Garifuna
[16] In 1635 the Carib were overwhelmed by French forces led by the adventurer Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc and his nephew Jacques Dyel du Parquet.
[19] Because the Carib people resisted working as laborers to build and maintain the sugar and cocoa plantations which the French began to develop in the Caribbean, in 1636, Louis XIII of France proclaimed La Traité des Noirs.
This authorized the capture and purchase of enslaved people from sub-Saharan Africa and their transportation as labor to Martinique and other parts of the French West Indies.
The French had pushed the remaining Carib people to this northeastern coast and the Caravalle Peninsula, but the colonists wanted the additional land.
According to Young's report, after the wreck, enslaved people from the Igbo ethnic group from what is now Nigeria, escaped and reached the small island of Bequia.
However, according to Young, the enslaved people were too independent of "spirit", prompting the Caribs to make plans to kill all the African male children.
On the other hand, if the Maroons abducted Arauaco-Caribbean women or married them, is another of the contradictions between the French documents and the oral history of the Garinagu.
Andrade Coelho states that "...whatever the case, the Caribs never consented to give their daughters in marriage to blacks"[dubious – discuss].
[25] Conversely, Sebastian R. Cayetano argues that "Africans were married with women Caribs of the islands, giving birth to the Garifuna".
[28] In 1748, Britain and France agreed to put aside their claims and declared Saint Vincent to be a neutral island, under no European sovereignty.
[16] In 1763 by the Treaty of Paris, Britain gained control over Saint Vincent following its defeat of France in the Seven Years' War, fought in Europe, Asia and North America.
[16] When in 1627 the English began to claim the St. Vincent island, they opposed the French settlements (which had started around 1610 by cultivating plots) and its partnerships with the Caribs.
[23] The treaty delimited the area inhabited by the Caribs, and demanded repayment of the British and French plantations of runaway enslaved people who took refuge in St. Vincent.
Despite the odds being against them, the Caribs successfully gained control of most of the island except for the immediate area around Kingstown, which was saved from direct assault on several occasions by the timely arrival of British reinforcements.
British efforts to penetrate and control the interior and windward areas of the island were repeatedly frustrated by incompetence, disease, and effective Carib defences, which were eventually supplemented by the arrival of some French troops.
In 1797, the Caribs with African features were chosen to be deported as they were considered the cause of the revolt, and originally exported to Jamaica, and then they were transported to the island of Roatan in Honduras.
After settling in the Honduras, they expanded along the Caribbean coast of Central America, coming to Belize and Guatemala to the north, and the south to Nicaragua.
[20] This was also in the period of the Haitian Revolution in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which ultimately led to the enslaved people creating the independent republic of Haiti in 1804.
In the 21st century, the Garifuna population is estimated to be around 600,000 in total, taking together its people in Central America, Yurumein (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), and the United States.
It is an Arawakan language with French, English, Dutch, African, and Spanish influences, reflecting their long interaction with various colonial peoples.
[7] In 2001 UNESCO proclaimed the language, dance, and music of the Garifuna as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Belize.
The "ruguma" is hung from a tree and weighted at the bottom with heavy rocks in order to squeeze out and remove the poisonous liquid and starch from the grated pulp.
The remaining pulp is dried overnight and later sieved through flat rounded baskets (hibise) to form flour that is baked into pancakes on a large iron griddle (Comal).
In contemporary Belize there has been a resurgence of Garifuna music, popularized by musicians such as Andy Palacio, Mohobub Flores, and Aurelio Martinez.
A complex set of practices exist in their traditional religion for individuals and groups to show respect for their ancestors and Bungiu (God) or Sunti Gabafu (All Powerful).
The spiritual practices of the Garinagu have qualities similar to the voodoo (as the Europeans put it) rituals performed by other tribes of African descent.
[44] It is important for a son's father to take care of him, which means that he must give up some of his duties in order to spend time with his child.
[46] Based on oral traditions, according to some authors, the Garifuna are descendants of Caribbeans with the African origins Efik (Nigeria-Cameroon residents), Ibo (Igbo) (Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea), Fons (residents between Benin - Nigeria), Fante and Ashanti (from Ashanti Region, in central Ghana), Yoruba (resident in Togo, Benin, Nigeria) and Kongo (Congo, DR Congo and Angola), obtained in the coastal regions of West and Central Africa by Spanish and Portuguese traders of enslaved people.
"[48] To Roger Bastide, the Garifuna almost inaccessible fortress of Northeast Saint Vincent integrated constantly to Yoruba, Fon, Fanti-Ashanti and Kongo fugitives.
[47] Based on 18th-century English documents, Ruy Galvão de Andrade Coelho suggests that came from Nigeria, Gold Coast, Dahomey, Congo "and other West African regions".
