Garifuna

The Garifuna people (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell<ref>Template:Cite dictionary</ref><ref>Template:Cite Merriam-Webster</ref> or Template:IPA; pl. Garínagu<ref>Remembering How Anthony Bourdain Advocated for Latinos Published June 8, 2018, retrieved June 15, 2018</ref> in Garifuna)Template:Efn are a people of mixed free African and Amerindian ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and traditionally speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language.

The Garifuna are the descendants of Indigenous Arawak, Kalinago (Island Carib), 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,<ref name="CrawfordGonzalez1981">Template:Cite journal</ref> which was known to the Garinagu as Yurumein,<ref name="Raussert2017">Template:Cite book</ref> in the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. Small Garifuna communities still live in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Garifuna diaspora abroad includes communities in Honduras, the United States, and Belize.

Name

In the Garifuna language, the endonym Garínagu (plural) refers to the people collectively, while Garífuna (singular) is used for an individual person, the language, and the culture.<ref name="Taylor2012">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Bonaparte2023">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The terms derive from the 17th–18th-century Kalinago (Island Carib) self-designations Kalinago (the people) and Karifuna (“cassava-eating people”), which were adopted by the emerging Afro-Indigenous population on Saint Vincent.<ref name="Taylor1977">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Bonaparte2023" />

The change from initial /k/ to /g/ (Kalinago → Garínagu, Karifuna → Garífuna) is a regular case of word-initial consonant lenition (voicing of the voiceless stop /k/), a common process in language-contact situations and adult second-language acquisition, rather than evidence of systematic African phonological influence.<ref name="Bonaparte2023" /><ref name="Escure2004">Template:Cite book</ref>

Some 20th-century sources described this shift as an “African modification,”<ref name="Greene2002">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Foster1987">Template:Cite journal</ref> but modern linguistic scholarship no longer uses this characterisation. Garifuna is overwhelmingly Arawakan in grammar and core vocabulary, with only negligible African substrate.<ref name="Aikhenvald1999">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Bonaparte2023" />

The terms may have been in use among the Garifuna as early as the mid-17th century.<ref name="Foster1987" />

The Garifuna were historically known by the exonyms Caribs, Black Caribs, and Island Caribs.<ref name="Afrodescendencia">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="STHL6"/> European explorers began to use the term Black Caribs in the 17th century.<ref name="Green">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the 18th century, English accounts used the terms Black Caribs and Yellow or Red Caribs to differentiate, with some ambiguity, two groups with a very similar culture by their skin color.<ref name="Taylor">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp The British colonial use of the term Black Carib, particularly in William Young's Account of the Black Charaibs (1795), has been described in modern historiography as framing the majority of the Indigenous St. Vincent population as "mere interlopers from Africa" who lacked claims to land possession in St. Vincent.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

History

Carib background

The Carib people migrated from South America to the Caribbean circa 1200, according to carbon dating of artifacts.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> According to Taíno testimonies, the Kalinago largely displaced, exterminated and assimilated the Taíno who were resident on the islands at the time, as well as the earlier Igneri.<ref name="Sweeney">Sweeney, James L. (2007). "Caribs, Maroons, Jacobins, Brigands, and Sugar Barons: The Last Stand of the Black Caribs on St. Vincent", African Diaspora Archaeology Network, March 2007, retrieved 26 April 2007</ref><ref>Figueredo, D. H. (2008). A Brief History of the Caribbean. Infobase Publishing. p. 9. Template:ISBN</ref><ref>Deagan, Kathleen A. (2008). Columbus's Outpost Among the Taínos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493–1498. Yale University Press. p. 32. Template:ISBN.</ref>

17th century

The French missionary Raymond Breton arrived in the Lesser Antilles in 1635, and lived in Guadeloupe and Dominica until 1653. He took ethnographic and linguistic notes on the native peoples of these islands, including St. Vincent, which he visited briefly.<ref name="Sweeney" />

