Garifuna (Black Carib) Language Materials---Part I Introduction to Parts of this guide and Garifuna language

Garifuna (Black Carib) Language Materials---Part I

By Wendy Griffin January 2015

The initiative to develop this guide was a request by Latin American collection librarians who belonged to SALALM.org.  This Guide to Garifuna Language material Related material is divided into the following parts.

Part I—Introduction , Garifuna language movies, some issues why it is hard to locate Garifuna language holdings in the US, where Garifuna language classes are taught in the US and the fact the for some types of materials US universities report holding very few Garifuna language resources like Garifuna music CD’s.

Part II -- Texts about the Garifuna language

The types of texts written about the Garifuna language include

A. Dictionaries,

B. Books How to Write Garifuna and the Controversy of the Garifuna Alphabet,

            C. Books about Garifuna Grammar

D. Books on Historical Linguistics Issues Related to the Garifuna language

E. Books (Cartillas) to teach Reading and Writing of Garifuna to Garifuna children and the Honduran Bilingual Intercultural Education Program for Garifuna children.

            F. Materials about the Honduran Bilingual Intercultural Education Project for Garífunas

Part III--Books Written in the Garifuna Language

A. Traditional Stories (Uragas)

B. Poetry written in Garifuna

C. Modern Children’s stories Written in Garifuna

D. History Books Written in the Garifuna language

E. Cookbooks Written in the Garifuna language

F. Books or CD liner notes with Songs in the Garifuna Language

G. Plays in the Garifuna Language

H.  Health Related Materials in Garifuna

I. Christian and Catholic Religious Materials in the  Garifuna Language

J. Miscellenous Garifuna Text for Linguistic Analysis

K. Sociolinguistic Studies and Language Loss among Garifunas

L. Methodological Text to Teach the Garifuna Language

Part IV--. Cultural Texts which are Important for the Specialized Garifuna vocabulary including music, dance, food, crafts, religión, etc.  

Part V--Common Sources of Garifuna language recorded materials (two pages)

Part I—Introduction.

Garifuna is probably one of the best documented languages in the Americas.  This is partly because of Summer Institute of Linguists/Wycliff Bible Translator projects, partly because of efforts of Garifunas working in Bilingual Intercultural Education particularly in Honduras where it is now state policy, partly because of the extensive efforts of Garifuna speakers who are activists for the recovery of their language and in the recording of Garifuna music, and partly because of US linguists who are trying to help the Garífunas recover their language which is considered endangered throughout the range where it is spoken. In addition to music, Garifuna has been used as the principal language for books of poetry, history, cooking, health, traditional oral literature, dictionaries, literacy books for teaching the Garifuna language, and religion, including the whole Bible has been translated into Garífuna and there is a special Garifuna language liturgy for the Catholic Church in Garifuna.  Garifuna has also been used in audio recordings about the Bible, history, and language recompilations. 

Garifuna Language Movies

Two movies have been produced primarily in Garifuna—Garifuna in Peril (2012) which has 55% of its dialogue in Garifuna, and “Jesus” a film based on the Gospel of Luke has been translated into Garifuna, www.jesusfilmstore.org while other movies in both English and in Spanish sometimes include Garifuna music, with or without Garifuna dances,  in them. There is now enough production of Garifuna films that there is a Garifuna film festival organized in Los Angeles.

Types of Linguistic Studies that have Been Written about the Garifuna Language

Linguistic studies of the Garifuna language include dictionaries, grammars, historical linguistics comparing it to Arawak and Carib languages and its vocabulary to African languages, books on the orthography of Garifuna, sociolinguistic studies on language use and loss and change, and specialized books on Honduran culture which explain Garifuna vocabulary such as foods, crafts, the significance of words related to the Garifuna religion, and studies of the bilingual intercultural education project in Honduras.

Even in parts of the US where US linguists are studying the Garifuna language—New York (Dr. Daniel Kaufman, Endangered Language Alliance), Los Angeles (Dr. Pam Munro, UCLA), New Orleans (Dr. Judith Maxwell, Tulane, Advisor Guatemalan Garifuna bilingual intercultural education program), and Minnesota (Dr. Genevieve J. Escure, University of Minnesota), US universities and public library systems seem to have very minimal collections of books and CD’s of Garifuna language materials. A linguist at the University of Costa Rica, Dr. Juan Diego Quesada is also working a grammar for the Garifuna language.

Places where Garifuna classes which have been or are currently being taught in the US or for US grad students and who is teaching them

Ruben Reyes teaches Garifuna classes for GAHFU (Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United) in Los Angeles. These classes are principally geared towards Garifunas living in Los Angeles.

