image by Nicolas Rucks, 8 April 2000
Last modified: 2006-02-18 by dov gutterman
Keywords: america | central america | honduras | belize | garifuna | gariganu | dangriga |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
image by Nicolas Rucks, 8 April 2000
See also:
About 2 days ago on CNN I just saw a little report on the
Garifundio (or something quite similar, I couldnt write it down
at that moment) people. If I understood well, I didn´t see it
complete, they are descendents of africans brought to America.
Again, If I understood well, they live in Belize. Of course, the
interesting thing is that they have a flag. (from up to down):
equal stripes yellow, white, black. Proportions, as always in
moving flags, were a little difficult to tell, but it seemed to
me that the flag was not very "long" (as 1:2) I would
rather say it looked like 3:4.
Nicolas Rucks, 3 April 2000
It's 'Gari'funa' according to State of the Peoples', by Marc
S. Miller (ed), Boston, 1993 :
Gari'funa of Belize.
The Gari'funa, also known as Caribs or Black Caribs, are not
native to Central America but can be classified as an Indian
element on the basis of their genetic makeup and their use of a
language indigenous to the Americas. Of mixed African and Carib
Indian descent, the Gari'funa originated on St. Vincent Island in
the Lesser Antilles. Gari'funa were deported by the British to
Honduras in 1797 and reached Belize during the early nineteenth
century. Gari'funa are concentrated in six villages in southern
Belize near the Caribbean coast - Dangriga (formerly Stann
Creek), Hopkins, Georgetown, Seine Bight, Punta Gorda, and
Barranco. The British established agricultural
"reserves" on the outskirts of Dangriga and Punta Gorda
during the 1930s for subsistence-oriented farmers and fishing
people. In recent decades, the number of Belize Gari'funa has
remained relatively stable. The most numerous Indian group in the
country, they number about 11,000, accounting for 8 % of the
population. Some Gar?funa are migrating from coastal villages.
This trend reaches throughout Belize and beyond to large
Gari'funa communities in Los Angeles, Houston, New Orleans, and
New York. However, the homelands remain strong Gari'funa
territory.
Gari'funa of Honduras.
Gari'funa speakers occupy the Caribbean coast between southern
Belize and northeast Honduras, plus a small enclave at Pearl
Lagoon, Nicaragua. Of the 54 Gari'funa settlements in Central
America, 44 are along the coast of northern Honduras. Gari'funa
are the majority rural people of the country's northern coastal
fringes. Official population estimates for Honduran Gari'funa are
between 70,000 and 80,000, but Gari'funa leaders often suggest a
figure of 200,000 to 300,000. A 1988 Honduran language census
lists 27,745 Gari'funa speakers, certainly an undercount.
Gari'funa are unified and characterized primarily by language and
rituals. Women normally dominate agriculture and food
preparation, which centers on bitter manioc. Men engage in
fishing-related activities and wage labor away from the villages.
Although the distinctive Gari'funa culture, including dance, folk
stories, songs, death, and rituals, remains strong in the home
beach lands, out-migartion throughout Honduras and abroad is
increasing. Maintaining the language and traditions is more
difficult away from the villages. In addition, ladino
encroachments onto traditional Gari'funa lands present the
possibility of cultural dissolution.
Jarig Bakker, 3 April 2000
Data from "The Ethnologue" at <www.sil.org>:
GARÍFUNA (CARIBE, CENTRAL AMERICAN CARIB, BLACK CARIB) [CAB]
12,274 in Belize (1991 census); 75,000 in Honduras (1995 UBS);
16,700 in Guatemala (1990 SIL); 1,500 in Nicaragua; 94,500 in all
countries. Stann Creek and Toledo along the coast. Arawakan,
Maipuran, Northern Maipuran, Caribbean. They speak Creole as
second language. Dictionary. English-oriented orthography used in
Belize, Spanish-oriented in Guatemala. NT 1983-1994. Bible
portions 1847-1968.
Nicolas Rucks, 7 April 2000
image by Jaume Olle' , 15 April 2000
Garifuna or Garifundio must be the same people as Gariganu.
Gariganu have their own flag , dark yellow, white and black with
central emblem in the white, and black letters in the upper
stripe. I don't know what is the meaning of the word DANGRIGA.
According to source, Gariganu are old slaves that are in Belize
since 1832.
Jaume Olle' , 15 April 2000
Dangriga is the name of a southern Belize town near the
Caribbean coast, formerly Stann Creek. It means "standing
water" in Garifuna language, population about 10,000.
Dangriga is the cultural center of the Garifuna.
Jarig Bakker, 16 April 2000
I checked with a professor friend who recently returned from
several months in Belize. His response was: "Garifuna
were NEVER slaves. They descend from a slave ship rebllion
and were marooned and kept their African culture in tact and
mixed with Caribe Indians to form Garifuna culture and
language. Dangriga is the town in Belize that is the center
of Garifuna Culture."
Kevin McNamara, 26 April 2000
image by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 6 September 2001
Reading the September 2001 issue of National Geographic I
reached the article about the Garífuna. One of the pictures
shows a partially hidden triband paste to a greenboard with the
written title "The Garifuna Flag". It is a black-white-
light gold triband in that particular order. The flag at top is
exactly the inverse. Beside each band it reads:
black band - "death and suffer"
white band - "peace"
gold band - "hope in Belize"
It can also be read that "the Garinagu came in 1823",
and "they came from Yu...ei".
The Geographic states that today some 60 Garífuna fishing
villages dot the Central American coast, but population numbers
are hard to pin down. Estimates range from 450,000 to fewer than
100,000. This year the Garífuna were named a World Heritage
culture, a new United Nations designation that recognizes and
urges protection for endangered heritages. Most of the Garífuna
has settled around Nueva Armenia on the Honduran Caribbean coast.
There migratory history is summarized in five steps. First, slave
ships depart from West Africa (Yu...ei?) in 1635, probably from
the Slave Coast or Bight of Benin in the Gulf of Guinea. Second,
later that year the ships wreck near St. Vincent. Soon Africans
begin to mix with local Carib Indians. Their descendants are
called Black Caribs or Garífuna. Third, in 1796, British forces
conquer the Garífuna and their French supporters and imprison
them on Baliceaux, where more than half perish. Fourth, exiled by
Britain, the Garífuna reach Roatán Island in April 12, 1797.
Today, Garífuna celebrate this as Arrival Day. Fifth, Later that
year the Garífuna move to Trujillo, Honduras, from where they
scatter along the Central American coast, from Belize to
Nicaragua. They apparently reach Belize by 1823.
Blas Delgado Ortiz, 6 September 2001