Garifuna Music

What are qualities of the cultural formation and arrival of the Garifuna to Central America? (3)

1. The Garifuna were known as originally as the “Garinagu”

2. Descended from the indigenous Kalinago (a mixture of Arawaks and Caribs) and West Africans (mostly from Gulf of Guinea, some from Kongo region) on St. Vincent Island (Yurumein), beginning in the mid-1600s

3. Called “Black Caribs” by British colonizers

What are qualities of the cultural formation and arrival of the Garifuna to Central America? (3) cont. 1

1. St. Vincent became a French colony ~mid-1600s

2. African maroons arrived ~1635 from 2 Spanish shipwrecks (and others pre-Conquest possibly) – joined independent Kalinago communities in isolated mountainous regions of the island, from which the Garinagu culture group emerged

3. St. Vincent became a British colony in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris – warring with Garinagu soon followed once the British claimed Garinagu land for sugarcane cultivation

What are qualities of the cultural formation and arrival of the Garifuna to Central America? (3) cont. 2

1. Defeat of Garinagu army led by cultural hero Satuye soon followed by the British expulsion of ~4300 Garinagu in March 1797

2. First brought to nearby Balliceaux island and left for dead

3. ~2400 made it to British-controlled Roatán in the Bay Islands of Honduras on April 12, 1797

What are qualities of the cultural formation and arrival of the Garifuna to Central America? (3) cont. 3

1. Mainland Garinagu eventually became known by their singular form = “Garifuna”

2. After landfall in Honduras at the fort of Trujillo, Garifuna migrated along the Caribbean coast, establishing communities in Honduras (~50), Belize (6-8), Guatemala (1), and Nicaragua (~2 – more recently reconstructed) during the early 1800s

3. Notable for: centuries of autonomy from Euro-Anglo influence and never being enslaved

What are qualities of the Garifuna culture towards women and men?

Women: traditionally the culture bearers 

Men: traditionally migratory 

• Fishing (local)

• Forestry departments and banana plantations (Central America)

• Merchant Marines, industrial and service industries (U.S. port cities)

What happened in the late 20th century to present in the Garifuna culture?

Migration to U.S. by younger men & women (with regular returns to the home communities)

What are qualities of the Garifuna language? (2)

Primarily an Arawak language, with some Carib words and loan words from French, Spanish, and English

Under threat during the 20th century, but local efforts to restore knowledge arose in the 2020s:

EX.: The Garifuna Language in Schools Program (southern Belize)

What are 21st century qualities of the Garifuna culture?

21st century:  Land theft in Honduras the biggest threat to cultural survival…

Multinational corporations building communities and resorts – government illegally allowing this to happen in order to bring in revenue

What was the core value of the Garifuna culture?

Core value:  Machularadi = mutual dependence 

• “Aura Buni Amürü Nuni Iyaya Wö” = “Me for you, and you for me”

• Considered by most Garifuna to be crucial to cultural survival in the Americas

What are the components of Garifuna spirituality components? (3)

• Sub-Saharan African ancestor veneration (kin living in Ahari, the spiritual correlate to Yurumein)

• Indigenous shamanism (the buyei healer)

• Catholic beliefs imported from the Spanish and French to St. Vincent (masses)

Why are Garifuna ceremonies usually ancestor commemorations? (2)

• Garifuna are expected to perform ritual remembrances and make offerings to gubida (ancestor spirits)

• The penalty for habitually forgetting = misfortune and ailments incurable by Western medicine or herbal remedies

What is preventative in Garifuna ceremonies?

•    Beluria  – “nine-night” wake

•    Lemesi  – one-year anniversary mass

•    Amuyadahani (“Bathing the Spirit of the Dead”) – ritual bath 6 months to several years from death
  

What is restorative in Garifuna ceremonies?

•   Chugú (“Feeding of the Dead”) – one-night version of Dügü

•   Adugurahani (Dügü) (“Feasting the Dead”) – 3 to 4 nights - most sacred Garifuna ceremony (correcting the worst breaches of obligation)

What is the gendered division of labor in Garifuna traditional music?

