Garifuna music is an ethnic music and dance with African,
Arawak
The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Great ...
, and
Kalinago
The Kalinago, also known as the Island Caribs or simply Caribs, are an indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. They may have been related to the Mainland Caribs (Kalina) of South America, but they spoke an unrelated langua ...
elements, originating with the Afro-Indigenous
Garifuna
The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and indigenous American ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language, and Vincentian ...
people from
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
and
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea w ...
. In 2001, Garifuna music, dance, and language were collectively proclaimed as a
Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
.
Nonsecular music
Genres
Nonsecular musical genres within the Garifuna culture stem from a fusion of West African ancestral worship and
Amerindian
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...
shamanism. Examples of Garifuna music rituals include ''Adügürühani'' (also known as ''dügü''), a healing ceremony; ''Arairaguni'', an invocation to determine illness; ''Amuyadahani'', a ritual in which family members make offerings to their ancestors; and ''Achuguhani'' (Chugú), "feeding the dead".
''Dügü'' (Feeding the Dead)
The Garifuna tradition of ''Adügürühani'' is a ritual that takes place when a Garifuna individual becomes ill and must consult a shaman in the hopes of restoring their health. The shaman will consult with the ancestral spirits (''gubida'') that have inflicted the illness upon the individual. Drums are played during the ''dügü'', which is thought to have a calming effect on the individual who is possessed by the ''gubida''. The drumming is performed in
triple meter
Triple metre (or Am. triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a ''primary'' division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 (simple) or 9 ( compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with , , ...
and is accompanied by song and dance. Often there are two to three drums, and the ensemble of drummers is called ''dangbu''. The drums are constructed using mahogany or mayflower wood and animal skins (usually deer, goat, or peccary). During construction, the drums are rubbed with a
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...
wine and then subsequently blessed with the smoke of buwe—a sacred herb. These techniques suggest the presence of both African and Amerindian influences in drum construction, indicative of a fusion of African and Amerindian culture in Garifuna sacred music.
The gender roles documented in the musical performances of ''dügü'' suggest that traditional Garifuna society emphasizes
matrilineality
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...
and
matrifocality. "The texts of most ''dügü'' songs refer to ancestors as female (grandmother or great-grandmother, even if the ''dügü'' is being given in honor of a man)… It may also be a reflection of gender-based empowerment, because older women predominate as organizers, ritual participants, and composers of ritual songs." Gender roles are often portrayed in music. "Music performance can and often does play an important role in inter-gender relations, for the inequalities or asymmetries perceived in such relations may be protested, mediated, reversed, and transformed, or confined through various social/musical strategies." The matrilineatlity demonstrated in the Garifuna ''dügü'' ritual demonstrates an authentic (non-westernized) aspect of West African and/or Amerindian culture, which remained unaffected by Spanish (and subsequently, British) colonization.
Secular music
Genres
Garifuna genres include
punta
Punta is an Afro-indigenous dance and cultural music originating in the Caribbean Island of Saint Vincent And The Grenadines by the Garifuna people before being exiled from the island. Which is also known as Yurumei. It has African and Arawak ...
,
paranda
Paranda is a town with a municipal council in the Osmanabad district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the headquarters town for the Paranda Tehsil.
History
The city is located around an ancient Paranda Fort and is also an area of m ...
, and
punta rock
Punta rock, or Belizean punta, is a form of Garifuna music originating in Belize and created by Pen Cayetano. Songs are usually sung in Belizean Kriol or Garifuna and rarely in Spanish or English. Many Garifuna American singers perform the g ...
.
There are different types of songs, some of which are associated with work, some with play, some with dance, and some that are reserved for prayer or ritual use.
[
]
Instruments
The main traditional instruments are drums and maraca
A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair.
Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were ...
s.[
]
Notable performers
* Sofía Blanco
* Pen Cayetano
* Paul Nabor
* Aurelio Martínez
* Andy Palacio
* Umalali
See also
* Garifuna language
Garifuna (Karif) is a minority language widely spoken in villages of Garifuna people in the western part of the northern coast of Central America.
It is a member of the Arawakan language family but an atypical one since it is spoken outside t ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garifuna Music
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity