The Garinagu people practice two sacred rituals: Beluria, a nine-night celebration after a person’s death, and Dügü, a private family reunion to connect with the spirits of ancestors. These rituals bring reconciliation and healing within the family, including the ancestors. Garifuna rituals and ceremonies include drumming, dancing, and singing, and are often associated with the Garinagu religion.
Despite being under threat, many Garifuna people are also loyal Catholics, with drumming and Garifuna hymns often sung in charge. The Garifuna people have forged a distinctive language, dance, music, and spirituality, with the most elaborate ritual performances, called dügü, using three drums to guide dances.
The process of making “ereba” is arguably the most important tradition practiced by the Garifuna people. Cassava is closely tied to the Garifuna culture, with its origins in the Caribs. Ancestral spirits are reciprocated and voluntarily celebrated through various rituals, which are incorporated into day-to-day existence.
The Dugu is a type of funeral ceremony that brings the community and families together, aiming to bring deceased ancestors of the Garifuna. Activities include prayers or mass, singing, dancing, and sharing of food with both the living and the dead.
The Garifuna language belongs to the Arawakan group of languages and has survived centuries of discrimination and linguistic domination. The oral tradition, singing, dancing, and music are testimonies to Garífuna resistance and justifications of their unwritten history.
📹 Experience the Garifuna Culture of Belize
Experience the Garifuna Culture in Belize, through song, dance, music, language, food, dress and fantastic costumes.
What are the Garifuna religious practices?
The Garifuna believe that departed ancestors mediate between individuals and the external world, and good fortune is associated with good behavior. The religious system imposes responsibilities and obligations between living and deceased individuals, including food and drink offerings for ancestors who may appear in dreams. A spiritual leader, a “Buyei”, leads family contact with the deceased, and spiritual gatherings are prepared with healing, drumming, and dancing. Garifuna spiritualism is creatively expressed through music, dancing, and other art forms.
What do the Garifuna celebrate?
The coastal town of Dangriga, Belize, is hosting a weekend of lively celebrations, including parades, live music, drumming, dancing, and traditional Garifuna food. On November 19th, the Garifuna Settlement Day is celebrated, marking the arrival of the first Garifuna people to Belize from 1832. Dangriga, the spiritual capital of the Garifuna people, is a major service point for boats traveling daily between the cayes and the Belize mainland. The area is gaining a reputation as a paddlesport playground due to its sheltered waters.
Island Expeditions Office in Belize is located on the waterfront, next to Pal’s Guest House on Magoon Street. Visitors can meet the Island Expeditions team and arrange kayak rentals for self-guided paddling trips.
What are some traditions of the Garifuna?
The Garifuna people, recognized by the United Nations in 2001, are renowned for their contributions to the intangible heritage of humanity. They are known for their traditional foods like cassava bread and hudut, and their iconic drumming, which uses three different drums as the “voice of the ancestors” to tell stories of love, loss, joy, and triumphs. The Battle of the Drums festival in Punta Gorda, southern Belize, pits the best Garifuna drum troupes against each other for the top prize. Today, the Garifuna live in communities across southern Belize, including Hopkins and Dangriga, and maintain their traditions through workshops and exhibitions.
What is the Garifuna culture more popular for?
The Afro-Caribbean Garifuna culture, a blend of Caribbean fishing and farming traditions, South American and African music, dance, and spirituality, was declared a “Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO in 2001. Nicaragua’s President Enrique Bolanos hosted the First International Summit of Garifunas on Nicaragua’s Corn Island to ratify the 2003 UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Bolanos’ objectives included joining Corn Island with other Garifuna enclaves, establishing a trade agreement, and developing a partnership between Corn Island and Cancun.
Garifuna culture is closely linked to music and dance, with heavy use of percussion instruments and distinctive drumming, which combines the beats of primero and segunda drums. Garifuna drums are typically made from hollowed-out hardwoods native to Central America.
What is the Garifuna ritual?
The Garifuna Ritual of Dugu is a family-based spiritual practice that involves communicating with ancestors, particularly during conflicts, to seek guidance and overcome obstacles. The Garifuna people believe their ancestors provide visions and prophecies to help them overcome obstacles. Despite being perceived as evil and demonic by those ignorant of their spirituality, this tradition remains a significant part of their culture.
What is national Garifuna festival?