In 1635 the Carib were overwhelmed by French forces led by the adventurer Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc and his nephew Jacques Dyel du Parquet. Cardinal Richelieu of France gave the island to the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe, in which he was a shareholder. Later the company was reorganized as the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. The French colonists imposed French Law on the inhabitants, and Jesuit missionaries arrived to convert them to the Catholic Church.<ref>"Institutional History of Martinique" Template:Webarchive, Martinique Official site, French Government (translation by Maryanne Dassonville). Retrieved 26 April 2007</ref>

Because the Carib people resisted working as laborers to build and maintain the sugar and cocoa plantations which the French began to develop in the Caribbean, in 1636, Louis XIII proclaimed La Traité des Noirs. This authorized the capture and purchase of enslaved people from sub-Saharan Africa and their transportation as labor to Martinique and other parts of the French West Indies.<ref name="Sweeney"/>

In 1650, the company liquidated, selling Martinique to Jacques Dyel du Parquet, who became governor. He held this position until his death in 1658. His widow Mme. du Parquet took over control of the island from France. As more French colonists arrived, they were attracted to the fertile area known as Cabesterre (leeward side). The French had pushed the remaining Carib people to this northeastern coast and the Caravalle Peninsula, but the colonists wanted the additional land. The Jesuits and the Dominicans agreed that whichever order arrived there first, would get all future parishes in that part of the island. The Jesuits came by sea and the Dominicans by land, with the Dominicans ultimately prevailing.

When the Carib revolted against French rule in 1660, Governor Charles Houël du Petit Pré retaliated with war against them. Many were killed; those who survived were taken captive and expelled from the island. On Martinique, the French colonists signed a peace treaty with the few remaining Carib. Some Carib had fled to Dominica and Saint Vincent, where the French agreed to leave them at peace.

William Young's Report on St. Vincent

After the arrival of the English to St. Vincent in 1667, English officer John Scott wrote a report for the English Crown noting that St. Vincent was populated by Caribs and a small number of Africans from shipwrecked Spanish vessels. Later, in 1795, the British governor of St. Vincent, William Young, noted in his report to the British Crown that the island had populations of Africans who arrived after the wreck of two Spanish slave ships near St. Vincent in 1635. These ships were bound for the West Indies (Bahamas and Antilles).<ref>Young, William. An Account of the Black Charaibs in the Island of St. Vincent's. London: 1795. Available at: Archive.org</ref>

According to Young's report, the Africans aboard the shipwrecked vessels, largely from the Ibibio ethnic group of modern-day Nigeria, survived the wreck and reached the island, living independently. Contrary to some historical accounts, these Africans were never enslaved and were not captured by the Caribs. Instead, they formed independent communities that gradually integrated with Indigenous peoples of the island. Over time, these Afro-Indigenous communities developed into the Garifuna people, a distinct cultural group with a unique language, traditions, and identity.<ref>Garifuna Research</ref><ref>Hostal Garífuna</ref><ref>Amandala News</ref><ref name="garifunaresearch">Garifuna reach: Historia de los garífunas. Posted by Itarala.</ref>

Modern historiography

Black Carib family in Saint Vincent

Several modern researchers have rejected the theory espoused by Young. According to them, most of the enslaved people who arrived in Saint Vincent actually came from other Caribbean islands, and had settled in Saint Vincent in order to escape slavery, therefore Maroons came from plantations on nearby islands.<ref>"Escala de intensidad de los africanos en el Nuevo Mundo", p. 136.</ref> Although most of the enslaved people came from Barbados<ref name="garifunaresearch"/> (most of the enslaved people of this island were from present-day Nigeria and Ghana), but they also came from places such as St. Lucia (where enslaved people likely came from what is now Senegal, Nigeria, Angola) and Grenada (where there were many enslaved people from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Angola, Kongo and Ghana). The Bajans and Saint Lucians arrived on the island before 1735. Later, after 1775, most of the enslaved people who arrived from other islands were Saint Lucians and Grenadians.<ref name="seaworthy">A Brief History of St. Vincent Template:Webarchive</ref> After arriving on the island, they were taken in by the Caribs, who offered them protection,<ref name="Marshall">Template:Cite journal</ref> assisted them<ref>Charles Gullick, Myths of a minority, Assen: Van Gorcum, 1985.</ref> and, eventually mixed with them.

