Truxillo Railroad Era Stories of Afro-Hondurans-Part IV Effects on Garifuna Traditional Culture

Truxillo Railroad Era Stories of Afro-Hondurans-Part IV

By Wendy Griffin, Revised January 2015

Some Effects of the Truxillo Railroad Period on Garifuna Traditional Culture

In part II we already discussed why Profesor Batiz thought that the time of the Truxillo Railroad was the golden era of Garifuna music, being spread by people associated with the Railroad like Victor Bermudez, breakman, who went on to compose 200 Garifuna songs in the Garifuna language, many of which are still sung today.  Also during the Truxillo Railroad was the first time the Garifuna women got paid to dance for non-Garifunas like Cesi a woman from Cusuna who would dance punta for the white Southerners living in Puerto Castilla.

Yaya who is 92 years old, said when she was young, the game Indio Bárbaro was introduced among the Garifuna of Cristales.  This game consists of a man dressing up in an ugly mask, fake hair, something to represent a breechcloth like shorts or a skirt, and covers his body with anetto seed (achiote), clay, and coconut oil, and holds people up at the point of a bow and arrow.  He can not speak, he just blows a whistle. 

This game was introduced from Nicaragua, she said, that  they played it there.  It was probably brought by Black English speaking Nicaraguans.  The Garifunas were so afraid when they saw the Indio Bárbaro (Barbarian Indian) for the first time that they were unable to speak from fear.  They would lock their doors.  They said the Devil is loose in Cristales.  Now the game is a traditional part of the Garifuna Christmas.

Both Garifunas and Black English speakers in the Caribbean do a series of Masked Dances for Christmas, and the Garifuna dance called Wanaragua in Garifuna (the Dance of the Warriors), and Mascaro in Spanish is also called by Honduran Garifunas Yan Canu from the name of a similar Black English speaker cycle of Christmas dances called John Canoe (named for the British slaver in Ghana, John Canby). For better explanations of Garifuna and Bay Islander  games, dances, ceremonies and songs with photos see David Flores (2003), La Evolucion Historica de la Danza Foklorica Hondureña and my book Los Garifunas de Honduras. My book and David’s book are available through Inter-Library loan from various US universities. This dance has been identified by Dr. Judith Carney as the same as a dance done by the Mandika people in the old Mali and Songhay empires in the rice growing area of Western Africa between the Niger River in the current country of Mali and the African coast countries of Gambia and Senegal.

According to Profesor Batiz, during the Truxillo Railroad period, the dance parranda was introduced. He thought it came from Mexico, although in Trinidad they also do a dance called parranda.  It is the only Garifuna dance song that either men or women can sing.  Parrandas by Garifuna women are sung from house to house on New Years Day or when people want to sing a special song to a neighbor. There is a special women’s song which they sing when they arrive at the house asking people to open the door to the parranderas. Men’s parrandas are usually sung accompanied by a guitar, and then can have percussion instruments added to that. They are often composed for wakes or when a man is angry at his neighbor and wants to ridicule him, so he writes a song about the problem. Also when people dance punta in discos, usually they are dancing to parranda music. Stonetree records of Belize did an album of famous Garifuna parranda singers, which launched not only old people like Paul Nabor, but also younger Garifunas like Aurelio Martinez to international attention. Spanish TV did a documentary with Paul Nabor and Aurelio Martinez called La Aventura Garifuna which can be seen in parts on Youtube, which is lovely. The book Black Carib-Garifuna has a description of punta and parranda and other Garifuna dances. combining the views of an ethnomusicologist and older punta rock players in Belize. 

The most famous Garifuna dance is called punta in Spanish.  It was traditionally danced by only older people at wakes. Another dance was done by younger Garifunas around a bonfire.  According to older informants, punta used to be danced to just clapping and women singing or it could be accompanied by gafu, a wooden box used as a drum.  Salvador Suazo recorded a punta dance song accompanied by clapping on his cassette and song book Lanigui Garifuna (Garifuna heart).  There was a similar or the same dance in Jamaica known in English as Black and White Dance.  During the time of the Truxillo Railroad, Garifunas adopted the custom of playing punta on Garifuna drums—two second drums and a first drum.

