The origin of the Garifuna is believed to have been the coming together of two continents namely Africa and South America. The History that is about to be told is that which is believed by Garifuna persons living in Belize and may contradict what has been written about the beginnings of the Garifuna Race.

The origin of the Garifuna is believed to have been the coming together of two continents namely Africa and South America. The History that is about to be told is that which is believed by Garifuna persons living in Belize and may contradict what has been written about the beginnings of the Garifuna Race.

It is believed that there was an African presence in the Caribbean since the 1300s when King Abubakari, the then Emperor of Mali on the continent of Africa abdicated his throne in an attempt to determine what was on the other side of the ocean (Van Sertima, 1976). It is believed that both the voyage that he ordered and the one he led resulted in very few persons returning to Africa. It has therefore been asserted that persons on those voyages were among the first persons with pigmented skin to populate the islands of the Caribbean.

The Arawak Indians originally inhabited Northern South America. From there they spread to the islands of the Caribbean. The Caribs, known to be fierce fighters, defeated the Arawaks killing the men and intermarrying with the women. These combined events placed both the Africans and a mixture of Arawaks and Carib Indians in the Caribbean during the same time period.

The oral History of the Garifuna states that the intermingling between African, Carib, and Arawak produced the Garinagu people. By the mid-1700s Britain became aware that Garifuna proliferation was such force on St. Vincent that it threatened the inherent success of its colonial mission. Subsequently the British sent more representatives to the island to subdue the native Garifuna.

In 1796 as the Garifuna desperately sought a solution to their imminent enslavement, and an intended raid became a defeat for the Garifuna, and the minority of survivors were forcefully removed and taken as prisoners to the island of Baliceaux. According to Vincentian born James Cordice (in featured video below), from Baliceaux they were taken on ships, shackled and bound to the Honduran island of Roatán. At the time of the exile, Roatan belonged to British Honduras. It was during the wartime that it got transferred to Spanish Honduras, which is Honduras today. Again, according to Cordice, there was a first landing of Garinagu in Belize at a place called ‘No man’s land’, which is present day Dangriga, that took place in 1803, which was six years after the exile. That was the first landing of the Garinagu in Belize.