Garifuna youths enjoy Settlement Day traditions
November nineteenth, means different things to different people. For many it is simply a chance to enjoy good rum, food and fine tune dancing skills. But for others it is an opportunity to see history come to life with the reenactment of the Garifuna people’s arrival on the shores of Belize. As Janelle Chanona found out, however, the drumming and canoe arrival are just part of the celebration. The real joy comes from passing on the traditions to the children.
The traditional celebration in Dangriga begins the night of November eighteenth when the sounds of shuffling feet in the sand amid the Garifuna songs and drumming fill the night air.
Janelle Chanona
“The song is about sickness and death. They’ve been dancing since this afternoon and they’re not expected to go to bed tonight. They’re bringing in the dawn.”
Just before light on the nineteenth, the canoe and boats head out to sea as the crowd gathers along the river, awaiting their return. When do, they are greeted with happiness, a far cry from what actually happened when the settlement party came to Belize in 1823.
Roy Cayetano, President, National Garifuna Council
“The fact is that we were not welcomed at the mouth of the Belize River at the settlement and so we came south of the settlement and we settled these lands along the coast.”
When they first arrived, the Garifuna people were primarily fishermen and farmers, living off the land in a tightly knit group, a stark contrast to today’s communities. President of the National Garifuna Council, Roy Cayetano, says the people can adjust and still maintain their values.
Roy Cayetano
“We are not saying that our people should stick to the drums and cassava bread making. We have to recognize that literacy is important, technological literacy is important and we have to make adjustments that will enable us to participate effectively in the global economy.”
But the global economy was far from most people’s minds this nineteenth. They just wanted to enjoy the celebration and learn about Garifuna culture. The focus this year was on the participation of the younger generation, but their parents are providing the links to the past. Jestine Caballero says her mother taught her to be proud of who she is. She wants to do the same for her children.
Jestine Caballero
“When I was small, my mommy used to tell me I have to put it on, that was what my granny and my mother put on, that’s why I have to put it on.
I like it because this is my culture and we have to put it on.”
Garifuna Woman
“That’s their culture; that’s their roots but nowadays they don’t teach them so, what could we say?”
Althea Joseph
“I think some of them, it’s peer pressure. Peer pressure has a lot to do with it but with my girls, I always tell them, be brave. They love hudut, fry fish and they say they’ll try to make tapau. That’s what they say they want to learn but the hudut they love.
I always tell them, we’re Garifuna and you have to learn to speak your language and know about your culture.”
Days before the reenactment on the nineteenth, the children of Dangriga held their own ceremony.
Fabian Cayetano
“My daughter being one of the erumei, she was happy with that first ever experience. She did not know that was the way our ancestors had come to the shores of Belize from Honduras and she was happy to be apart of it.
She is thinking and at the same time learning and I also see the future, a bright future of the Garifuna in her.”
Derrick Tzul also likes to learn about Garifuna culture.
Derrick Tzul
“My mother is a Garifuna and Spanish mixed together.”
Q: “And what you like best about it, just the dancing?”
Derrick Tzul
“Yes, just the dancing.”
Q: “So what you say to those kids who maybe want to do this?”
Derrick Tzul
“I say all kinds of things to them.”
Q: “Like what? Would you tell them do this?”
Derrick Tzul
“No.”
Q: “No? You wouldn’t like them to dance like how you dance?”
Derrick Tzul
“Just tell them to help me do it.”
Roy Cayetano is encouraged that so many young people want to learn Garifuna ways. But he is concerned that the Garifuna language is no longer the first language for so many of his people.
Roy Cayetano
“If we allow that to continue, it will herald the beginning of the end for us. Fortunately, I think there’s still a lot we can do because the language is still alive.”
From all appearances this nineteenth, a lot of things are still alive and well in Belize’s Garifuna communities. Janelle Chanona for News Five.
