Experts in Cuban Forum about Afro-descendants

Havana, Jan 4 (Prensa Latina)

Academics, researchers and artists from Spain, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuatorial Guinea, Portugal and Cuba will begin on Wednesday in this capital the XVI Scientific Workshop on Afro American Social and Cultural Anthropology and the V Festival of Oral Narration.

Both events will be held in the House of Africa, attached to the Office of the Historian of Havana City, until January 7.

Both forums will stimulate reflection on issues such as culture and identity, the African Diaspora, resistance and maroons, oral history visual anthropology, religion and the role of museums in the community.

On the opening day, the Havana City Historian, Eusebio Leal Spengler, will deliver a lecture to mark the 26 anniversary of the foundation of the House of Africa and later Herman van Hoff, general director of the Regional Office for Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean of UNESCO, will give a special presentation on topics related to the forum.

The photo exhibition of musical instruments and dances of Ecuatorial Guinea and the Maferefum painting exhibition of Cuban artist Nelson Jose Garcia are two examples of works exploring African roots through art.

The books The Silence of the Garifuna and The Voice of the Garifuna, from the researcher Bienvenido Rojas, will also be presented at these meetings, which open the cultural program of the capital's historic center in 2012.

hr/as/cgm/jam
Modificado el ( miércoles, 04 de enero de 2012 )

Indigenous and Afro-descendants grasp at common voice

Carmen Herrera
10/20/2011



Both groups face discrimination and threats to their lands.

For the first time, leaders from indigenous and Afro-descendent peoples from throughout Central America met to form a common agenda.

More than 70 leaders from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama met in Managua Sept. 27-28 for the First Meeting of Indigenous and Afro-Descendant Authorities: Collective Rights in the Context of Central American Integration.



Tribal and community leaders, mayors and municipal authorities debated issues like land titles and demarcation, inclusion of women, native languages, at the meeting which was organized by the Nicaraguan Network for Democracy and Local Development and the Central American and Caribbean Conference for Decentralization and Local Development, or CONFEDELCCA.



To better articulate their agenda with a common voice, participants formed the Permanent Council of Native Peoples and Afro-Descendents of Central America.

“The objective of this first meeting has been to start an articulation process to influence public policies, as well as the development and decentralization of the states,” said Carlos H. Guarquez Ajiquichí, of the Guatemalan Association of Indigenous Mayors and Authorities.

Guarquez Ajiquichí also suggested teaming up with the Central American Integration System, or SICA, and the Central American Parliament to ensure that their goals reach the region’s heads of state.

One “historical problem,” he said, “is the distribution of land, since in every country in the region large-scale landowners hold a disproportionate amount of territory.”



“This is where the problem with the distribution of wealth that benefits a few comes from, and that affects indigenous peoples above all, those who have lived in misery on tiny plots of land even though the land belongs to us,” he said.

Women’s role
Nicolasa Jiménez, Ngöbe-Bugle indigenous leader from Panama, said that one of the meeting’s objectives was to increase women’s politic participation in their own community groups and in society in general.

“Indigenous women are fighting for active integration and participation,” she said. “We are fighting for more capacity building for women, because there are only a few of us who hold decision-making positions.”

The International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 on indigenous peoples has been ratified by every Central American country except for El Salvador and Panama.

While Convention 169 is seen by some international law experts as one of the most complete international indigenous rights law, local authorities have often ignored it.



For example, in Guatemala, indigenous communities have been consulted on some projects that would affect them, but their votes are not considered binding.

Afro-descendant groups in Honduras said that the alliances they made with indigenous leaders here have been fruitful, because they have the same problems: discrimination, invasion of their lands, a lack of respect and recognition for their language.



René Castro, deputy mayor of an Honduran Garifuna municipality — an Afro-descendant group living mostly on the country’s northern coast — say Afro-descendants are making efforts for Convention 169 to also be applied to his community now that the country has ratified the agreement.

“We have representation in some state institutions,” aiming at this end, he said.

Intercultural society
But another participant was not so optimistic about the situation in Nicaragua. Mauricio Solís, of the Nicaraguan Network for Democracy and Local Development, said that “in practice” these groups’ rights are limited.

