School kids at Yuremi Parade with Garifuna Flag Dangriga Town “Culture Capital.”
The 210th anniversary of the arrival of the Gariganu people to Belize was celebrated today with a public and bank holiday, re-enactment pageants, church services, parades and dancing in the streets of southern municipalities such as Dangriga and Punta Gorda.
The Garifuna (plural Gariganu) are the descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African people who lived in the Lesser Antilles, especially St. Vicent. After being conquered by the British in 1796, the more African looking ones were considered enemies by the colonial administration, separated from the more Amerindian looking population, and deported to Roatan in Honduras. From there a small group traveled to British Honduras where they received permission to settle in southern Belize in 1802.
Thomas Vincent Ramos, an Honduras Garifuna activist moved to Belize in 1923. A discipline of Marcus Garvey he agitated for the rights of African-descent people in Belize. In 1940 along with Pantaleon Hernandez and Domingo Ventura as spokespersons for the Garifuna people, they were successful in petitioning the British government at the time to set aside the 19th of November as a public and bank holiday called Carib Disembarkation Day. That day is now celebrated as Garifuna Settlement Day with activities primarily concentrated in the southern Stann Creek and Toledo Districts.
Yuremi reenactment depicts the arrival of the first Gariganu by sea from Honduras to Belize, formerly British Honduras.
The festivities began today with the traditional Yuremi which is a reenactment of the arrival of the Gariganu by sea to Belize. Participants sail out to sea in boats and canoes before dawn, and then as the sun rises, arrive at the ports of Dangriga and Punta Gorda in much the same way their ancestors did two centuries ago.
As devout Catholics, official masses are then held at their churches with singing and prayers in their native Garifuna tongue. After speeches and official ceremonies at a local park, a parade with music and dancing is held through the principal streets of their town with more festivities following into the night.