In addition to the African refugees, the Caribs captured enslaved people from neighboring islands (although they also had white people and their fellow Caribs as enslaved people), while they were fighting against the British and the French. Many of the captured enslaved people were integrated into their communities (this also occurred in islands such as Dominica). After the African rebellion against the Caribs, and their escape to the mountains, over time, according to ItaralaTemplate:Who,Template:Citation needed Africans would come down from the mountains to have sexual intercourse with Amerindian women - perhaps because most Africans were men - or to search for other kinds of food.<ref name="Marshall"/> The sexual activity did not necessarily lead to marriage. On the other hand, if the Maroons abducted Arauaco-Caribbean women or married them, is another of the contradictions between the French documents and the oral history of the Garinagu. Andrade Coelho states that "...whatever the case, the Caribs never consented to give their daughters in marriage to blacks"Template:Dubious.<ref>R. G. de Andrade Coelho, page. 37.</ref> Conversely, Sebastian R. Cayetano argues that "Africans were married with women Caribs of the islands, giving birth to the Garifuna".<ref>Ibidem, p. 66</ref> According to Charles Gullick some Caribs mixed peacefully with the Maroons and some not, creating two factions, that of the Black Caribs and that of the Yellow Caribs, who fought on more than one occasion in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.<ref>Charles Gullick, "Ethnic interaction and carib language", page. 4.</ref> According to ItaralaTemplate:Who, many intermarried between Indigenous and African people, which was that which caused the origin of the Black Caribs.<ref name="Marshall"/>

18th century

Depiction of the 1773 treaty negotiations between the British and the Black Caribs

Britain and France both made conflicting claims on Saint Vincent from the late seventeenth century onward. French pioneers began informally cultivating plots on the island around 1710. In 1719 the governor of the French colony of Martinique sent a military force to occupy it, but was repulsed by the Carib inhabitants. A British attempt in 1723 was likewise repelled.<ref>Young, Black Charaibs, pp. 12–13.</ref> In 1748, Britain and France agreed to put aside their claims and declared Saint Vincent to be a neutral island, under no European sovereignty.<ref>Young, Black Charaibs, p. 4.</ref> Throughout this period, however, unofficial, mostly French settlement took place on the island, especially on the Leeward side. African escapees continued to reach Saint Vincent, and a mixed-race population developed through unions with the Carib.<ref name="Sweeney"/>

In 1763 by the Treaty of Paris, Britain gained control over Saint Vincent following its defeat of France in the Seven Years' War, fought in Europe, Asia and North America. It also took over all French territory in North America east of the Mississippi River. Through the rest of the century, the Carib-African natives mounted a series of Carib Wars, which were encouraged and supported by the French.<ref name="Sweeney"/>

Carib wars

Joseph Chatoyer, the chief of the Black Caribs in St. Vincent, in an 1801 engraving.

When in 1627 the English began to claim the St. Vincent island, they opposed the French settlements (which had started around 1610 by cultivating plots) and its partnerships with the Caribs. In 1763 by the Treaty of Paris, Britain gained control over Saint Vincent. Over time, tensions began to arise between the Caribs and the Europeans. The governor of the English part of the island, William Young, complained that the Black Caribs had the best land and they had no right to live there. Moreover, the friendship of the French settlers with the Black Caribs, drove them, even though they had also tried to stay with San Vicente, tried to support them in their struggle. All this caused the "War Caribbean". The First Carib War began in 1769. Led primarily by Black Carib chieftain Joseph Chatoyer, the Caribs successfully defended the windward side of the island against a military survey expedition in 1769, and rebuffed repeated demands that they sell their land to representatives of the British colonial government. The effective defense of the Caribs, the British ignorance of the region and London opposition to the war made this be halted. With military matters at a stalemate, a peace agreement was signed in 1773 that delineated boundaries between British and Carib areas of the island.<ref name="Marshall"/> The treaty delimited the area inhabited by the Caribs, and demanded repayment of the British and French plantations of runaway enslaved people who took refuge in St. Vincent. This last clause, and the prohibition of trade with neighbouring islands, so little endeared the Caribs. Three years later, the French supported American independence (1776–1783);<ref>David K. Fieldhouse. Los imperios coloniales desde el siglo XVIII (in Spanish: Colonial Empires since the 18th century). Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1984, p. 36.</ref> the Caribs aligned against the British. Apparently, in 1779 the Caribs inspired such terror to the British that surrender to the French was preferable than facing the Caribs in battle.<ref>Rafael Leiva Vivas, p.. 139</ref>