“Indigenous communities are not consulted; local governments interfere in indigenous community elections and there is little governmental funding designated for indigenous peoples,” he said. “In Nicaragua’s case, we see that there is a lot of discourse about indigenous peoples, but in practice, there is a lot of politicizing, exclusion and marginalization.

”

For years, Solís’ organization has promoted multiculturalism for the country, with a vision of having a citizenry that recognizes the diversity of the region’s population, like the indigenous and Afro-descendants, who have a political, economic, cultural and social agenda.

His network, along with CONFEDELCCA, held the meeting to give indigenous and Afro-descendants authorities a place for reflection and debate over the situation facing their communities and to look for links with other national and international organizations and movements which work for their rights to be ensured.



“We have agreed to go through all the information collected during this meeting so it can be shared with our peoples,” said Solís. “In the following months, we’ll work on a framework to help map out the next steps.” —Latinamerica Press.

http://lapress.org/articles.asp?art=6490

Garifuna Music

Aurelio Martinez—a Central American singer, composer, and guitarist from a small fishing village in Honduras—comes to Zankel Hall on October 15. He brings a bittersweet vocal style to guitar-accompanied ballads and other traditional song forms, particularly Garifuna music. Robert H. Browning, with Michael Stone and Ivan Duran, provide a brief history of the music.



Garifuna Music


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 Islas de la Bahía, 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 rumba guaguancó 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, parandaas 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 most 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


http://www.carnegiehall.org/BlogPost.aspx?id=4294981444


 http://www.carnegiehall.org/BlogPost.aspx?id=4294981444

Garifuna Settlement Day in The Bronx

The Board of Directors of the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc. a, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization is pleased to announce its Third Annual Yellow White and Black 2011 Garifuna Settlement Day Gala, scheduled for Saturday November 19th, 2011.

The Yellow White and Black 2011 Garifuna Settlement Day Gala will celebrate the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc’s thirteenth anniversary, as well as the commemoration of Garifuna Settlement Day in Belize and Guatemala, and will be held at The Eastwood Manor located at 3371 Eastchester Rd Bronx, NY 10469 and is expected to draw over 300 guests from the tri-state area, as well as from the New England area.

The Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc invites you to reserve the date for an evening of fine dining, open bar, dancing and more. Proceeds from the Gala will go to support the operation of the Garifuna Coalition Advocacy Center in the Bronx. The Center serves as the basic advocacy and organizing needs of Garifuna immigrants from Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The theme for the Third Annual Yellow White and Black Fundraising Gala is based on the colors of the Garifuna flag, which consists of three horizontal stripes: Yellow is for the Amerindian heritage, White is for peace and freedom and Black is for the African Heritage, According to the National Garifuna Council of Belize, this flag has long been accepted internationally as the flag of the Garifuna Nation.

The Garifuna Coalition promotes harmony and unity among Garifunas, Garifuna-Americans and all persons and organizations of good will to promote and share our cultural heritage, improve the quality of life and community empowerment of New York’s Garifuna Community.

In 1940, Thomas Vincent (TV) Ramos, leader and spokesman of the Garifuna people along with Pantaleon Hernandez and Domingo Ventura approached the Governor of the colony and asked for the establishment of a Public and Bank Holiday to observe the Garifuna arrival in Belize. The request was granted and the Carib Disembarkation Day, later named Garifuna Settlement Day, was first celebrated in Stann Creek District on November 19, 1941, later in Punta Gorda and the Toledo District in 1943 and throughout the country in 1977.

Garifuna Settlement Day celebrates the arrival of the Garinagu to the shores of Belize. It also represents the incorporation of the Garinagu into Belize's social fabric. Furthermore, the Garifuna Settlement Day celebration symbolizes an official recognition of the Garinagu as a people who have contributed immensely to Belize as a country and to the Belizeans as a diverse people.

