestors' liberation from English enslavement.
The dancers were Garífuna, descendants of African slaves who were shipwrecked on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent in 1665 and mixed with Carib and Arawak Indians. After clashes with the English, they were sent in 1797 to Honduras, from where they spread to neighboring Nicaragua, Guatemala and
Belize.Ironically, the dancers were celebrating a planned tourism development that could further erode a unique community with an already muffled political voice, dwindling numbers and vanishing culture. Blacks account for only 2 percent of the people in this nation of 7.4 million.
With virtually no economic clout, widespread poverty and voter apathy within their community, the Garífuna face a difficult challenge keeping their land.
''The investors and the government divided the [Garífuna] community through money; public opinion was bought,'' said Domingo Alvarez, 65, a senior official of the Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras. ``Even as there are denunciations, others simply dance to the tune of the state.''
The Garífuna population in Honduras is officially estimated at 45,000, dispersed across more than 30 communities. They speak their own Africa-based language, Garífuna, as well as Spanish and English. But while their communities are promoted in Honduran tourism pamphlets, their numbers are too small to carry political weight.
''We are a minority, and even after 200 years of being here, we are still considered foreigners,'' Alvarez said.
Today, Garífuna communities can be found in small towns along Honduras' Caribbean coast, including one named Miami, a tiny slice of shoreline where families still live in straw huts. But they are struggling to maintain their roots amid a dwindling population and several divisive issues -- the most contentious of them the swath of land where the war dance was held in October. The site is being developed into an $11 million Micos Beach and Golf Resort. Land where about 35 Garífuna families had lived for generations was expropriated by the government for the project.
During the groundbreaking ceremony, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya promised that about $3 million would be set aside to invest in money-making projects specifically for the Garífuna -- but the community remains skeptical.
''We live a little poor,'' said Isaac Arriola, 34, who was at the dance to celebrate the project. ``I think we are going to get some work and get some money.''
''Maybe we are going to clean or cook, but we won't have the top jobs,'' countered Climaco Martínez, 66. ``We don't have the necessary training to do anything else, and the government won't invest in that.''
Martínez's wife, Balbina, said that while the planned resort could provide jobs, she worries about its impact on Garífuna society.
''When I grew up over here, we were innocent,'' she said. ``My grandmother never went to the doctor. She used herbs for ailments. There are hardly any herbs anymore.''
Those who still believe in herbal remedies infused with a dose of spirituality now turn to Félix Valerio, a respected curandero, or medicine man. The rugged 70-year-old gets around on a rusty bicycle and is always barefoot ``to feel the power.''
''We are here to combat evil. We've saved a lot of souls,'' said Valerio, using the ''we'' to refer to himself and the spirits he prays to for guidance.
Consultations take place in the bedroom of a modest Caribbean-style home. One corner contains an altar topped with several statues, a portrait of Jesus, candles and flowers. Valerio listens to his clients' problems and seeks guidance from spirits to provide a solution. Remedies consist of herbs combined with scented water that Valerio prepares in his tiny kitchen. People travel from all over the country to see him. Everyone leaves with a dose of advice and a bottle of herbal brew. Valerio, whose grandfather settled in the region in 1890, has lived in the same house since he was born. The house faces the ocean -- a Garífuna trademark. ''The Garífuna have never liked mountains,'' Valerio said. ``They've always liked the ocean, fishing.''
In the nearby fishing community of La Ensenada, Garífuna leader Gerardo Colón Rochez complained about a lack of government services as well as a loss of culture. ''We have maintained our tradition, but we're also losing it,'' Colón said. ``In part, it has to do with racism, but also partly due to us not mobilizing ourselves.''
''Look, this is the most touristic community and we don't even have potable water,'' he said. ``Before, we could take water from the ground and boil it. But now, there are latrines for the tourists, and the septic tanks have ruined the ground.''
Garífuna artist Nicolás Colón Gutiérrez is trying to inspire youths by teaching them to paint.''In the Garífuna community, a lot of talent is being lost,'' he said. ``This is the only ethnic group [in Honduras] that has maintained its language and culture.''
''Not all of them can make it to the United States or be doctors or professionals,'' he said. ``But they can make a living as talented artists. Here, the community migrates because the government offers nothing for its citizens. This program is providing a message of hope.''
Hope also was at the core of a dance recital at a church in the community of San Juan, where a group of teenage girls held maracas over their heads, shaking them to the rhythm of drums played by a handful of boys. That performance was not about war. It was about cultural survival -- practicing for a parade that would celebrate their heritage. They planned to dance down sandy streets, behind a banner with these Garífuna words: ``Lema Ibagari lau Emenigini Wabaruaguon'' -- ``Life and hope are just ahead.''
