The Garifuna or Garífuna are an ethnic group in the Caribbean area, decended from a mix of Amerindian and African people. They are also sometimes known as Garifune or Black Caribs. There are estiamted to be about 200,000 of them in Central America and the United States.
In 1635, two Spanish ships carrying slaves to the West Indies from what is now Nigeria were ship-wrecked near the island of Saint Vincent. The slaves escaped the sinking boat and reached the shores of the island, where they were welcomed by the Caribs, who offered their protection. Their intermarriage formed the Garinagu people, known as the Garifuna today. The name was derived Kalipuna, one of the Island Carib names for themselves. In addition to shipwrecked Africans, the Caribs also captured slaves when the raided the British and French on neighbouring islands, and many of them were adopted into the tribe.
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When the British invaded Saint Vincent they were opposed by French settlers and their Carib allies. When the Caribs eventually surrendered to the British in 1796 the "Black Caribs" were considered enemies and were deported to Roatan in Central America (now Honduras). The British separated the more African looking Caribs from the more Amerindian looking ones, and decided that the former were enemies who must be deported, while the latter were merely "misled" and were allowed to remain. More than 4000 Black Caribs were deported, but only about 2000 of them survived the trip to Roatan. Because the island was too small and infertile to support their population, the Garifuna petitioned the Spanish authorities to be allowed to settle on the mainland. The Spanish employed them as soldiers, and they spread along the Caribbean coast of Central America.
The Clotter-Jubilee Award is given to the individual who has worked tirelessly in the spirit of Carlos Clotter to enhance the rights and hope of farmworkers.
Carlos was a Garifuno (Afro-Carib) farmworker from Honduras who was committed to the belief that the farmworkers could join together and create their own destiny.
Carlos was a moving force in organizing farmworkers in the midst of the onion fields and apple orchards of New York and a founder of Cooperativa.
Hence, the mention of terms like "Garifuno," et al.
The article is about a singular phenomenon, or group of people, collectively: people in or from Latin America of mixed African and Indian descent.
Encompassed in that category are people of various nations, who go by different names (Garifuno, Lobo, Cafuzo, etc.), who have their own distinct cultures.
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