Garifuna healer dies in U.S.

She was a spiritual giant in a community that places great emphasis on such values. Sarah Gonguez, for many years one of the most prominent Garifuna buyeis of this country, died early this morning in Los Angeles. Gonguez had been ill for several years and left Belize for the States in the early 1990’s. She came from a long line of spiritual healers which included her great grandfather, Great Uncle and her brother, John Mariano. In 1989 Jacqueline Gray interviewed Miss Sarah and her brother in connection with a story on the Dugu ceremony for the show “Belize All Over”. During that interview Sarah described an encounter she once had with a room full of spirits.

Sarah Gonguez, Spiritual Healer

“When I see them first I was afraid of them, I won’t tell you no lie. And I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid of them. Sometimes I take my hammock and cover myself with it and when I do realize I am sleeping and I jump up and when I count them twelve of them was still with me holding on the beam of the house.”

Q: “You’re talking about spirits?”

Sarah Gonguez

“Yes, spirits.”

Q: “So there’s no getting away from them?”

Sarah Gonguez

“No. no. no. Can’t.”

Although many people think that the buyei is the same as a practitioner of Obeah, such is not the case. In Garifuna culture a buyei is a person who has been called to heal troubled souls by putting them in touch with the spirits of their ancestors. Sarah Gonguez would have been sixty-four next month. Her body will be returned to Dangriga for burial.