Later, in 1795, the Caribs again rebelled against British control of the island, causing the Second Carib War. Despite the odds being against them, the Caribs successfully gained control of most of the island except for the immediate area around Kingstown, which was saved from direct assault on several occasions by the timely arrival of British reinforcements. British efforts to penetrate and control the interior and windward areas of the island were repeatedly frustrated by incompetence, disease, and effective Carib defences, which were eventually supplemented by the arrival of some French troops. A major military expedition by General Ralph Abercromby was eventually successful in defeating the Carib opposition in 1796.

After the war was concluded and the Caribs surrendered, the British authorities decided to deport the Caribs of St. Vincent. This was done to avoid the Caribs causing more slave revolts in St. Vincent. In 1797, the Caribs with African features were chosen to be deported as they were considered the cause of the revolt, and originally exported to Jamaica, and then they were transported to the island of Roatan in Honduras. Meanwhile, the Black Caribs with higher Amerindian traits were allowed to remain on the island. More than 5,000 Black Caribs were deported, but when the deportees landed on Roatan on April 12, 1797, only about 2,500 had survived the trip to the islands. After settling in the Honduras, they expanded along the Caribbean coast of Central America, coming to Belize and Guatemala to the north, and the south to Nicaragua. Over time, the Black Caribs would denominate in the mainland of Central America as "Garifuna".<ref name="garifunaresearch"/>

19th century

Large-scale sugar production and chattel slavery were not established on Saint Vincent until the British assumed control. As the United Kingdom abolished slavery in 1833, it operated it for roughly a generation on the island, creating a legacy different from on other Caribbean islands.<ref name="Sweeney"/> Elsewhere, slavery had been institutionalized for much longer.

Language

Template:Main The Garifuna people speak Garifuna<ref name="GL"/> and Vincentian Creole.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Garifuna language is an offshoot of the Kalinago language, and it is spoken in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and Nicaragua by the Garifuna people. It is an Arawakan language with French, English, Dutch, African, and Spanish influences, reflecting their long interaction with various colonial peoples.<ref name="GL">Template:Cite news</ref> Garifuna has a vocabulary featuring some terms used by women and others used primarily by men. This may derive from historical Carib practices: in the colonial era, the Carib of both sexes spoke Island Carib. Men additionally used a distinct pidgin based on the unrelated Carib language of the mainland.

Almost all Garinagu are bilingual or multilingual. They generally speak the official languages of the countries they reside in, such as Spanish or English, most commonly as a first language. Many also speak Garifuna, mostly as a cultural language, as a part of their families' heritage.

Demographics

In 2011, Garifuna organisations in the United States estimated that the Garifuna population consisted of roughly 400,000 people, mostly living in Honduras and the United States.<ref name="Afrodescendencia"/>

Saint Vincent

In 1805, the remaining Garifuna in Morne Ronde on Saint Vincent numbered 16 men, 9 women, and 20 children, although others remained on the island in hiding after the deportations of 1797.<ref name="Crawford"/>Template:Rp<ref name="Gullick-1984">Template:Cite book</ref> The 1844 census of Saint Vincent listed 273 "Black Caribs".<ref name="Crawford">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp The 1960 census listed 1,265 "Black Caribs" in Saint Vincent.<ref name="Crawford"/>Template:Rp In 1984, anthropologist Michael Crawford estimated that 1,100–2,000 Garifuna resided in Saint Vincent.<ref name="Crawford-1984">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

Central America

By 1981, around 65,000 Garifuna were living in fifty-four fishing villages in Guatemala, Belize, and Nicaragua.<ref name="CrawfordGonzalez1981" />

Culture

Garifuna parade on San Isidro Day, in Livingston (Guatemala)