• Women: the song originators and singers

• Men: the drummers

Songs (oremu) are considered to be a way to? (3)

• Air interpersonal grievances

• Lament misfortunes and personal woes

• Commemorate and stay connected to ancestors

What are some sub-Saharan African influences on Garifuna music? (4)

• Drums and rattles creating polyrhythmic tension

• Call-and-response between song leader and guyusa singers

• Metronomic pulse of the sísira and repeating segunda pattern (timeline quality - core) vs. primero improvisations (elaboration)

• In Chugú and Dügü (restorative sacred ceremonies): Ancestral possession of the living triggered by layers of group music-making (singers, dancers, 3 segunda drums, sísira) and buzzy, non-melodic timbres 

What are some indigenous influences on Garifuna music? (3)

• Descending contours of song melodies

• Common to receive songs in dreams from ancestors 

• In Chugú and Dügü:  Like indigenous American shamans, buyei use rattles (sísira) that contain personal “helping spirits” who assist with curing

What are the instruments in a traditional garaon ensemble? (2)

• Primero (on the left)

• Segunda (on the right)

• Sisira (gourd rattles)

• Turtle shells

• Conch shells

What are traditional genres played in secular contexts? (6)

• Chumba

• Hünguhüngu

• Gunchei

• Wanáragua (Jonkonnu)

• Punta

• Paranda

What are qualities of the Punta genre? (6)

• The most popular and widespread genre in Garifuna traditional music

• Fast rhythm

• Distinct hip and buttock movements

•  Songs originated/sung by women

• Male garaón ensemble

• Pair dancing associated with fertility - also solo dancing

What is a traditional Punta example? (3)

• Featuring Joe Diego on primero, Richard Moreira on segunda and Hortense Miranda, Isadora Rodriquez, and Martina Rodriquez on vocals.

• Recorded in Dangriga, Belize. Song from Honduras.

• About someone who refuses to be affected by the negative thoughts of other peopl

What are qualities of the Paranda genre? (4)

• Songs originated/sung by men

• Younger than other traditional genres (~late 1800s)

• Features acoustic guitar and vocals, sometimes backed by the garaón ensemble

• Garifuna version of the pan-Latin American parranda tradition performed during the Epiphany

What is a traditional Paranda example? (3)

• Featuring Coro Velasquez on vocals and acoustic guitar and Richard Moreira on segunda.

• Recorded in Dangriga, Belize. 

• A cautionary tale about a man sneaking into a parked truck with a woman multiple times.

What is a quality of Garifuna commercial styles? (1)

Unlike traditional song-dance genres, mostly the domain of men

What are Punta Rock characteristics? (3)

• First commercial music offering by Garifuna musicians (circa 1979 in Belize and Honduras)

• Like punta = fast, flirtatious, punta dancing

• Unlike punta = mostly male, electric and digital instruments, amplification, harmony, regional influences

What are Punta Rock characterisitcs? cont. 1 (4)

• Uses punta and paranda rhythms

• First popular music genre sung in the Garifuna language

• Meant for the street and club parties of Garifuna youth

• Became a form of Belizean national music during the independence movement (late 1970s-early 1980s)…
  …now a popular Central American Caribbean dance music

What are qualities of Garifuna world music? (3)

• Arose at the turn of the millennium

• Strong paranda influence

• Manufactured instead of homegrown

Neo-traditional aesthetic elements within post-millennial “world music genre culture” (6)

• Nostalgia for a “golden age” 

• Respect for tradition and elders (EX. embracing “living legends”)

• Individual personalities under the “brand” umbrella of a collective

• Acoustic and organic-sounding instruments 

• Live-and-up-close recording techniques 

• An anti-market/anti-trend sensibility that exudes timelessness

What are a few Garifuna world music aesthetics? (5)

• Prioritizes traditional instrumentation and lyrical themes: emphasizes “roots”

• Modern Latin American and African world music touches: EX. use of the clave and Afrobeat guitar lines
  Imports paranda’s emphasis on acoustic guitar

• More reflective than dance-oriented

• Contains high-end production values and complex multi-layering

What is the summary of Garifuna world music aesthetic attributes

To reflect the priorities of “authenticity” and “timelessness” in 21st century world music

What are new hybrids of Garifuna music? (2)

• Traditional paranda + punta rock + regional influences = what Houston-based Honduran musician Andy Ordoñez calls “Commercial Paranda”

• Individual branding a priority for artists, but still community-oriented (machularadi) – frequent collaborations, shared billing and tours

How does music creates Garifuna cultural cohesion?

• Traditional sacred contexts:  Music moving people together (living and gubida, youth and elders, migrants and villagers)

• Secular contexts: Music serving as cultural touchstone for youths and expatriates, especially commercial music offerings