The history of the Garifuna people
dates to 1635, when two large European ships
carrying kidnapped Africans were wrecked in the eastern Caribbean near the
island of St. Vincent. Survivors swam ashore and took refuge among the
indigenous Carib people, who absorbed the escapees. Fiercely independent, the
Garifuna resisted colonization for more than 150 years until the British
captured St. Vincent in 1797 and they were exiled to the island of Roatán, off
the Caribbean coast of Honduras. Soon after, they settled in the coastal
regions of Central America, creating communities in Belize, Guatemala,
Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Combining powerful vocals with a dense percussive base, Garifuna music is
unlike that of any other in Central America. While parallels can be drawn with
other Caribbean traditions, the genres created by the Garifuna people are
unique. As a population never enslaved, this culturally hybrid, multilingual people
maintained discernible West African elements in their music, echoing the
three-drum ensemble common to African percussive traditions on both sides of
the Atlantic. Garifuna singing and drumming entails a fiercely percussive,
communal call-and-response rooted in the sacred context of ancestral
invocations and spirit possession, as in Cuban santería, Haitian vodoun,
and Brazilian candomblé. The most
popular Garifuna secular traditional genres are paranda and punta. Paranda (Spanish for carousal) adds an acoustic guitar to the
Garifuna drum tradition; the punta couple
dance (named for its characteristic rhythm) recalls the pelvic thrust, or vacunao, of the Cuban rumbaguaguancó form.
In the early 1980s, punta rock, a
creation commonly attributed to Belizean Garifuna musician, composer, and
artist Delvin “Pen” Cayetano, added the amplified guitar to the Garifuna rhythm
ensemble. Punta rock’s upbeat message
of cultural awareness and mutual respect has spilled over into the rest of
Caribbean Central America. Among this ethnically diverse population, it has
also fostered an expansive sense of national identity both at home and abroad,
and has brought belated recognition of the minority Garifuna population’s
contributions to the region.
The Garifuna garaón drum ensemble comprises the lead primera or heart drum, the counter-rhythmic segunda or shadow drum, and the steady bass-line tercera. An unusual adaptation
is the use of snares—one or two guitar strings or wires stretched over the drumhead to achieve the buzzing sound also favored
in some West African music cultures. This lends a highly valued denseness to
the overall sound. Additional traditional instruments include turtle-shell
percussion, bottle percussion, claves, and a variety of shakers and scrapers
drawn from the Amerindian music of St. Vincent. Garifuna musicians have
expanded their instrumental array with European additions, while also
incorporating English, Jamaican, Haitian, and Latin American folk elements
along with reggae, country, R&B, and rock gleaned from radio broadcasts.
The two artists who have been at the
forefront in furthering Garifuna music in recent years are the late Andy
Palacio, a Belizean musician who popularized
punta rock, and Honduran artist Aurelio Martinez, who has been a major
force in maintaining and expanding the paranda
tradition. Paranda refers both to
a rhythm prevalent in Garifuna traditional drumming styles and also to a genre
of music. While the rhythm can be traced to the Garifuna’s roots in West
Africa, paranda as a genre was born
in the early 19th century when the Garifuna settled in coastal Central America.
It was there that they encountered Latin American music, adding the guitar and
elements of Spanish and Latin rhythms. In their chronicling of daily life from
social ills and romantic trysts to humorous tales and a penchant for
improvisation, the songs bring to mind the great Caribbean tradition of
calypso. Martinez has continued to modify and expand the music, while adhering
to its roots. A recent sojourn in Senegal where he mentored with Youssou N’Dour
and met and recorded with many Afropop artists—both famous and unknown—opened
new avenues and drew worldwide attention to his recent Laru Beya recording.
Continuing the legacy of Palacio and other
important Garifuna artists, Martinez uses his art to further the cause
of his people, to inform, to educate, and to explore new territory. His work,
along with that of both older and younger members
of his community, provides a beacon for oppressed people throughout the world.
Perhaps the most inspiring aspect of Garifuna music is that it not only chronicles
the miseries of an oppressed people, but celebrates their steadfast resilience
and their joie de vivre. According to Martinez, “We’re not going to let this
culture die. I know I must continue the culture of my grandparents, of my
ancestors, and find new ways to express it. Few people know about it, but I
adore it, and it’s something I must share with the world.” The Garifuna music
takes its place firmly with the blues, flamenco, tango, reggae, Portuguese fado, and Greek rembetiko in evoking the soul of a community.
—Robert
H. Browning, with Michael Stone and Ivan Duran