In 2001 UNESCO proclaimed the language, dance, and music of the Garifuna as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Belize. In 2005 the First Garifuna Summit was held in Corn Islands, Nicaragua, with the participation of the government of other Central American countries.<ref>Sletto, Jacqueline W. "ANCESTRAL TIES THAT BIND." America 43.1 (1991): 20–28. Print.</ref>

Music

Traditional Garifuna dancers in Dangriga, Belize

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. Canadian musician Danny Michel has also recorded an album, Black Birds Are Dancing Over Me, with a collective of Garifuna musicians.<ref>"World Cafe Next: Danny Michel And The Garifuna Collective". NPR, 15 July 2013.</ref>

Through traditional dance and music, musicians have come together to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS.<ref name=PulitzerCenter-HIV-Garifuna>Template:Cite news</ref>

Spirituality

Template:Unreferenced section The majority of Garinagu have been Catholic since the community's historical encounters with the Jesuits, Dominicans, and various Catholic colonial powers (namely the French and Spanish) in the West Indies and Central America.

A complex set of practices exist in their traditional religion for individuals and groups to show respect for their ancestors and Bungiu (God) or Sunti Gabafu (All Powerful). A shaman known as a buyei is the head of all Garifuna traditional practices. The spiritual practices of the Garinagu have qualities similar to the voodoo (as the Europeans put it) rituals performed by other tribes of African descent. Mystical practices and participation such as in the Dugu ceremony and chugu are also widespread among Garifuna.

Au Bun, Amürü Nu

Au Bun, Amürü Nu is a Garinagu communal philosophy and moral principle meaning “I for you, you for me.”<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It embodies the Garinagu worldview of mutual care, reciprocity, and collective responsibility, reflecting the belief that personal and communal well-being are inseparable. More than a simple expression, it represents a foundational ethic within Ugulendu, the traditional Garinagu spiritual system or worldview that integrates ancestral veneration, community solidarity, and balance between the living and the spirit world.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Within Ugulendu, ancestors (Gubida) are believed to guide and sustain the living, and Au Bun, Amürü Nu extends this principle of interdependence into social life, shaping how the Garinagu relate to one another and to the wider community. Closely related to the Miskito concept Pana Pana and the Mayangna term Biri Biri, this philosophy situates the Garinagu within a broader Indigenous Caribbean and Central American tradition that values reciprocity, harmony, and the spiritual unity of all existence.

Society

Socioeconomic context

Many Garifuna communities are located in regions that tend to have higher Human Development Index (HDI) scores relative to surrounding areas within their countries.<ref name="Gonzalez2011">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="England2006">Template:Cite book</ref> This is often attributed to the Garifuna's strong social cohesion, cultural capital, and engagement in fishing, tourism, and urban economic activities.<ref name="Gonzalez2011" />

For example, Garifuna settlements in coastal towns of Honduras, Belize, and Guatemala are frequently found in more developed municipalities or urban centers with better access to education, health care, and infrastructure compared to some inland or rural regions predominantly inhabited by other ethnic groups.<ref name="Anderson2009">Template:Cite book</ref>

Despite facing challenges such as poverty and marginalization, Garifuna communities often demonstrate resilience and higher local development through strong cultural identity and transnational networks that facilitate migration, remittances, and investment in local development.<ref name="Brondo2013">Template:Cite book</ref>

Gender roles and division of labor

Garifuna society is traditionally matrilocal and matrifocal, with residence and inheritance passing primarily through the female line and households organized around mothers, daughters, and sisters.<ref name="Gonzalez1988">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Kerns1997">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Helms1981">Template:Cite journal</ref>

From the late 19th century until the 1930s, most Garifuna families in Honduras held private individual or family land titles (baldíos and ejidales granted by the Honduran government). Land was not legally communal, although extended families often worked plots cooperatively.<ref name="Brondo2013" />

When U.S.-owned banana companies expanded along the north coast (1910s–1930s), they paid extremely large cash sums — often life-changing amounts that made many Garifuna landowners genuinely wealthy by contemporary standards. Numerous title-holders sold voluntarily and invested the proceeds in urban real estate, businesses, and education abroad.<ref name="England2006" /><ref name="Soluri2005">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Euraque2004">Template:Cite journal</ref>

