The Garifuna Collective and Its Place in World Music

Al Ovando

Over the years, the Garifuna Collective has come to understand and appreciate its significance in world music.  The idea of taking the stage along with other big name performers is not lost on Ovando who says that the group is heading to South America upon its return from the United States.

Al Ovando, Garifuna Collective

“The way we explain it now is that the music of Belize and the music that the Garifuna Collective plays is a part of a bigger picture, it’s part of a bigger ecosystem where we’re responsible for a part of it and just like with any other music.  So this is how festivals di ask we fi come.  Like at the end of September, after we come back from the U.S., we go to Colombia, in Bogota.  We’ll play in a rock festival called Rock al Parque, all rock bands, you know.  How do you play at a festival?  Everybody asks, how do you fit in?  But what we’ve realized over the years and what we’ve realized and what the consciousness has moved to then, what the realization has moved to is that you’re part of a bigger ecosystem of music.  You’re part of what makes music, that whole what they call music, it’s like a universal language, right and that element is what we as the Garifuna Collective we are part of it.”