A Language Facing Extinction: Reviving the Garifuna Language through the Arts
GAMAE Habinaha Garinagu Garifuna Language Performing Arts Workshop, Brooklyn, New York, 2010 © GAMAE Arts & Culture, Eleanor Castillo-Bullock
In 1968, my siblings and I migrated from Dangriga, Belize to the United States of America. I was ten years old. Before our migration, I clearly remember as children, youth and young adults, including my siblings, and almost all our friends spoke mostly Garifuna to each other. The language was what we used inside and outside of our home.
Five years later, in 1973, my family and I returned to Dangriga to participate in a Family Shugu. (*Shugu simply means 'to feed'. In a Shugu, we feed our Ancestors. Our Family Shugu in 1973 was an elaborate one, so it was held in the 'infamous' Dabuyaba in Dangriga. The Shugu highlighted and featured a spiritual leader called the "Buyei". This religious and spiritual traditional practice is not widely accepted, and it is not recognized by several Garinagu. In other words, there are several Garinagu who do not believe in Shugu, Dugu or any type of traditional spiritual ancestral cultural 'rites' or 'practices.) The visit was impactful as I went into a state of shock. After being away for only five years, I noticed that none of the children, youth and young adults in Dangriga spoke Garifuna anymore. Instead, they were all speaking Creole now. The Garifuna language was slowly replaced by the Creole language in Southern Belize, and particularly in my birthplace, beautiful and peaceful Dangriga. I returned to the US, crying and feeling disappointed and devastated.
This is what propelled me to promote the Garifuna culture the way I do.
A Language Facing Extinction!
© GAMAE Arts & Culture, Eleanor Castillo-Bullock
I am entirely prepared to face the fact that the speaking of our Garifuna language in Southern Belize has completely deteriorated. It seems as if it is not only in the town of Dangriga, the place referred to as "The Culture Capital", where the speaking of Garifuna has disappeared. The speaking of the Garifuna language has disappeared from just about every Garifuna village and community in Southern Belize.
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) through its Endangered Language Program, has declared the Garifuna language an endangered language in 2001. Thanks to the efforts of Belizean Garifuna activist, Thomas Vincent Ramos through the National Garifuna Council, the language, dance and music of the Garifuna has been proclaimed by UNESCO as a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" and inscribed to the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2008. The inscription brought international recognition world-wide.
The National Garifuna Council of Belize and GAMAE International has been created to safeguard this legacy. Our goal is to assure that the Garifuna from Dangriga (Belize), who are still alive today will keep the Garifuna heritage, culture and language alive.
I genuinely believe, through GAMAE, we can reverse the UNESCO Proclamation (2001) that the Garifuna Cultural Heritage and Language are "endangered and Facing Extinction". I also believe it is urgent that the few of us remaining Garifuna, who still speak the language, come forward. We must make the commitment to upholding, preserving, protecting and safeguarding the Garifuna culture and language. Through our NGO's and nonprofit organizations, we can unite, create alliances, collaborate, and partner. We must work on any or all feasible national, international and global programs and projects to keep Garifuna alive and to make Garifuna prosper.
Reviving the Garifuna Language through the Arts
GAMAE Habinaha Garinagu Garifuna Language Performing Arts Workshop, Brooklyn, New York, 2010 © GAMAE Arts & Culture, Eleanor Castillo-Bullock
In my effort to promote the safeguarding of the Garifuna heritage and language, as the Director of the GAMAE Arts and Culture Department, most of my programs and projects focus primarily in the preservation of the Garifuna language through language revitalization, lexical expansion programs and the promotion of teaching, learning and practising. Through GAMAE, I developed an inventory of Garifuna art forms. Such as songs, music, dances and related performing art forms that promote local, regional and international Garifuna festivals. We intend to confront the erosion of the Garifuna culture and language in the heart of modern-day Garifuna communities.
Our primary focus at the GAMAE Arts and Culture are children, youth, and young adults. Ultimately, we work to revive and safeguard the Garifuna language by teaching it to young children through the arts.
In 2005, I also co-created the Habinaha Garinagu Garifuna Language Performing Arts Program (The Habinaha Program). It is a workshop type program, designed to sensitize, teach and pass on knowledge of Garifuna traditions, customs, language, and the value of Garifuna culture to Garifuna children, youth and young adults. We teach traditional Garifuna music, songs, dance, drama, storytelling and rituals that bind the youth as a community. Our projects are essential to creating an individual cultural identity to safeguard indigenous Garifuna heritage and language. We teach Garifuna children from ages five to eighteen years old through artistic expression, in the hope to ultimately create a positive change for the Garifuna people as a whole, and particularly for the benefit of the Garifuna young people.
The Habinaha Program is effective because the lyrics of the songs are transposed from Garifuna to English. This allows the participants to understand the content of the program, and ultimately to learn the story of the Garifuna people as well as the struggles of their Garifuna Ancestors. The goal of the program is to help raise Garifuna children's self-esteem and to improve any internal academic or creative skills that cultivate leadership and public speaking.
Keeping the Project alive
© GAMAE Arts & Culture, Eleanor Castillo-Bullock
As a result of the Pandemic, I am now working one to one with children, youth and young adults on Zoom. At the same time, I will be starting a Garifuna Language Teaching Class for children.
I am also writing a Children Series Story Audio Book. Having written the first one, I am working with the parents of my students who will be learning and recording the story. This project requires grants to obtain 'Me Readers' Story Reader Equipment that can read to children ages 3 and up to 10. A grant will help with the funding needed to create the stories and animate the characters. It will allow printing, publishing and distributing the children audiobooks and reader equipment as a pilot program to the Garifuna communities globally.
My mandate
© GAMAE Arts & Culture, Eleanor Castillo-Bullock
As one of the Garifuna leaders today, I have assumed the responsibility to pass on my skills, my talent and my creativity to the next generation. I hope that it will enable our younger generation to uphold and safeguard our Garifuna Culture and Language for several Garifuna generations to come.
I believe that continuous cultural engagement of children and youth will help them know who they are. Growing up with traditional Garifuna language, morals, ethics, spirituality, culture, language, and learning about history will allow new generations to give back to the Garifuna community and to encourage sustainable cultural and economic development.
The Garifuna language is facing extinction. I believe leaders like me must do everything we can to turn this devastation around and retrieve and safeguard our Garifuna language NOW!!
Written by Eleanor Castillo-Bullock