The annual Garifuna Festival features a series of animated theatrical performances that commemorate the arrival of the inaugural Garifuna group from Yurime, a small region situated to the east of St. Vincent, in 1797. This event marks the advent of the Garifuna people.
How do you say hello in Garifuna?
Common Garifuna PhrasesMábuiga —Hello. Buíti binafi —Good morning. Buíti amidi —Good afternoon. Buíti ranbá weyu —Good evening. Buíti gúyoun —Good night. Ayóu —Goodbye.
Hopkins, which is the closest settlement to Hamanasi, is a traditional Garifuna fishing village. Of all the diverse cultures in Belize, visitors are most likely to get a taste of the Garifuna culture while at Hamanasi. The word Garifuna refers to the people and language and is also used as an adjective to describe the food, clothing, implements, and dances. The plural form of Garifuna, Garinagu, is used to refer to the people collectively or for more than one person.
The Garinagu are a unique fusion of the Carib (Kalinagu), Arawak (Lokono) and African people, which was birthed in St. Vincent. They continue many of their ancestral customs such as fishing in dugout dories, farming and basket weaving, among other crafts. The Garifuna language is 45% Arawak, 25% Carib, 15% French, 10% English, and 5% dependent on the official national language of the speaker (for example in Belize it is English and in Honduras it is Spanish).
At Hamanasi, 97% of our employees are Belizean, nearly half of whom are Garifuna. Before your next visit with us, learn a few phrases to practice while here!
What does punta mean in Garifuna?
Punta, an Afro-indigenous dance and music of the Belizean and Honduran Garifuna people, originated from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and The Grenadines. It is the best-known traditional dance belonging to the Honduran community, also known as banguity or bunda. The word punta is a Latinization of an ancient West African rhythm called bunda, or “buttocks” in the Mandé language. Punta is used to reaffirm and express the struggle felt by the indigenous population through cultural art forms, such as dance and music, and to highlight their strong sense of endurance and reconnecting with the ancestors of the Garifuna people. It has a following in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United States.
What is the spirituality of Garifuna?
Spiritualism is a belief system that believes that spirits of the dead can communicate with the living, which is applicable to Garifuna spiritualism in Belize. This belief system teaches that the spirits of dead ancestors communicate with and protect living family members in a reciprocal cycle, even after death. Communication can occur through trances or dreams, and interpretations can be clarified through séances by a Buyei. Ancestral spirits are reciprocated through rituals, such as singing, dancing, and sharing food.
If obligations to the Ancestral Spirit are overlooked, the Ancestral Spirit may demand repayment through a formal process called adügürahani, to prepare for a Dügǘ ceremony. Dügǘ is an option when customary duties fail, and its survival or continuity indicates people’s behavior and the effect of tradition in re-instituting values to correct behavior.
What is the National Garifuna Festival?
The annual Garifuna Festival features a series of animated theatrical performances that commemorate the arrival of the inaugural Garifuna group from Yurime, a small region situated to the east of St. Vincent, in 1797. This event marks the advent of the Garifuna people.
What are the Garifuna dances called?
The drums are an integral element of numerous Garifuna musical and dance traditions, including hunguhungu, mascaro, indio barbaro, chumba, guanaragua, gunchei, luyano, yankunnu, paranda, punta, and its contemporary variant, punta rock.
📹 Connecting With My Garifuna Culture | Nodia Mena | TEDxUNCGreensboro
Nodia strongly believes that learning basic elements of other cultures develops into mutual understanding and acceptance.
Nodia, (namule)thank you so much for paying homage (magadieti)… Thank you for teaching the world about our Garifuna culture. I also called my grandmother mama, and much like you, I am an educator I am señora Mena. I teach AP spanish, and I make it a point to teach about our Garifuna culture within the curriculum that I cover. I am overjoyed and I am moved to tears with Garifuna pride due to this presentation Atengiruní
When she sang I almost cried. It reminded me of when my mother took me to a Garifuna speaking church when I was little. I don’t speak and I barely understand, but I was raised Garifuna through and through. So the singing feels like home. I feel so related and connected to her through the singing, it’s crazy. I feel among family. Thank YOU PROFESSOR!!!
Hello dear, Hello, Garifuna my name is Kwabena am of Ghanaian Senegalese and Lesotho heritage I was told some of my ancestors are also from Belize who are Garifuna am learning more about the Garifuna right now am trying to get a Belize Citizenship as well . But I was born in the USA to African parents .