Lord, I pray that the words of my mouth, and the meditation of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, oh God our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen, “itarala”!
Good morning, or Buiti binafi, in Garifuna!
I thank Inglewood 1st’s Lead Pastor, Rev. Victor Cyrus-Franklin & Assistant Pastor, Rev. Lesa Smith for giving up their pulpit to me in this Black History month of February, 2023, I bring you greetings from the Afro-Caribbean Indigenous people known as the Garinagou, or more commonly referred to as the Garifuna. When the Garifuna arrived in the country of Belize, the only English-speaking nation in Central America, from the island of St. Vincent (Yurumei) on November 19th, 1802, they’d already seen significant struggle, which had had a major impact on the Colonial Caribbean. Their descendants were West Africans who found themselves liberated from bondage when the Spanish ship in which they were held captive crashed in the West Antilles. This group’s a very important part of my heritage, because my mother was a Garifuna: that’s why I’m hpnored to speak about us today.
Garifuna intermarried with the local indigenous Arawaks, who have often been mis-classified as war-like, but they only became that way when they needed to defend themselves from the Caribs, descendants of the Garifuna, and who were infamous for being cannibalistic! But unlike the African American experience, where it seemed like they had no place to escape to except to other parts of the U.S. and Canada, Garifuna resistance to British and French slave labor practices led to their total exile and a multi-generational exodus that took them across the Caribbean Sea, and to the shores of Belize. At this point, the territory that would become Belize was ruled by the Spanish, but primarily occupied by British Buccaneers who’d developed a quite lucrative lumber trade predicated on the backs of African slave labor. Regardless of which side of the world we’re talking about, wherever there’s money to be made, opportunistic Colonizers need slaves to get work done; if blacks, the descendant of slaves are known for nothing else, it’s that we are always hard workers, willing or not …No shade, I’m just saying! But Jesus’s Transfiguration, as read in today’s scriptures from Matthew, Chapter 17, continues to give us hope that greater is he that is in us, that he who’s in the world. As Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI observed when analyzing this passage, “Jesus, unlike Moses in Exodus 34, shines from within; he does not simply receive light, but he himself is light from light. May we also seek such Transfiguration as we try to better ourselves and our world!
Contentious land rights over the Belize region combined with vast stretches of the country that were then unsettled, allowed the Garifuna to establish a mostly peaceful community along the coast at a place called Stann Creek, which sat strategically at the mouth of North Stann Creek River and along the Caribbean coast. As the lumber, and later Mahogany industries served as lucrative pipelines for residents in the region, Stann Creek would become an important trading port. For a while, the Garifuna managed to establish lives and communities for themselves, not immune from racism from the English settlers, but at least largely free from the laws of slavery. Garifuna men would often earn their trade with British lumber/Mahogany companies, earning positions of relative influence within them. Others worked as fishermen, or specialized artisans making dories (canoes), paddles, fishing hooks, mortars (hanas) and mortar sticks to beat or mash one of their main staples, the plantain.
Farming also served an important role in society, along the coast, and was a role in which women played an especially prominent part. They went to farm every day to harvest staples for their own tables and for sale to others at the market and in the community. I remember us going to different farms on weekends and during school breaks as kids: there were no community farms, as you see here in America, but we’d be bringing home all kinds of fruit, nuts, etc., even though my family didn’t own a farm. I’ll let you guys figure out what was going on, lol! Some farmers were o.k. with us helping ourselves to their produce, but some sat at the entrance to their farms, shot-guns in hand ready to shoot anyone who dared to trespass on their properties. Half of our enjoyment of the stolen harvest was the fact that we’d gotten away with helping ourselves to other folks’ produce!
Hearing of the peaceful isolation that Stann Creek offered, many members of the Garifuna diaspora began to flock to Belize. Honduran Garifuna in particular, fled en masse to the coast, when the war for independence in their country left them as marginalized outcasts. Over time, the Garifuna would begin to spread throughout the country, until Belize became the effective root of culture, and seat of power for their people. Stann Creek, eventually changed its name to Dangriga, a Garifuna word meaning “Standing Waters”. The British challenged this, saying Stann in Stann Creek was actually derived from 2 words, St Ann Creek, but that remains unproven. It’s where I was born, it would leave in indelible impact on the country’s culture with the rise of the uniquely drum-based Garifuna music genre known as Punta, later embraced by the younger generation (Pen Cayetano, in 1978, Andy Palacio, Turtle Shell Band, etc.) who popularized it in Belize and internationally as Punta Rock.
The single largest denomination (40.1%) in Belize is Roman Catholic; many Garifuna claim this as their religion, when they’re not following the Obeah (compare to voodoo in Haiti, Santeria in Latin America) Spiritualism religion . They attend the Dugu Temple (mentioned in my book, “The Color Of Pain), regularly, some even travel from the US, to be cared for by the Buyei (healer), especially when seeking help to win a love interest, or cure for illnesses. They have to stay in Temple for a week or several weeks at a time, depending on the cure needed. Legend states that many people who aren’t cured by the Buyei will finally, desperately go see a medical doctor, in the last stages of their lives, when doctors can’t do much for them by then. Doctors have scolded many patients, and have harshly told many “Why come to me now that your Buyei can’t help you? Just go home & die!”
My family grew up Methodist (2.9% of Belize’s population today), and we attended the Methodist Primary School; we were looked down upon because the majority of Garifuna were, or were assumed Catholic, attending mass at Sacred Heart Church. My mom was originally a Catholic, but she parted ways with them very early in her life when the local priest refused to officiate at her sister’s funeral because she’d died of toxemia, while pregnant outside of wedlock. We also were scornfully called “wadab agey”, meaning conch shell, because weren’t pure-breds considered less than, since my father was not a Garifuna, but a Kriole (giow). The Garifuna-Kriole conflict was always a very touchy issue while growing up in Belize, unfortunately, it’s followed us to America. Sad to see that there’s discrimination in every culture. We won’t even talk about colorism, a term coined by Alice Walker in her novel, “The Color Purple” shades of white or light in Black people that I touched on in my book, comparing it to quadroons, octoroons & separatism system in the U S South, counted by how many drops of black blood one has, a problem persisting in today’s non-white society.
There are many other religious groups in Belize, the Mennonites (an Amish offshoot that I described in my book), Anglicans (the Church of England), Baptists, Nazarenes, 7th-Day Adventists, Baha’is Jehovah’s Witnesses (my older sister Beulah & my younger brother Ethsil are both members), so I’m a Methodist sandwiched between 2 JW’s. Needless to say, we don’t talk religion at family gatherings.
Today, Southern Belize is sprinkled with a number of Garifuna communities, the largest being Dangriga (known as the Culture Capital), and Punta Gorda (P.G.), and their population is spread all throughout the country. We spend November 19th celebrating Garifuna Settlement Day, in the entire county of Belize, and also by Garifuna in the U.S., and other countries. This holiday was created by civil rights activist, Thomas Vincent Ramos in 1943, and became a national holiday in 1977. In 2001, UNESCO issued a proclamation declaring the Garifuna language a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”
Itarala!