This early capital accumulation — combined with a cultural emphasis on industriousness, education, entrepreneurship, and transnational labor migration — has allowed many Garifuna families to achieve relatively high socioeconomic mobility. Garifuna are disproportionately represented in skilled construction and architectural trades, nursing, teaching, the merchant marine, and small-business ownership in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and the United States.<ref name="Griffin2009">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Cunningham2013">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Thorne2018">Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref name="Palacio2015">Template:Cite book</ref>

Genetic studies

Genetic research on the Garifuna people shows significant regional variation in ancestry proportions. While Garifuna populations generally have predominantly African ancestry, some communities exhibit markedly higher levels of Indigenous American (Arawak/Carib) ancestry.

A 1997 study reported average Garifuna ancestry as approximately:

• 76% African
• 20% Indigenous American
• 4% European<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

However, **some Garifuna populations show significantly higher Indigenous ancestry**, especially in communities closer to St. Vincent and parts of Central America:

• In Sandy Bay, St. Vincent, individuals exhibit approximately:
  • 42.2% Indigenous American, 41.1% African, and 16.7% European**.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

• In Livingston, Guatemala, ancestry estimates suggest:
  • 29% Indigenous American, 70% African, and 1% European**.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

• In Dangriga, Belize, the admixture profile is:

76.3% African, 21% Indigenous American, and 2.7% European**.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Genetic testing of maternal lineages (mtDNA) shows that up to 46% of Garifuna carry Native American haplogroups such as A2 and C1, while paternal (Y-DNA) lineages are mostly of African origin. This supports a pattern of sex-biased admixture, where Indigenous women and African men were the primary ancestors of today's Garifuna population.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

These findings highlight the complex admixture history of the Garifuna people, with Indigenous ancestry particularly elevated in areas with stronger historical ties to Native Caribbean populations.

African origins

According to oral tradition and several scholars, the Garifuna trace their African ancestry to a number of West and Central African ethnic groups. These include the Efik (from present-day Nigeria and Cameroon), Igbo (Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea), Fon (primarily in Benin and Nigeria), Fante and Ashanti (from present-day Ghana), Yoruba (in modern Togo, Benin, and Nigeria), and Kongo (from the regions comprising the Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola).

Many of these Africans are believed to have arrived on the island of Saint Vincent through shipwrecks or as escapees from slavery on neighboring Caribbean islands. Others may have been brought by the Island Caribs themselves or born free on Saint Vincent. These individuals integrated with the local Indigenous populations, primarily the Island Caribs (Kalinago) and Arawaks, forming a distinct Afro-Indigenous society.

Belizean anthropologist and Garifuna historian Sebastian R. Cayetano states that the African ancestors of the Garifuna were ethnically West African, "specifically of the Yoruba, Ibo [Igbo], and Ashanti tribes, in what is now Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, to mention only a few."<ref>Garifuna History, Language, and Culture, p. 32.</ref>

French-Brazilian sociologist Roger Bastide noted that the northeastern region of Saint Vincent served as a refuge for free Africans who integrated into Carib society, particularly those of Yoruba, Fon, Fante-Ashanti, and Kongo origins.<ref>Roger Bastide. African Civilizations in the New World. London: Hurst, 1971, p. 77.</ref>

This African ancestry was primarily introduced through men, while maternal lineages were largely Indigenous, as confirmed by mitochondrial DNA studies showing high frequencies of Native American haplogroups such as A2 and C1.<ref name="esclahon">Template:Cite book Second Edition.</ref>

Historian Ruy Galvão de Andrade Coelho also observed that African individuals contributing to the formation of the Garifuna population came from Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Dahomey, the Congo region, and other areas of West Africa.<ref>Ruy Galvão de Andrade Coelho. Los negros caribes de Honduras, p. 36.</ref>

By the early 18th century, the population of Saint Vincent was already predominantly of African descent. Despite extensive cultural and familial blending between Africans and Indigenous Caribs, a distinct Indigenous group referred to by the British as "Red Caribs" continued to live alongside the Afro-Indigenous "Black Caribs" (Garifuna).<ref name="garifunaresearch" />

