Island Hopping, The Garifuna

ISLAND HPPING

The Garifuna

You will find many Garifuna settlements in the Northwest Caribbean, particularly along the coast between Belize and Honduras. The Garifuna, sometimes called the Garínagu, are the descendents of Black Caribs from St. Vincent and their name means cassava eating people in their language. The Garifuna culture is very strong with great emphasis being placed on music, dance and story-telling. The Garifuna practice their own brand of religion, a mix of Catholic, African, and Indian beliefs. Because of their independent nature, and perhaps just because they are different, over the years the Garifuna have been feared and discriminated against and variously accused of devil-worship, polygamy, voodoo and speaking a secret language.

The history of the Garifuna begins in 1675, when a Dutch ship carrying settlers and slaves wrecked in the waters between St. Vincent and Bequia. The slaves were the only survivors and were accepted by the indigenous Kalipuna Indians who arrived from the mainland of South America long before Columbus discovered St. Vincent in 1498. The Kalipuna, called the Caribes (cannibals) by the Spanish, eventually intermarried and were later joined by escaped slaves from St. Lucia and Grenada. They became known as the Black Caribs as opposed to the Yellow Caribs, those of pure Carib descent, and St. Vincent was divided between the two groups with the western side of St. Vincent being allocated to the Yellow Caribs and the eastern side to the Black Caribs.

Even with this sharing of the island, their differences eventually led to a civil war among the Yellow and Black Caribs in 1700. Fearing domination at the hands of the Black Caribs, the Yellow Caribs sought help from the French and allowed French settlers to build a small community on the island in 1719 where the settlers sought to live in harmony with both tribes of Caribs. In reality, the French considered St. Vincent theirs and wished only to remove the British from the island and in planning this course of action foresaw a way of acquiring new slaves through the conflict. The British, had earlier moved into St. Vincent in 1627 by way of a series of royal grants and treaties when Charles I granted St. Vincent’s rule to the Earl of Carlisle. However, the first real attempt at British colonization did not come until a century later, in 1722, when King George I gave St. Lucia and St. Vincent to the Duke of Montagu and a Captain Braitwaite was sent to St. Vincent to start a settlement at which point the series of private land treaties between the French and the Caribs were declared null and void.

Both the British and the French sought to use the tension between the Yellow and Black Caribs for their own causes by enlisting their help in battle. Seeing that the Black Caribs were the more successful soldiers, winning several battles with British settlers in the early 1700s, the French farmers provisioned the Black Carib leaders with wine, cognac, and weapons, which in turn encouraged more trade with the French and caused the Black Caribs to take up the French language, some of their customs, and even some of their names.

In 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle officially made St. Vincent a neutral territory. A few years later, in 1762, the Treaty of Paris allocated certain territories to the British, and in 1763, after the first Carib War, the British took control over the island and settlement began in earnest. In 1773, George II drafted a peace treaty with the Caribs and the two dozen Carib chiefs who signed the treaty could not read English so it was not until later that the true meaning of the treaty manifested itself as the Caribs were unknowingly restricted to smaller and smaller areas of the island.

Hostilities renewed and in 1779, the Black Caribs requested assistance from the French in Martinique. So it was that a French ship sailed to St. Vincent with 500 troops and the French took over St. Vincent with little resistance. The British soldiers were all at the northern end of the island working on the Governor’s plantation, and no one could find the key to the battery. The French won in a matter of a few minutes and were able to keep the Black Caribs from massacring the British settlers, troops, and the Governor.

The Treaty of Versailles in 1783 restored to British control. A dozen years later, in 1795, the Black Caribs, with the aid of the French, went on the offensive in what is called the Second Carib War, sometimes called the Brigands War. A French radical, Victor Hughes, after a successful uprising in Guadeloupe, incited two Black Carib chiefs, Chatoyer and Duvalier (sometimes spelled Duvallé), to attack the British and drive them from the island. Duvalier’s forces burned British plantations along the eastern coast, often putting the owners themselves through the gears of their own sugar mills, while other Black Caribs under their great chief Chatoyer, killed many people without destroying property and forced British forces southward along the western coast to Kingstown. In short order, the two chiefs met in the hills above Kingstown when Duvalier took Dorsetshire Hill, removed the British flag, and replaced it with the French Flag. British troops stormed Dorsetshire Hill and in a battle that lasted ten days, Chatoyer was finally killed in a swordfight with a British officer, Major Leith.

The Black Caribs, although deprived of their great leader, continued to fight for a year after Chatoyer’s death. General Abercrombie had already taken St. Lucia where the Black Caribs, without the assistance of the French, were quickly overcome and surrendered. Abercrombie then moved his troops to St. Vincent where the British soldiers destroyed the Black Carib villages and crops, and a year later, delivered an ultimatum to the Black Carib chiefs that the Black Caribs would be shipped to the Bay Islands off Honduras. Only 280 Caribs surrendered for the shipping, arriving at Balliceaux where half of them died of yellow fever. The British then hunted nearly 5,000 Black Caribs who were deported to Roatán, off the coast of Honduras. Enroute one of the British ships was taken by the Spanish and taken to Trujillo on the mainland of Honduras where the Black Caribs were put to work. When the Spanish later captured Roatán the 1,700 Caribs on the island were also brought to Trujillo and being skillful at farming, and the Spanish not, the Caribs got along well, some were even allowed to join the Spanish army.

The first Garifuna to arrive in Belize were brought there as woodcutters by the Spanish in 1802 in the Stann Creek area near Punta Gorda where they fished and farmed. By 1811, the Garifuna of Stann Creek were taking their produce to market in Belize Town which infuriated the local residents and merchants. At a public meeting, the city fathers passed a regulation stating that all "Caribs" who arrive in Belize Town must get a permit or they must leave within 48 hours Three years later the Garifuna of Stann Creek attempted to join the public meeting in Belize Town but were refused entry. When Central America achieved independence from Spain, the Garifuna suddenly found themselves unwelcome in places where the sentiments against Spain were strong. In 1832, many Garifuna left Honduras after a civil war there, and led by Alejo Beni, headed to Belize where they arrived on November 19, 1832, now know as Garifuna Settlement Day. Locals were afraid that the Garifuna would help slaves to escape and so tried to instill a fear and distrust of the Garifuna into their slaves by branding the Garifuna as "devil worshippers" and "baby eaters". Then the locals began to see the Garifuna as a secondary source of labor and within a year of their arrival had them working in their mahogany camps. Finding that they now had a problem with runaway "Caribs", a public meeting in Stann Creek appointed a "Constable" in Stann Creek whose sole responsibility was to deal with runaway "Caribs." In the 1850's, many laws were passed that forbade Garifuna, as well as Maya, from owing land in Belize.

But all that is only history now. Over the years the Garifuna have spread along the coastal regions of Central America. The Garifuna that served in the Spanish Army served with distinction, and at one time, the fortress at San Felipe, El Castillo de San Felipe, was commanded by a Garifuna officer, and in more recent times, many Garifuna served in World War II. Today there are even Garifuna communities in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and New York City.

back to Appendix S: Local Cultures