The Garifunas

The Garifunas are a highly spiritual, warm and hospitable people, with quite a matriarchal tradition. While most people know them for their music, dance, and food, their worldview and lifestyle go beyond that. The Garifuna people are torn between being efficiently inserted into the dynamics of today's world and find themselves in a space that has forced them to think and re-think their cultural traditions. The results of this struggle and these debates are bringing into question the demands of the great economic pressures they are currently enduring, the introduction of new political and religious models, the deficiency of educational tools and the danger that their culture is falling into due to a high touristic demand. The Garifunas are an
The Garifuna political activism, which included their social demands articulated its identity as a people, has its contemporary references in the creation of the Organización Fraternal Negra de Honduras (OFRANEH) in 1977. Other emerging movements and associations would continue, and almost all have originated from splits and emerging trends within OFRANEH. The most visible of these is the Organización de Desarrollo Comunitario (ODECO), which was established in 1992 and focused on the African descendents of the Garifuna people and their inclusion in the African diaspora in the Americas and standing in contemporary mainstream trend black movements in Latin America. In the last twenty years, the ethnic consciousness of the Garifuna has developed considerably; Garifunas have arisen to become professionals who are occupying a key position in society. There is a great motivation for them in an area of researching and writing about their culture and society. A positive aspect is that they are not only publishing in Spanish and English but also in their indigenous language. Joseph Palacio, who is a Garifuna, has published a collection of articles on their history and culture. He’s written about the great achievement by the Garifuna community and has created a platform of recognition for their language, dance, and music calling it a masterpiece of intangible cultural heritage. A major component of the Garifuna culture is music, and the predominant elements being the drums. The drums are accompanied by a variety of songs and two instruments, la concha and the maracas. Depending on the occasion, a variety of different rhythms are practiced, the most popular being the Punta, the Chumba, Sambai, and the Wanaragua. All Garifuna communities in Central America share a repertoire of dances and songs; even those that are in isolated villages, they have still managed to