Garifuna - Post Banishment Remnant (1779)

In the long term, the remnant of the Garifuna, who escaped onto the dense forested mountain ridges, on the windward coast of Yurumein, were not as lucky as their banished Garifuna brothers and sisters. Those who were banished from the land they once owned and roamed on freely. One of the disadvantages of the escape Garifuna were, they were not accustomed to losing a war, defeat was new to them, so when they fled, they ended up in small groups in different locations and those groups remained together. The groups were not large enough, to restart a functional Garifuna community as they knew it. Even when the groups grew, to a size where the structure could have been reintroduced, the remnant Garifuna, had became accustomed, to an existence without the formal structure that was a part of their old way of life. They also had a real fear of being captured. This was so, because of the lack of information about the destiny, of their captured brothers and sisters; and as such, the level of their caution grew.

Although they had to and they became adopted to isolated and small dwellings; remaining undetected and uncaptured were always their number one priority. The remnant Garifunas, were in a familiar place, that place lacked what made it home. The absence of those they knew and loved, as well as, the lack of community structure that facilitated, life as they once knew it and the restricted freedom and access to the island as they once had, made it different. The escaped Garifuna, became captive on their own island, restricted to a tiny area, where they did their best to survive, without the benefit of a community as they know it. Without any structure, a default leader and the numbers that was present in the community of Garifuna that was banished to Roatan.

Their willingness to remain undetected, did not provide much opportunity for the unification with the other small groups who were scattered, long the nearby mountain ridges. This also did not lend much opportunity, for an immediate re-establishment of a functional society as they knew it, before the death of their leaders, and the capture of their brothers and sisters.

The small number Garifunas who ended up together basically stayed with the group with whom they ended up. One thing that was sure unique to the Garifunas were: Their retreated was to the dense mountain ridge, even though they all did not become reunited and that became their dwelling place and their own instructed community.

One thing that helped me arrived to this conclusion, is that fact, the residence of Greggs, Lowmans Windward, Lauders and New Prospect the Mountain Ridges on which the remnant Garifuna retreated to, are still occupy by them today. These loactions are within close proximity to each other, but the Garifuna people, who lives in these area today, are not blood relatives. And the sense of community and the level of community interactions that is present within the villages that makes up the Kalinago Community is not present among the four traditionally Garifuna settlement.

I will endeavor to say, the remnant post banishment Garifuna, was worse than that of their banished brothers. For a very long time, the Remnant Garifuna on Yurumein, lived in fear and this was responsible for inhibiting their overall growth as a community and as a people. Even when the English did not saw the Garifuna as a threat to their existence and even when the French took controlled of St. Vincent, for the four years period that ranged from 1779 to 1783; the remnant Garifuna remained suspicious of all European and remained in hiding. They were totally unafraid of the fate, they did not know of (the fate of the captured Garifuna), but were sure they did not want to be a part of.

The SIP Religion Pre-Banishment (1779)

The St. Vincent Indigenous People (SIP) which includes the Garifuna and the Kalinago as the existed between 1635 and 1779, had a religion that was based on that which was being practiced by the Kalinago people with a fusion of that of the ship wreck survivors and to a lesser extent the maroons.

Most people are of the opinion that drums were introduced into the St. Vincent Indigenous people’s culture, after the Ship wreck survivors joined the Kalinago people and merged with them. But there is evidence to suggest, the use of drums was always a part of the Kalinago people existence. As a result, the addition to the indigenous people’s community, with those who were destined to become slaves may have introduced aspects of their varying cultural rituals that required the use of drums. But the Kalinago people used drums in their ceremonies, celebrations and in their healing process.

It is believed that the SIP practiced some level of spiritualism. They believed that their dead relatives, and respected tribal leaders were directly involvement their lives and their fortune or misfortune were based on their pleasure or displeasure. As such, a great deal of time were spent appeasing their dead ancestors. Illness, consistent and unexpected bad fortune were cause by a displease God or the ancestors. They believed illnesses were caused by a bad spirit that possess the ill person and as wellness can only be regained by the casting out of the spirit; and such required a special ceremony, that must be conducted by the Piaye (the priest) to chase out or expel the evil or bad spirit from within the ill person.

In such cases, the Piayes were required to perform a ceremony, in the ceremony the Paiye will using rattles, smoke, chanting, drums and dancing. They will inhale large quantity of tobacco smoke to get them to a semiconscious state. This was the state he was required to be in, in order for him or her to communicate with the ancestors. In these ceremony, the priest will summon the help of their ancestor in the eviction of the unwelcome evil spirit and the healing of the ill person.