  Nowadays Punta can also be accompanied by a turtle drum, a conch shell used as a horn, and maracas, as well as 3 drums. This makes putting on a wake expensive as the drummers and the people to lead the punta songs, plus the renting of the drums themselves, are paid. The rhythm and movement of punta is the same as a dance done by Congo African dance troupe Umojá in Pittsburgh, PA.  Even the rhythm of the conch horn is the same as the rhythm of the impala horn they used for the Congo dance. The Congo dance group used a double gourd with seeds strung from a net on the outside of it, but it gives the same sound as maracas, which are of pre-Columbian origin in Honduras.  The change in punta may have been the influence of Black English speakers. At least two Garifuna discos that I know of, including the one in Cristales were called the Black and White, like that in English, probably referring to punta’s name in Caribbean English.

The name of the dance punta in  Garifuna is Banguity which means New Life.  According to Michelle Griffiths, a native of South Africa, the dance done by the Bantus at a wake in South Africa is also called, “New Life”.  I have heard two descriptions by Garifunas why it is called New Life.  One is that the person who died is starting a new life as an ancestor.  Also the Garifunas believe in reincarnation and the spirit of the deceased will later be reborn.  Although this Garifuna died, 10,000 more will be born, said Garifuna Fausto Miguel Alvarez. 

The act of dancing punta is supposed to cheer up the family members who are sad with the passing of their relative and the saddest one is the one that is supposed to dance the most. The modern Trujillo Garifunas also say if you do not put entertainment like punta, dominoes, cards, Garifuna storytelling, rum, cigarettes and food, you will “velar” (be up all night watching the body) the body of your loved one alone.  The spirit of the deceased is believed to still be around and this is a last opportunity to celebrate with them. 

Not all modern Garifunas are happy with this custom, who say, We are here sad, and everyone around us is having a riotous party.  Also when combined with having to buy a coffin, plus paying for the wake and the burial plot and giving food to the men who dig the grave, it is very expensive to have someone die in the family. Garifunas will sometimes wait two or three days to bury a person while their children come from the States, partly because these children have to pay for everything.  Recently in Trujillo a modern Ladino owned “funeraria” has opened up which mostly sells fancy imported coffins which are sometimes the only coffins available when someone dies.  One Garifuna woman bought one on credit that cost around L15,000 ($750) for her son that died, even though her monthly income is under $100 a month. I asked her why she bought one of these coffins and she said it was all that was available when he died.

 Garifunas believe that if a Garifuna dies overseas, it is necessary to bury him in Honduras, because if you do not, his coffin will rise up and wash up on the shore of Honduras anyway, and unhappy ancestors can cause illness and other misfortunes according to Garifuna beliefs.  It can easily cost $5,000 to return a dead body to Honduras, plus the airfare of all the family to accompany him or her, so this is a huge expense.

In spite of that wakes for Garifunas who have lived in the US more than 30 years and are being brought home to be buried  are not uncommon in Trujillo. However, sometimes the US authorities often do not give permission of family members in Honduras like children and wives to go to the US to settle the affairs of Garifunas who die in the US.  Loyola de Sabio, a Garifuna teacher at the Normal School in Tegucigalpa for over 20 years, home owner, and wife of Ambrosio Sabio former National head of bilingual education and the primary school teacher’s teacher’s union, could not get a visa to settle her father’s affairs when he died in the US and so lost her inheritance.  Her father  had been a merchant marine and eventually settled in the US, as did Herman Alvarez’s father, and Rosalina Garcia’s husband, all of whom had similar problems when their family members died in the US.

The Garifunas also dance Maypole. It is not clear if they had this tradition due to influence of some ancestors of the Garifunas having been slaves for the English in Barbados, and bringing the custom with them early to the Black Caribs, or if the Garifunas adopted it during the increased influence of Black English speakers during the railroad boom. The Garifuna way of doing Maypole is different from the versions of Maypole and Platpole done in the Bay Islands.

Traditional Games

During the Garifuna Traditional Games Festival in Trujillo, the games played included marbles, tops (Ladino style wooden tops), jump rope (suiza  in Honduran Spanish), hopscotch (rayuelo), and Maypole. According to Yaya who was 92 years old when I interviewed, these were the games she played when she was young, and also an older Garifuna woman made black rag dolls with white grass hair which she traded in return for firewood the young girls would bring her.  Only Professor Batiz who partly grew up in the more isolated community of Sangrelaya reported playing a traditional game of African origin with seeds.

When the Truxillo Railroad came, it opened a Commissariat which had all kinds of goods from the US. Its ships also acted as transport ships for other Trujillo merchants. You were supposed to be a Truxillo Railroad employee  to use the Commissariat or the hospital, but the Garifunas among themselves shared the chits that showed you were an employee, so even if you were not, you could still get in.  Only people who had a permanent job above a certain level could buy on credit, for example Doña Sasa’s father the fruit inspector could and furnished his home with imported beds and a stove all of which were lost in Hurricane Ana.   

Besides being able to buy in the regular store, the Truxillo Railroad Comissariat accepted special orders to be brought by a special ship which arrived shortly before Christmas. In addition there was a special ship that arrived like a Five and Dime where people could buy not too expensive things right before Christmas.  Also the Company organized Christmas parties for its employees’ children and gave them each a toy.  In this way, common US toys became the norm among the Garifunas. Similar toys and games have been reported among the Garifunas of the Tela area. Tops and marbles games can still sometimes be seen on the streets of Barrio Cristales, Trujillo.

Doña Sasa, who grew up in Puerto Castilla,as opposed to a Garifuna neighborhood in Trujillo,  said most of her playmates were English speakers and what they most played were “Ring plays”, a general term for songs with games like Here we go loppty loo, Ring around the Rosies, etc. The Ring plays collected in La Ceiba and the Bay Islands show a combination of influences like Caribbean based ring plays like Obeah Man, Honduran origin ring plays which sometimes combine Spanish and English like Cheque Señorita (the song is all in English), and traditional English ring plays like Here we go loopty loo (The Miskitos sing it in Miskito Naha di lupti lu), London Bridges (sung by Miskitos in English), and Bobby Sheffield. Modern Garifuna children also know some traditional Rondas or ringplays of Spanish origin.

There are some particularly traditional Garifuna games, that Garifuna children 50 years ago still played. These are all accompanied by short songs in Garifuna.  These include Ru.tu.tu (Similar to the games in Spanish, Miskito, and Tawahka, of Pulling up Yuca or Pulling up Onions), Diyu, diyu, diyu (The Small Sandpiper), and Bagu (The Ring), described in my and David Flores’s books. Most modern Garifuna children no longer play them, and in most cases have not heard of them.

The most famous drink of the Garifunas is called guifity, which means bitter in Garifuna.  It has 8 different herbs in it, most of which like sorecy (calaica in Spanish) and hombre grande are bitter.  It is used to clean the blood, and as it has plants that lower blood sugar, prevent anemia, and lower blood pressure, it actually probably helps.  The herbs are steeped in factory made sugar cane liquor (guaro) for at least 3 days and then the liquor is drunk.  It is supposed to be good for restoring energy at the end of the day when one is tired from a hard day’s work, which is why the Ladinos describe it as an aphrodisiac.   Given the high rate of diabetis among older Garifunas, cleaning the blood with these herbs might in fact  help older men with certain difficulties with their wives that having diabetis causes.

Although it is famous throughout Honduras as a Garifuna drink, Francisco (Pancho) David told me he brought the recipe to Trujillo from the banana camps in Yoro.  This type of mixing of various herbs is common in bush teas of Black English speakers, according to ethnobiologist Paul House, and I was told in the Bay Islands that the Bay Islanders also had a drink of several different herbs that cleans the blood.  Sorecy is common in Bay Islander herbal medicine and is proven to lower blood sugar, which is helpful as many Garifunas suffer from diabitis. The drinking of guaro is supposed to refine your voice when you sing, and it restores energy, so sometimes drummers or singers will drink it before or during performances. While some  Garifunas drink guaro to get drunk, they do not drink guifity to get drunk.

The Introduction or Reintroduction of African Edible plants to Honduras for food for Afro-Hondurans—

Miskitos, Garifunas, North Coast English speakers and Bay Islanders make a dish called Beans and Rice.  In Miskito, and Garifuna, it is still called in English rice and beans,spelt rais an bins in Garifuna. It is different from casamiento or gallo pinto of the Ladinos also made with small red beans cooked with rice, because the rice on the North Coast is cooked in coconut milk.  Usually nowadays it is made with small red beans, the main bean found everywhere in Honduras now.  This may not have been the bean originally referred to by its name.

Black eyed Peas--When some people from Ghana came to visit me, they brought me a Ghanan cookbook.  It had a dish for beans and rice, but with black eyed peas (caritas in Honduran Spanish).  I told this to the Garifunas and they said, oh, yes, we used to make beans and rice with black eyed peas, too.  Black Eyes Peas is a vegetable of African origin, but was popular in the Southern US.  It seems when the Truxillo Railroad brought in food to sell, they also brought black eyed peas and the Garifunas would buy them and eat them.  They no longer have the seed for them.  In the supermarkets in La Ceiba, it is still possible to get black eye peas imported from the US, which are apparently sold primarily to Black English speakers, but most Garifunas seldom see them any more.

Okra—Called okro in Honduran Spanish and neju (pronounced nehu) in Garifuna and in Panamanian Spanish.  This is a vegetable of African origin that was popular in the Caribbean and the US South.  The Garifunas at the time of the Truxillo Railroad used it a lot to make soups or as a side dish.  It was also medicinal, that if you ate boiled okra, it would dissolved kidney stones. It was available at the end of the Truxillo Railroad period, and the Garifunas of Trujillo used to grow it, but they have lost the seed and no one in Honduras imports the seeds although they are readily available in the US.  It is possible to get it in cans in the supermarket in La Ceiba, again probably imported for Black English speakers, but Garifunas are not interested in canned vegetables.

Jamaica Sorrel Tea—Called Rosa de Jamaica or just Jamaica in Honduran Spanish.  This tea of red hibiscus was a popular Christmas drink in the Bay Islands and Jamaica. It is reportedly especially good with ice, and during the Truxillo Railroad period a Ice making Company opened up inTrujillo which why Patty Stone Ramirez’s Ladino father in law, now 92 year old, came to Trujillo to work in the Ice Factory. According to the Internet, the bush is native to Africa.

Some Honduran Garifunas started growing it, apparently from cuttings from English speaking neighbors and drinking it. Most of the Jamaica sorrel bushes have died on the North Coast of Honduras and in the Bay Islands. In the Bay Islands or in most Garifuna communities, they generally can no longer get it, and in Western Honduras it is mostly brought in from El Salvador and Guatemala. It is used medicinally by Ladinos, for example to improve a poor appetite. This is the plant that gives the red color and bite to Red  Zinger Tea of Celestial Seasoning in the States. Iced Rosa de Jamaica tea is commonly available in restaurants in the tourist areas of Guatemala, but not in Honduras.    

Ackee-This African plant provides a popular dish for Jamaicans. It is necessary to know when to pick it and how to prepare it.  It must be eaten very ripe and then prepared correctly, or it is poisonous.  Jamaicans on the North Coast apparently introduced the plant to Honduras.  It was never popular among Garifunas.  Ladino students studying the foods of North Coast English speakers, said who knows how many Ladinos have been poisoned, stealing the fruit of the ackee and not knowing if it was totaling ripe or how to prepare it. 

The most famous death in Honduras from Ackee was Dorothy Poponoe, the wife of the American founder of the Zamarano Pan-Amrican Agricultural School and the founder of Lancetilla Botanical Gardens for United Fruit near Tela. He brought the plant to the Garden to study it, and without knowing how to prepare it correctly, his wife ate it and died.  The plant did not become popular in Honduras and has probably mostly died out.    In the States it is now possible to get canned ackee, but it is not imported into La Ceiba  in Honduras.

At the time of the Truxillo Railroad, Marijuana was known in the form of marijuana cigars (puros) in Belize which Garifunas like Yaya’s father who travelled to Belize by canoe heard about,and warned her some day these illegal puros will  be here.  Some Jamaicans brought to  Puerto Castilla by the Truxillo Railroad  brought seeds for marijuana, and that is thought how the plant was introduced to Honduras. The British Navy used to plant marijuana or hemp plants everywhere they went in order to ensure a good local supply of hemp.  

I have not heard of it growing on the North Coast, but it is grown commercially (and illegally) in some other parts of Honduras like Olancho, and then sold on the Coast.   Marijuana smoking, currently considered a signficant problem in Garifuna communities, was not considered a signficant problem in Garifuna communities 10 years ago.   Its increase is part of a general drug problem on the Coast, that includes cocaine and crack too.