Milton Guity teaches Garifuna classes with Yarumein House in New York City, and James Lovell gets kids interested in learning Garifuna through music. These classes are principally geared towards Garifunas living in New York City.

Dr. Santiago Ruiz taught Garifuna classes at the University of Florida when he was a graduate student there.  I do not know what materials they have developed for their classes. Dr. Pam Munro teaches Garifuna classes at UCLA and has developed a textbook for her class. It is listed in the grammar section. These classes were primarily geared for US university students, in general not Garifunas.

FLAS funded classes in the Garifuna language for Tulane graduate students were taught twice in Trujillo, Honduras.  These students were not Garifunas. Xeroxed copies of Salvador Suazo’s books like Conversamos en Garifuna, his Garifuna grammar book and his Garifuna Spanish dictionary supplemented classes by Garifuna teachers who included Prof. Vicente Lopez, Prof. Casimiro Laredo, and the late Kike Gutierrez.  

US Universities Report Having Few Holdings of Recordings in the Garifuna Language

Even though Garifuna music has become so famous that Belizean Garifuna Andy Palacios won the World Music Expo in 2007 and the BBC3 World Music Prize in the category of the Americas in 2008 for his album Watiña (available on Amazon.com)  and UNESCO has declared Garifuna language, music, and dance World Heritage Intangible Patrimony in 2001, World Cat reports only one Garifuna language CD being held by US university libraries and that is the Smithsonian’s Folkways  CD Dabuyabarugu: Inside the Temple sacred music of the Garifuna of Belize of Belizean Garifuna traditional religious music which is held by 80 libraries. This is not because Garifuna music is hard to obtain. Just Amazon.com has over 100 entries under Garifuna music, and Garistore.com carries Garifuna music CD’s and videos/DVD’s  in more than 10 genres. Why Ethnomusicology Departments are not collecting Garifuna music when Garifuna language singers and musicians are featured on NPR, National Geographic, Afropop Worldwide, and at international concerts in Seattle, Vancouver, BC, New York,  Los Angeles, in the Caribbean and in Europe, etc. and winning prizes like Best Young Caribbean Musician I don’t know.

            There are books of music history of Belize and Honduras which proclaim in their titles, includes Garifuna music. The most recorded musical artist of Guatemalan origin is a Garifuna Paula Castillo who currently lives in New York, and she has been recognized by her government, the governments of New York and Louisana, and by the Garifuna Coalition in New York City. That nothing comes up on Worldcat under Garifuna language Guatemala when Guatemalan Garifuna groups like Umali: The Garifuna Women’s Project and Garifuna Kids play in international concerts, are interviewed in the US media, and there is a movie about Umali on Vimeo.com is very odd.

Garifuna language and any bilingual or trilingual materials can be hard to identify in WorldCat

The issue may also be some problems with finding Garifuna related materials in WorldCat. At the University of Pittsburgh Garifuna related materials were variously filed under Garifuna Indians, Blacks of Honduras, Black Caribs, Caribs, Tainos, Arawaks, and Cannibals. (The book with the unfortunate name of Cannibal Encounters is a about Europeans meeting the Black Caribs and unmixed Caribs of Saint Vincent and Dominica during the colonial period.)  

WorldCat does not permit listing more than one language for a given material and this is a serious problem in identifying bilingual and trilingual materials which are typical of texts about indigenous languages. The language materials studied in Belize among the Garifunas must be searched for under Garifuna language Belize and those studied among the Garifunas in Honduras must be searched for under Garifuna language Honduras.  Even though SIL registers more than 20 texts about Garifuna published in Guatemala, if you search WorldCat for Garifuna language  Guatemala nothing at all comes up. Similarly if you want information on Arawak languages or Carib languages you must specify the country. WorldCat also does not differentiate between materials written by native speaking Garifunas or by others recopiling information.  In this document and an article with short biographies of Afro-Honduran authors on my blog www.crisisderechoshumanoshonduras2015.blogspot.com I try to identify Garifuna and other Afro-Honduran authors, so that those who want to hear specifically their voice can find them.

The United States now seems to have the largest population of Garífunas, and not any single Central American country, with the largest concentration being in New York City, one of the hottest hot spots for Endangered Languages in the World. The current Honduran immigration crisis seems to have made worse this outflow of Garífunas with Garifunas estimating that 50% of the Garifuna youth between 13 and 21 in Honduran Garifuna communities have left for the United States (www.hondurasweekly.com), and the young Garifuna women are taking their young children with them (www.ofraneh.wordpress.org).