----------------------------I have a confession to make; I didn’t know about the Garifuna people until I discovered this incredible new CD from Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective. This is particularly embarrassing from someone whose family hails from the Caribbean, but it seems I’m not alone.
The Garifuna people’s roots lie in a shipwrecked slave ship in the early 1600’s. Originally accepted by the indigenous peoples of the island now known as St. Vincent, they were captured by the British and exiled to an island off the coast of Honduras. Now the 250,000 remaining Garifunas are spread out, and there is concern that the heart of their culture and traditions are dying out. This remarkable album captures elements of that culture, and really brought them alive for me. Palacio is from Belize where there is a minority of Garifuna people, and he put together this multi-generational ensemble of Garifuna musicians from Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.
I first listened to the CD without looking at the English translation of the Garifuna language. The music itself is an elegant blend of traditional Afro-Caribbean sounds but with a modern twist. But I could tell that there are stories being told, and since I have learned far more about life from stories than from any textbook, I had to hear them. I quickly cracked the lyric book.
These are songs that tell tales of racial bias and prayer, of the little things of daily lives, of marital woes and a touch of humor. Some feel dark, or at least gray, as in the beautiful “Weyu Lárigi Weyu,” which asks God for help in troubled times. There is much grief embedded in this piece beneath the Spanish and acoustic guitars. “Baba” is another song that speaks to God, asking for help “out of the impossible.” Its haunting melody and gentle acoustic guitar recall folk spirituals, and the repetitive lyric reinforces it as sung prayer.
The title song, “Wátina,” has a strong Caribbean feel, and the lyrics convey the frustration of the protagonist who is unable to get a ride on the side of the road. Though the liner notes talk about this as being about a “common daily occurrence,” for the Garifuna, the underlying and powerful theme of being judged by one’s appearance, class or skin color is one that many people can understand. The song’s dance-like rhythm balances out the message of the disempowering of the Wátina people.
In “Miami” we are treated to an up-tempo calypso or paranda type beat, but the lyrics tell of the rootless of this oppressed people who are “searching for comfort” as they “have no place.” Beneath its dance melody and deceivingly simplistic lyric lies a frightening story of military harassment and powerlessness. “Lidan Aban” is a cheerful song, the contagious rhythm (the claves—called palitos in Puerto Rico—remind me of my mother’s island) goes straight to your newly swaying hips as the vocals kick in. It is then you understand the energy as it is a rallying song, calling the people of Garifuna to “go forward” and “seek the truth.”
The lovely “Gaganbadibá” is directed to the Garifuna children, encouraging them to listen to their mothers, assuring them that their day will come. It’s delicate but melancholic opening notes are reminiscent of a Sting song, and when the vocals come in, we find the ethnic sound added to the modern backdrop. A soothing lullaby, the strings and rhythms undulate like the turquoise waves of the Caribbean Sea.
“Beiba,” or “Go Away” tells the tale of a man who comes home late after drinking all night to find his wife has locked him out of the house. The electric guitar and strong rhythm of the song (most noticeably the clave) makes this a true blended piece, modern with traditional and lyrics that speak of a problem that can be understood on a universal level.
Though truly beautiful, the Paranda style “Sin Precio” is a difficult song to listen to once you know what is being said. This is a slower song, and the acoustic guitar is haunting, particularly as a back drop to this lament about a woman who must endure being called “worthless” and worrying for the safety of her child. In “Yagane,” or “My Canoe,” The vocals are backed by only rhythm instruments that include drumming on an improvised tabletop. A tale of a man who has capsized on the sea and is calling out for his canoe to return to him, this song has a primal feel, one that seems to invoke magic. “Águyuha Nidúheñu” is a song of loss, of the death of loved ones, preparation for one’s own death and remorse over sins of this world. Similarly, the haunting “Ayó Da” was written for a childhood friend of the song’s composer who disappeared as they fished in the lagoon. The song tells the young man’s family of his death.
But by far my favorite song of the album, the poignant “Ámuñegü” is a musical plea for the preservation of the Garifuna culture. This emotionally potent song tells of how the Garifuna people see the precious elements of their culture dying: the food, the language, the traditions, and music. It calls for preservation, “Lest we lose it altogether.”
I have not taken this CD out of my player for two weeks. I have been listening to it over and over again, its lingering melodies now play in my head day and night, soothing me. One of the first releases from the newly formed Cumbancha record label (formed by Jacob Edgar, a former head of A&R at Putumayo World Music) Wátina is an album of beautiful music that has Caribbean and African blood running through its veins, and its rhythmic heart tells a story of dispossession, oppression and cultural genocide, but with a strong undercurrent of hope that seems to mirror the sentiments of an entire culture.
