Communicating the Garífuna Culture in Contemporary Church Music

Abstract

Communicating the Garífuna Culture in Contemporary Church Music Francisca Norales (bio) Introduction The manner in which a person views the universe originates from her/his culture. If someone were asked of the predominant element found in every culture that has for centuries given people their perspective of the universe, certainly, the answer would be, Religion! The responsibility of generating and preserving the elements of one’s perspective of the universe has rested with religious institutions such as Methodist, Protestant, or Roman Catholic churches or spiritual leaders such as the Buddha. Whether the element is developed through the teaching of the Holy Bible, Catechism, Vedas, or Koran, people in the universe, including the Garífuna-speaking people of Central America, have always felt the need to seek outside themselves the values and guidance by which they live their lives. Music, one of the components for becoming a recipient of the title “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” for outstanding cultural spaces or forms of expression by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is an integral part of the lives of Garínagu (as they call themselves) in Belize. This paper explores the Garífuna songs that are sung in contemporary worship services in the Roman Catholic Church. It also forms the basis for other denominations to creatively seek viable ways of incorporating Garífuna music and culture into worship services. [End Page 74] A Description of Belize Belize, one of the Central American countries in which Garífuna is spoken, was one of nineteen countries to receive the outstanding title “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.” Belize, formerly known as British Honduras, an independent nation since 1981, lies on the eastern coast of Central America. It shares borders on the north and northwest with Mexico and on the west and south with Guatemala and it is washed along the entire eastern coast by the Caribbean Sea. Belize’s population consists of approximately 250,000 multiethnic people: Garífuna (African descent), Creole (African descent), Mestizo (Spanish-Maya origin), people of Spanish and East Indian descent, a small Mennonite community of European descent, Chinese, Arabs, and other ethnic groups.1 A Brief History of the Garífuna-Speaking Culture According to Crawford, the Garífuna-speaking people of Belize form a biological and cultural amalgam of Arawak and Carib Indians with West African slaves.2 Taylor states that the African component was added to the original Amerindian population of St. Vincent from 1517 to 1646 in the form of runaway slaves from the European-held islands.3 He further states that there they adopted the language spoken in St. Vincent and, to a considerable extent, the culture. Between 1661 and 1668, St. Vincent was described as having all Indians and some Negroes from the loss of two Spanish ships in 1635. Gonzalez states that by 1796, the Black Caribs were completely defeated by the English and were forced to surrender unconditionally.4 The English, fearful of the demonstrated power of some five thousand Caribs, removed them from the island of St. Vincent. Therefore, in 1797 the Black Caribs were landed on the island of Roatán. They did not remain long in Roatán, and at the invitation of the Spanish governor, they spread along the coast east and west of Trujillo, Honduras. Many got involved in the wars between the royalist and republican forces. When the royalist forces eventually lost, some of the Caribs who had served with them were forced to flee to other Central American countries. By 1802, the Garífuna-speaking people, Garínagu (as they call themselves), were settled in Dangriga and in the Toledo district of Belize. Communication, Culture, and Language According to Hernandez, the word “culture” may be defined in many ways,5 but anthropologists agree that the word refers to the complex processes of human social interaction and symbolic communication. It is a dynamic, [End Page 75] creative, and continuous process that includes behaviors, values, and substance learned and shared by people that guides them in their struggle for survival and gives meaning to their lives. Inherent in this definition of culture is the idea...

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