Notable people

• Alberth Elis
• Boniek García
• Carlos Bernárdez
• Edwin Solano
• Marvin Avila
• Dionisia Amaya
• Theodore Aranda
• Rosita Baltazar
• Victor Bernardez
• Sofía Blanco
• Joseph Chatoyer
• Duvalle
• Osman Chavez
• Mirtha Colón
• Teofilo Colon
• Félix Crisanto
• Wilmer Crisanto
• Maynor Figueroa
• O.T. Genasis
• Abraham Laboriel
• Aurelio Martínez
• Bernard Martínez Valerio
• Paul Nabor
• Eugenio Dolmo Flores
• Tomás Róchez
• Rakeem Nuñez-Roches
• Paul Nabor
• Andy Palacio
• Joseph Palacio
• Jerry Palacios
• Johnny Palacios
• Wilson Palacios
• Teodoro Palacios Flores
• Guillermo Ramírez
• Thomas Vincent Ramos
• David Suazo
• Deiby Flores
• Édgar Álvarez
• Henry Figueroa
• Romell Quioto
• Jerry Bengtson
• Jorge Benguché

See also

• Black Seminoles
• British Honduras
• Dangriga
• Garifuna in Peril
• Happy Land fire
• Lebeha Drumming Center
• Miskito people
• Obeah
• Punta
• Sambo Creek
• Zambo
• Atlantic voyage of the predecessor of Mansa Musa

Bibliography

• Anderson, Mark. When Afro Becomes (like) Indigenous: Garifuna and Afro-Indigenous Politics in Honduras. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 12.2 (2007): 384–413. AnthroSource. Web. 20 January 2010.
• Template:Cite book
• Chernela, Janet M. Symbolic Inaction in Rituals of Gender and Procreation among the Garifuna (Black Caribs) of Honduras. Ethos 19.1 (1991): 52–67. AnthroSource. Web. 13 January 2010.
• Dzizzienyo, Anani, and Suzanne Oboler, eds. Neither Enemies Nor Friends: Latinos, Blacks, Afro-Latinos. 2005.
• Flores, Barbara A.T. (2001) Religious education and theological praxis in a context of colonization: Garifuna spirituality as a means of resistance. Ph.D. Dissertation, Garrett/Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Template:OCLC
• Franzone, Dorothy (1995) A Critical and Cultural Analysis of an African People in the Americas: Africanisms in the Garifuna Culture of Belize. PhD Thesis, Temple University. UMI Dissertation Services (151–152). Template:OCLC
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• Griffin, Wendy. "The 21st Century Battle fought by Honduras Indigenous to know their history and maintain their identity," Honduras Weekly, reprinted by Latina Lista, November 7, 2013.
• Griffin, Wendy and Comité de Emergencia de Garifuna Honduras. San Pedro Sula: Comité de Emergencia de Garifuna Honduras, 2005.
• Griffith, Marie, and Darbara Dianne Savage, eds. Women and Religion in the African Diaspora: Knowledge, Power, and Performance. 2006.
• Herlihy, Laura Hobson. Sexual Magic and Money: Miskitu women's Strategies in Northern Honduras. Ethnology 46.2 (2006): 143–159. Web. 13 January 2010.
• Loveland, Christine A., and Frank O. Loveland, eds. Sex Roles and Social Change in Native Lower Central American Societies.
• McClaurin, Irma. Women of Belize: Gender and Change in Central America. 1996. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2000.
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Garifuna Heritage Foundation – St Vincent
• Garifuna Research Institute
• Garifuna Heritage Foundation
• Warasa Garifuna Drum School
• Template:Usurped
• "Examining the impact of changing livelihood strategies upon Garifuna Cultural Identity", Cayos Cochinos, Honduras
• "The Garifuna" on NationalGeographic.com
• Garifuna.org
• ONECA (Organización Negra Centroamericana)
• Vacation in Hopkins a Garifuna Community Template:Webarchive
• Pen Cayetano
• "We are free" Mali Cayetano