There were different ranked Piaye; there were also a chief Piaye, who was responsible for leading all official ceremonies. The chief Piaye, was the one who excelled in supernatural affairs, command the respect of the tribal elders and who were better able to get results.

Later as the SIP were separated by the English, the religious practices of the banished Garifuna people, began to evolved to meet their needs and by the influence of the people around them. While the remnant Garifuna, who escaped banishment, were try their best to adopt to whatever would have kept their Garifuna identity from being discovered by the English. The Kalinago on the other hand slowly abandoned their religion to appease the English, who spare them the inconvenience of being banished along with their darker complexioned younger brother: The Garifuna.

Mass banishment a plus for the Garifuna people.

It is hard to understand, what the English was trying to accomplished, when the abandoned the Garifuna on the small, partially barren island of Balliceaux, six or so miles south of St. Vincent and later on Roatan, some twenty five miles north of Honduras. Whatever, they were trying to accomplished, I hereby submit that the mass deportation/banishment, of the Garifuna people, in a neutral and to a singular location, was good for the Garifuna as a people. For one thing, the mass deportation left all of the important structure of the Garifuna society in place, and those that may have been dismantle, by virtue of the mass death that resulted from the intense war with the English and banishment to Balliceaux, where some two thousand, two hundred and forty eight Garifuna died.

Rebuilding the community may have taken some doing, but it was not an impossible task, to put the community structure back into place. There were some supporting factors, which were:

1. The number of Garifuna that were banished,
2. Their knowledge of their community, of their culture and its working.
3. Their ability to communicate using the same language and the virtue of the fact.
4. There were default leaders  remaining within the banished Garifuna community.

I am of the impression, there were a leader of some significant level, among the banished Garifuna. This will account for the high survival rate, which amounted up to over twenty five hundred Garifuna, that survived the Balliceaux experience, after eight months of banishment on the island that was unable to sustained human life for any significant period of time. Balliceaux is an island with no ready usable fresh water source and no edible plant food source. This was not a case of survival of the fittest, there must have been some form of default leadership, who coordinated activities on the island, where fresh water were collected and stored, and where food were collected and systematically distributed (mainly fish) to satisfy the needs of so large a group. Not only did the Garifuna who left Balliceaux survived the harsh conditions of the island that should have killed them all, they were fit and strong enough to survive the long difficult voyage of over 16 hundred miles, at sea, in slow wind propelled vessels; under extremely poor conditions to their new home.

 

The Banished Garifuna people had no choice but to regroup, they were dispossessed from their island, their homes were destroyed, their brothers, sisters and leader were killed and they were shipped off to a land they did not know. One of their gold as a people, was to return and retake Yurumein their island home, from those people who have dispossessed them. It was this burning desire that motivated the banished Garifuna to regroup. They had the knowledge of their culture, they had their language which facilitated easy communication, and they had some default leaders among the banished and they had a goal.

With the knowledge and community structure somewhat still in place and the dreams of the Garifuna people to return to Yurumein to take back and resettle their islands; was all that was needed, for this proud people, to preserve their culture, their language, their heritage and their sense of self.

Today, the Garifuna people who were banished have grown tremendously, and their culture have survived over 236 (1779-1015) years. Although it is slowly dying; because of modern migration and foreign assimilation of the migrated Garifuna, however the culture it is still fairly strong. The language is always the first to go. But there is hope for the language. And the hope for the sustainability of the Garifuna language lies in the original home land of Garifuna: Yurumien modern day St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines have to ensure that the Garifuna language is preserved. They has an moral and cultural obligation, to ensure the history and the language of the Garifuna do not die. The Government need to implement a massive five years plan. and the main objective of this plan is to have the Garifuna language, spoken by at least one quarter of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines population.


They have an obligation to make it mandatory, for the language to be a part of the primary school and secondary curriculum. They should also encourage locals to write songs, stories and other material in the Garifuna language for every day usage. They need to Organized Garifuna debating societies and have debates and other public forum where all oral presentations are done in the Garifuna tongue. And there must be vocal competition to celebrate the Garifuna music. And Finally we need to change the holiday that is still celebrated as discovery day (January 22rd) to another and more appropriate day and call it St. Vincent Indigenous People Day. This is where we will celebrate and honor our indigenous people.