Garifuna Music in Belize

The Garifuna (which is also known as Garinagu) are inclined from escaped Island Caribs who were deported from the St. Vincent of the Central American (which is especially the Honduras and also the Belize in 1802 by the British when they overcame the St. Vincent.)

 

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The Garifunas kept themselves from the social system then dominant, which lead to the distinctive tradition that developed throughout the 20^th century. The forms of the Garifuna traditional music and dance cover several styles which include the punta, hungu-hungu, combination, wanaragua, abaimahani, matamuerte, laremuna wadaguman, gunjai, charikanari, sambai, charikanari, eremuna egi, paranda, berusu, punta rock, teremuna ligilis, arumahani, and Mali-amalihani. The Punta and Punta rock are the main social events. The punta lyric are usually composed by the women. The Chumba and hunguhungu are circular dances in a three beat rhythm, which is often joined with punta. There are other songs typical to each gender, women that is having eremwu eu and abaimajani, rhythmic a cappella songs, and laremuna wadaguman, with men’s work songs.

The percuss play a significant role in Garifuna music, these drums are typically created of the hollowed-out hardwood like the mahogany or mayflower, with the skins coming from  the peccary (wild bush pig), sheep or deer. Also it is used with the combination of percuss which is the sisera. These shakers are made from the dried fruit of the gourd tree, and filled with seeds, then fitted with hardwood handles.

In the current Belize there has been a rebirth of Garifuna music, which is a well-kwon by musician such as the Andy Palacio, Mohobub Flores, and Adrian Martinez. These musicians have taken several aspects from the cultural Garifuna music forms and joined them with more recurrent sounds in a style described as a mixture of punta rock and paranda. The example is the Andy Palacio’s song Watina which was released on the Belizean record label stone tree records.