HTML last revised 18th March, 2003.The Garinagu, descendants of male Africans slaves and Carib Indian women, were exiled by the English from the islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the island of Raton off the cost of Honduras in March of 1797. They arrived at the latter on April 12 of that year. They were later invited by the Spanish authorities in Trujillo to join them on the mainland. After a few years, they began to establish settlements along the north cost of Honduras, in Nicaragua, and further south in Guatemala and Belize then known as the "Settlement of Belize in the Bay of Honduras."
There is no record of who was or were the first Garifuna person(s) to reach the southern coast of Belize. History records that by the year 1820, some 150 Garifuna were already living on the southern coast of the country. The author surmises that the first Garifuna to reach these shores was a fisherman who may have been carried across the bay by a northeaster.
However it happened, what we know is that when the Garifuna started settling the southern coast of Belize they brought with them their plants and seed material, their agricultural and cassava processing equipment, and their primitive fishing equipment. More importantly, they brought with them their sea-faring and agricultural skills, their house building, canoe building, hunting and other skills that enabled them to survive in their new environment just like they did when they first arrived in Honduras.
I will not dwell on how, why and when Dangriga, Yugandan, Seine Bight, Punta Gorda (Peine) and Barranco were settled. Suffice it to say that by the turn of the 20th century, the Garinagu were firmly entrenched in the abovementioned villages and towns. Their being regarded with suspicion and discriminated against notwithstanding, they were contributing significantly to the colony's economy as farmers, fishermen, mahogany workers, traders and indeed even as smugglers. Being pre-dominantly Roman Catholic, they were soon seen by the Church's authorities as having good and necessary qualities to be teachers. The early Spanish and Italian missionaries began the process of selecting young men to be trained as teachers so that by the late 1800s Garifuna teachers were already walking or riding to the villages in pursuit of their noble calling.
When during the year 1941, the late Thomas Vincent Ramos, C.S. Benguche, Pentaleon Hernandez et al. requested the then Governor, Sir John Adams Hunter, K.C.M.G. (through the District Commissioner) to grant the Garifuna a holiday commemorating their arrival to these shores in 1832, it was easy for the Governor to accede to their request. The Garinagu were contributing to this country's economic development in the manner aforesaid. Time constraints will not permit much elaboration on this but the author would like to give a few examples as follows:
The late Michael Blesseth Daniels, father of the renowned teacher Salvatore Basil Daniels, J.P., O.B.E. and a colleague, owned a store on Front Street in Punta Gorda at the same spot where that of J.A. Carroll later stood. Nipamson Lucas, and Mr. Ortiz also owned stores in that municipality. In Dangriga, Mr. Vicente Lewis (well known as Friday) and previously Mr. Baltazar (Mrs. Adriana Baltazar's father) and others owned well-stocked stores.
The late Martin Noralez (a.k.a. Sasu) built Favorita Hall in Punta Gorda as a venue for dances and shows during the 1940s - 1960s while in Dangriga, Paul Guerrero owned and operated the popular Eden Rose Club.
The late Cornelius R. Castillo, Jerome Alvarez, Catarino Ariola and Santiago James Avilez, JP all owned land and cattle in Barranco. So did the Ramos', Angus Cayetano and others in Dangriga.
The "Recuerdo", the Nicholas family in the village of Barranco owned a three sail boat. Later came the "Julian J" owned by Ambrose Joseph's father (a.k.a. Cutti). Zack Flores in Dangriga built and owned the "Orient" which was large enough to take the author and his family from Sareneja in the North to Punta Gorda in the deep south for summer vacation. The late James Lambey built some of the finest druggers (large canoes) ever seen in Punta Gorda.
Gervesio Noralez and Jimmy Sabal; Agapito Ogaldez and Ignacio Cacho of Dangriga all owned trucks which were used for transportation in the citrus industry. Mr. Pablo Baltazar owned and operated a bus service.
