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Garífuna
Flag
Total population
400,000 - 500,000
Regions with significant populations
Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua[1]
Language(s)
Garifuna, Spanish, Belizean Kriol language, English
Religion(s)
generally Christian
Related ethnic groups
Caribs, Afro-Caribbeans, Miskito

Garífuna refers to both the people and language of the Garínagu. In their own language, Garífuna is the singular and Garinagu is the plural form. The Garífuna live along the Caribbean Coast in Belize, Guatemala (Livingston), Nicaragua and Honduras on the mainland, and on the island of Roatán. There are also many Garinagu in the United States, particularly in Los Angeles, New York and Houston.

The Garífuna are ethnically descended from Amerindian and African people; their Garifuna language is a member of the Arawakan language family. The British colonial administration used the term Black Carib to refer to the Garífuna and distinguish them from Yellow Carib - the Amerindians who had not intermarried with Africans. In recent history, Garífuna have thrown off their British appellation and encourage others to refer to them as Garífuna. The Garífuna population is estimated to be around 400,000 - 500,000 both in their Central American homeland and in the United States, the latter due to heavy migration from Central America.^[2][3]

One of the earliest accounts of the ancestors of the Garífuna comes from the Frenchman Père Raymond Breton. Living on the island of St. Vincent in the 1630s, he recorded the Black Caribs' story of their migration from Brazil. According to legend, the Arawak speaking peoples of Northern Brazil came to St. Vincent long before the arrival of Europeans in the New World. They lived for a long time in peace and tranquility until one day the island was attacked by a group of Carib-speaking men from the mainland. The Carib men slaughtered all the Arawak men and took the women as their slaves and companions. At some point, escaped African slaves arrived on the island and were successfully integrated into the population, adding an African element to the culture. Another version of the origin of "Black Caribs" states that pre-Columbian African explorers intermingled with the indigenous population.^[4]

When the British took over Saint Vincent after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, they were opposed by French settlers and their Carib allies. After a series of Carib Wars which were encouraged and supported by the French and the death of their leader Satuye (Chatoyer), the Carib eventually surrendered to the British in 1796. The Black Caribs were considered enemies and were deported to Roatán, an island off the coast of Honduras. The British separated the more African-looking Caribs from the more Amerindian looking ones. They decided that the former were enemies who had to be deported, while the latter were merely "misled" and were allowed to remain. Five thousand Black Caribs were deported, but only about 2,000 of them survived the voyage to Roatán. Because the island was too small and infertile to support their population, the Garífuna petitioned the Spanish authorities to be allowed to settle on the mainland. The Spanish employed them as soldiers, and they spread along the Caribbean coast of Central America.

They are known for their dance, which is called Punta, and for its associated musical style, which has the dancers move their hips from right to left in a circular motion.

In 2001 UNESCO proclaimed the Garífuna's language, dance and music as a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Belize.^[5] In 2005 the First Garífuna Summit was held in Corn Island, Nicaragua with the participation of the government of other Central American countries.^[6]

• Breton, Raymond (1877) Grammaire caraibe, composée par le p. Raymond Breton, suivie du Catéchisme caraibe. Maisonneuve, Paris. - from 1635 manuscript OCLC 78046575
• 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. OCLC 47773227
• Gonzalez, Nancie L. Solien (1988) The Sojourners of the Caribbean: Ethnogenesis and Ethnohistory of the Garifuna. University of Illinois Press, Chicago, ISBN 0-252-01453-7
• Gonzalez, Nancie L. (1997) "The Garifuna of Central America" In: Wilson, Samuel M. (ed.) (1997) The Indigenous People of the Caribbean Virgin Islands Humanities Council, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., pp. 197-205, ISBN 0-8130-1531-6

• Garifuna.com
• Garifuna of Honduras/Cayos Cochinos
• The Garifuna on NationalGeographic.com
• Garifuna.org (features a very different history from the one presented above)