While his main opponent in the race, the National Party of Honduras’ (PNH's) Porfirio Pepe Lobo, was a strict hardliner, Zelaya, a member of the Liberal Party of Honduras (Partido Liberal de Honduras, PLH), campaigned with a more moderate approach to issues.
Now, the nation’s Black population is planning to hold Zelaya to his promises.
The president-elect took office on January 27, 2006. And, in preparation for his transition to power, Zelaya sat down in Tegucigalpa, the nation's capital, with Celeo Alvarez Casildo, president of the Organización Negra Centroamericana/Central American Black Organization (ONECA – the largest umbrella organization for Black communities in Central America and the Caribbean) and other representatives of Honduras’ Black communities to talk about the campaign promises made to Afro Hondurans and how the new president plans on fulfilling them.
Back on May 26, 2005, when he was initiating his political campaign, Zelaya signed an accord with Afro Hondurans. He promised that, if he won the presidency with their support, he would make every effort to see that their concerns are addressed.
During his 2006 through 2010 term of office, Zelaya has agreed to finalize terms for the government’s granting of land titles to Honduras’ Garífuna. If Zelayo lives up to his promise, he could help end a battle Afro Honduran communities have been waging for decades.
The majority of Afro Hondurans are known as Garífuna, descendants of Africans and Carib-Indians who resisted slavery and were able to retain their own language – a patois of Creole, Bambu, and Patua – and to live independently for years.
Because of many have immigrated, Garífuna communities have spread out across Central America, the Caribbean, and the United States in the last few decades. Yet, historically, the Garífuna were established in the countries of Belize, Guatemala, Panama, and Honduras and along the coastlines of Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
Various Honduran governments have granted a few small landholding titles, and yet remained reluctant to negotiate the rest. But the community gained respect after more than 5,000 people marched on Tegucigalpa in the late ’90s and demanded land titles rather than watch their lands sold after being devastated by 1998s Hurricane Mitch.
Government officials had proposed a reform of the Constitution’s Article 107, a law that prohibits Honduran land from being sold to non-citizens. But the Garífuna march stopped the reform: protestors noted that any reform of the law would have allowed for the sale of traditional Garífuna lands along Honduras' Atlantic Coast.
“They have not been able to reform that law,” says Mirtha Colón, a United States-based ONECA member. “But they’ve made efforts to change it by changing other laws that affect Article 107.”
Changing Honduran land ownership laws gives multinational companies the opportunity to buy land and develop tourist hotels, resorts, and casinos in Garífuna territories: areas that are extremely underdeveloped yet have the advantage of being situated along the nation’s picturesque coastline. It has already drastically affected communities in places like Cayos Cochinos, which – the Garífuna were told – was by law set aside as a nature preserve; today the area boasts a tourist attraction named the Plantation Beach Resort.
Garífuna living in the areas of San Juan, Miami, Tornavé, and Triunfo de la Cruz were also initially told their territories would be part of a nature preserve. But when it was announced that a multimillion-dollar tourist resort and casino would be built in the area, the Garífuna demanded title to some parts of the land for their own communities.
Even with the granting of community land titles, Colón says Garífuna are often harassed into leaving their traditional homes: a family’s livestock will be killed or their house burned down. “This is why we are afraid, because many people then have to move to the city,” she said.
“Or they may have to try to enter the United States illegally. But people have to do something to survive.”
Mel Zelaya has pledged that his administration will sponsor a study looking into how much funds sent to Honduras from abroad have been needed to help sustain Garífuna communities. And his new government will tackle racism in Honduras, by sponsoring public service announcements against racial discrimination and by working with Afro Hondurans to sponsor events celebrating the April 12th commemoration of the 18th century Garífuna escape from slavery and arrival of in Punta Gorda, Honduras.
The agreement with the new president also promises increased job creation, and that new health care centers, schools, and roads will be built in Garífuna regions. Garífunas can also expect to see electric, telephone, in-door plumbing and other basic services brought to their territorial areas.
Garifuna Information Blog
Welcome
to the Garifuna World! You are about to experience the origin of the Garifuna
community, their incorporating process to society, their resistance to
English and French Colonization and their deporting to Honduran land.
The
beginning of the formation process was in 1635, and believed to have been
caused by the sinking of two Spanish ships loaded with black slaves who
were being delivered to their buyers. In those days it was common for
the Caliponan to give misleading directions, which lead them to the riverbanks
where they disposed the ships from their shipments (gold, wine, and slaves)
and killed all of the crewmembers.
Culture:
Their social and cultural characteristics are manifested in their archaic
family and social structures, which have suffered very little changes.
They still share their dialect, circular dances, religious practices,
Punta dance, tales, banana cultivation, and rooster and pig sacrifices
with the indigenous people of the Amazon.