The Third Annual Yellow White and Black 2011 Garifuna Settlement Day Gala, will honor the memory of Thomas Vincent (TV) Ramos. We cordially invite you to reserve the date, November 19th, 2011,

For more information about the Gala, visit www.garifunacoalition.org or contact the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc at (718) 402-7700.

Garifuna Music

. Soul Jazz Records Presents The Black Caribs Of Belize
. Garifuna: Ancestral Travellers Of The Caribbean
. Soul Jazz Records
. 2011


It was the brilliant, sadly brief international career of Andy Palacio that most recently brought attention to the music and remarkable history of the Garifuna people, the so-called black Caribs. Since his death, his work has been continued by Aurelio Martinez, another fine singer-songwriter and guitarist who is appearing at Womad this weekend. The Garifuna are descended from black African slaves who managed to escape from captivity during a shipwreck off the Caribbean island of St Vincent, back in the late 17th century. They intermarried with the local Carib population, and are now scattered across Central America, including Belize, where this set was recorded. Produced by Stuart Baker, the founder of the Soul Jazz label, it's very much a followup to his album of rara street music from Haiti last year. Like that set, it's finely packaged, and veers away from commercial songs to concentrate on traditional styles, from lengthy, hypnotic passages of drumming and chanting to the call-and-response styles of dugu religious ceremonies.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/28/the-black-caribs-of-belize-garifuna-review

Reparations for Garifuna?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 12, 2011

Contacts: José Francisco Ávila (718) 402-7700 info@garifunacolaition.org

New York – The Board of Directors of the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc. a, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization on the 214th Anniversary of the Exile of the Garifuna People from the island of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and the in the International Year for People of African Descent, would like to join St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister the honorable Doctor Ralph Gonsalves’ call for reparation for the genocide against the Garifunas by the British.

On September 26, 2007, while addressing the United Nations General Assembly; St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister the Honorable Doctor Ralph Gonsalves, made a call for reparation for the genocide by those nations involved in slavery. More recently, in October 2009, Dr Gonsalves stated “In order to impose its authority and power, the armed forces of British colonialism were not satisfied with merely defeating the Garifuna and killing their leaders including the indomitable Garifuna Chief, Joseph Chatoyer. They went much further. “The British launched an unrestrained criminal campaign against the Garifuna men, women and children. Thousands of the Garifuna were slaughtered …. It was violence in its natural state against innocent defenseless people…." Dr. Gonsalves said up to today, the British have not acknowledged their genocidal crime against humanity, and neither have they consequentially offered compensation to St. Vincent and the Grenadines for substantially obliterating the Garifuna nation.”

Furthermore, on April 1, St Vincent and the Grenadines Consul General in New York Selmon Walters made it known that “The British must pay reparations to the Garifuna People for the wicked deeds they have done against the Garifuna People. The British exterminated many of the Garifuna people. It was an act of genocide against the Garifuna people.”

“On the 214th Anniversary of the Exile of the Garifuna People from the island of St Vincent and the Grenadines, The Garifuna Coalition joins Prime Minister Gonsalves’ and Consul General Walters’ call for reparation for the genocide against the our ancestors by the British, “ said Jose Francisco Avila president of the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc.

St Vincent and the Grenadines is the Ancestral homeland of the Garifuna people, who defended it against the colonizers in two so-called Carib Wars of 1772-73 and 1795-96. The struggle against the French and British colonials resulted in the Caribs in St Vincent being the last of the indigenous people in the region to hold out against European imperialism. Paramount Chief Joseph Chatoyer, first National Hero of St Vincent and the Grenadines, is the most visible symbol of that struggle to maintain the sovereignty of the land. Chatoyer was killed on March 14, 1795, after his death, approximately 5,000 Garifunas were subsequently interned on Balliceaux, a small island off the mainland. Disease, melancholy and starvation reduced the population to 2,500 when the remainder were rounded up in British naval ships and were exiled off to Roatan Island off the coast of Honduras, there to begin a period of wandering and subsequent settlement in many Central American republics, including Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Belize. The survivors of British injustice formed the nucleus of the modern Garifuna community in the Diaspora.

Garifuna Pride - Our Voice - Our Vision
Garinagu Wagia!