The above examples will suffice to show that the Garinagu were an economic power to be reckoned with. There was a time when they were self-sufficient in terms of growing their own food, doing their fishing, building their houses and canoes and formed the main work force in Pomona and Middlesex. A significant number were workers in the days when mahogany was king. Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) Report for 1954 under Agriculture, states that in that year the St. Vincent Block property (Zerro) behind Punta Gorda had under cultivation some 350 acres of rice. In other words over a third of the property was cultivation with this one crop! When you add to this cassava, yams, sweet potatoes and plantain it is possible that as much as 50% of the holding was under cultivation.
Sadly, all this has changed. The Garinagu have become a nation of jobbers. Our sons and daughters graduating from high schools are looking for jobs which will enable them to work (or sometimes hardly work) from 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon and from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Mondays to Fridays. They look down on vocational skills, which would enable them to be farmers and fishermen, craftsmen, mechanics, plumbers and electricians. This despite the fact that these could earn in a week what it would take a junior or even a middle level Public Officer a month to earn.
It is possible that the Garinagu could boast the highest numbers of sons and daughters with doctorates among the ethnic groups of Belize. This is laudable. It is a testimony to the indomitable spirit and fortitude of these individuals. There are, however, hardly any connections between these individuals as such or between them and their people as an ethnic group. They are like atolls that have emerged out of the sea as a result of volcanic or other activity. You see one here, one there, and got another one over there. The fact remains that the majority of Garinagu are submerged in a sea of poverty. While agreeing that the good salaries, perks etc. that our people with higher degrees earn make for a comfortable life in the material sense, this does nothing to bolster our economic power. Without economic power our political clout is nil! Hence my belief that if we Garinagu did not already have a holiday commemorating our arrival to these shores and were to request one today it would be denied us. Where are our farmers, fishermen, craftsmen and entrepreneurs? How many of our people have a slice of the eco tourism pie? I recall feeling quite depressed when in April last in my hometown of Punta Gorda, I saw a Garifuna housewife buying cassava from a Ketchi woman. Cassava of all products! One may ask what does it matter as long as she could afford to buy it? Most likely the cash was part of remittances sent by a hardworking aunt, sister, cousin or other family member from New York, L.A., Miami or Chicago.
All is not lost. Garinagu are known for their resilience and fortitude. How else have they been able to survive their being exiled from Yurumei (St. Vincent) and the ethnic cleansing that followed the defeat of the Royalists during the wars for independence in the neighboring republics?
Somehow, somewhere and sometime in the past we have been led to believe that education is the panacea for all our ills. Education is very important. No doubt about it. Education, however, is supposed to equip us to function adequately and cope with what life throws at us. We must fight against the odds. At this point I would share with you my favourite quotation: "Man must be like tea; his true colour showing the more he gets into hot water."
It seems to me that the education train has gone on the wrong track. It needs to be shunted back into the right track - one that will carry us to a new plateau of involvement and participation in the economic stream of life in our country. Let us with assistance of our Ministries of Education and Sports, Tourism and Culture find ways and means of inculcating in our young people a strong desire to be useful and productive citizens of our country. Let us seek to reverse the current thinking that fishing, farming, and doing different craftwork is demeaning. Let us revive the old apprenticeship system so that folk like Austin Rodriguez of Tubroos Street in Dangriga could pass on his skills in dorey building, drum making, and cassava grinder making to a younger generation.
By the time you read this, the merry making and hoopla of Garifuna Settlement Day will be fading in our memories. How many of the revelers had money left in their pockets or in the bank to feed their children in the days that followed? Who were the ones that benefited financially from the celebrations?
We are a fun people and all the other ethnic groups in Belize emulate our music and dances. We must, however, not be only culturally prominent but we must also be participants in the country's economy. We must reclaim our heritage and once again be producers as well as consumers. By so doing we will be heard when we speak and we will not be just a 'voice crying in the wilderness'!
This is a "wake up" call. Far be it from me to be a 'prophet of doom' but unless we act now the once noble, indomitable Garifuna people may become only of historic and academic interest. Will we allow this to happen?
© Francis B. Arana, 2003.
HTML last revised 18th March, 2003.
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