Settlement Day

On November 19, Belize will celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of 500 Garifunas to the country in 1823. A national holiday, Garifuna Settlement Day, is celebrated with food, song and dance throughout Belize, but mainly in the southern areas. From their infectious music and dancing to their colorful clothing, Garifunas have no doubt left their blueprint on the Caribbean and Central America.

HISTORY

While Garifuna Settlement Day remembers the exodus of the Garifunas to Belize in 1823, their history dates back to nearly 200 hundred years before, to the year 1635. This was the year when two Spanish ships carrying African slaves for transport to their buyers were shipwrecked off the coast of Saint Vincent. Soon the Yellow Caribs were created, a mixture of African, Venezuelan Caribs and the indigenous island group called Arawaks. By 1750, a new race called the Garifuna was born - a combination of African, Arawaks and the Yellow Caribs - and which remains to this day. The Garifunas are sometimes called Black Caribs and Garinagu as well.

In 1797, after decades of fighting the British invading forces, many Garifunas were deported to the Bay Islands of Honduras while some remained. Some of the deported Garifunas, unhappy with their small area to live, pleaded with the Spanish authorities to allow them to live on the mainland. Soon they were employed as soldiers and spread throughout the region. Today, approximately 98,000 Garifunas live in Honduras, and in coastal regions of Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala.

CULTURE

The Garifunas' strong African and Carib roots allow their culture to thrive, with very little change throughout the centuries. Garifunas, depending on their region, speak English, Spanish or Igneri, a Garifuna dialect with Arahuaco, Swahili, French and Bantu roots, or all three.

Music and dance are a huge part of their culture. Punta, a Garifunan secular class of music and dance, recreates the cock and hen mating dance. Its movements are composed of the intense shuffling of the feet and the quick motion of the hips and buttocks, while the upper torso remains still. The music is generally accompanied by two drums, rattles and conch shell trumpets.