Why the Garifuna Traditional Subsistence Economy Broke Down

Why the Garifuna Traditional Subsistence Economy Broke Down.

By Wendy Griffin

There are reasons why fishing is no longer economically viable for Garifuna men related to commercial shrimping which throws away tons of edible fish, (twelve times more is thrown away than is sold), plus Ladino fishing in the fish hatcheries like the Guaymoreto lagoon, and the problems of commercial conch and lobster diving. The commercial fishing for shrimp, frozen fish, conch and lobster diving were all helped by World Bank projects in the Bay Islands. The loss of the wild game also affects the food supply. The fish and other aquatic food like fresh water shrimp (chacalines) and edible snakes (lenguitas) in the rivers are dead.  If the Garifunas can not access fish in the sea, and fish in the rivers and lagoons, and the animals in the mountains are extinct, it is not surprising that what most Garifuna restaurants serve is chicken, which the Garifunas have to buy, rather than raise, because of the problem of theft of chickens in Garifuna neighborhoods. Older Garifuna women complain, I have eaten so much chicken I will grow feathers. Garifuna men who try to fish with nasas, fish traps, say other people get up earlier than them and steal the fish out of the fish traps.  The fact that the Guaymoreto Lagoon is now a protected area has led to the Ladino environmental protection agency FUCAGUA burning nets of the Garifuna men whose families have lived beside the lagoon for 200 years. These nets since they are silk are significant investments of time and money. Ladinos fish in the Lagoon with nets piled high in their canoes with impunity, in violation of the law. Garifuna young people have not learned to make canoes, because they were in school instead of learning skills like fishing and canoe making. The wood for making the canoes is in the protected areas. There is also a significant problem of theft of canoes. My friend Jerry had his canoe stolen 5 times. The last time he said the hell with it. Ofraneh has applied for the donation of lanchas, fiberglass boats with motors for the Garifunas of Trujillo.  The Garifunas did not know how to use them correctly and lost two of the motors immediately in the Bay falling off the boats. Eventually they sold all the three lanchas.

The new 2013 law which will permit commercial fishing within the three mile limit established for artisanal fishermen and the proposal to prohibit artisanal fishing will be the death blow to Garifuna fishing. See Ofraneh’s blog www.ofraneh.wordpress.com.  A teacher in Santa Fe was trying to warn the fishermen in Guadelupe that soon they might not be able to “chinchorrear” to put big nets in the sea in the area of Betulia, because Betulia has been almost all privatized.  Her uncle said, “Have you ever heard of being able to fence the sea?” the next day the story about this law appeared on ofraneh’s blog.  Men who did chinchorrear used to go to the sea in larger canoes special for chinchoreando, and there would be maybe 6 or 8 men fishing together between two big canoes. They did not fish near the shore, because the Garifuna traditional wisdom was that the fish near the shore would grow up to be bigger fish if they left them alone, so they fished out deeper so as not to bother the development of the smaller fish.  The practice of Garifuna men to chinchorrear from the beach is relatively recent and is related to not having the ability to make the big canoes needed to chinchorrear in the deep sea. 

 The problem of theft of agricultural produce makes agriculture not economically viable in Trujillo among the Garifunas either. If you read my book Los Garifunas de Honduras is full of stories of older women farmers being threatened by the thieves who steal their land or steal their produce. The lack of men in canoes to take them to the agricultural areas like Barranco is also leading to these areas’ abandonment.

The loss of forest land suitable for the craft plants the Garifuna needs has also severely affected the ability of some communities to make traditional Garifuna crafts. This forest land was generally taken away by Agrarian Reform for the purpose of giving to peasants who sold it to African palm growers. For many Garifuna crafts there is one artisan left and he is above 70 years old. I heard he had trained a granddaughter to make the crafts, even though women did not traditionally make these crafts. We have had reforestation projects of some of these craft plants. In Trujillo there is a case of Garifunas training a Ladina daughter in law to make some of the most sacred Garifuna crafts, for lack of young Garifuna men who wanted to learn and to help her raise grandchildren when her Garifuna husband left her.

Problems with Garifuna Construction Materials and Traditional Houses.

 

Even if the Garífuna Young men in Sambo Creek wanted to build a traditional GArifuna house they probably could not. I have not seen much manaca, the thatchpalm used for the roof in the Sambo Creek área. In Triumfo de la Cruz they traditionally used yagual, the Wood of the royal palm, for the walls or maburu, caña brava, a type of wild cane. In Trujillo, they used the Wood of mangroves, both White and Red for making the posts and roof beams of the house, and the tique palm for uprights, and cana for the horizontal pieces and then filled in with red clay. I have seen no yagual or caña brava in the Sambo Creek área, nor tique, nor mangroves, and if there are mangroves, they are usually protected by Honduran law and ilegal to cut down. If they had yagual, which is very difficult Wood to Split (es mañosa) they would not know how to do it. They did not learn the skills from the older men who are not there or they were not interested when they were Young to learn.

 

The traditional houses in Barranco east of Trujillo and in Tournabe were made completely of manaca. The walls were palm leaf, the roof was palm leaf, the door was palm leaf, the posts were mangrove Wood.  People told me that in Tournabe you could poke your fingers into people's houses, because it was just a palm leaf. There was no theft problem in Garífuna communities at that time and people even planted watermelons and ayote squash on the beach without people stealing them. People went to plant all day and left their Windows open and their doors unlocked. They slept with the doors open for the breeze. When Ladinos came and began to steal then they needed more secure houses and doors with locks.  The Garífunas used to use witchcraft to protect their crops and to punish people who stole. The loss of witchcraft among GArifunas and the addition of guns among ladinos has left them more vulnerable to theft. The Pech also switched from houses with no walls to clay houses with Windows that shut and doors that locked when the ladinos came to Olancho in the 1950'1960 period.

 

Relationship between loss of ability to make traditional houses and to obtain land in areas affected by tourism and modern social problems in the Garifuna community.

 

Sometimes there is a symptom in a community,like 80% unwed mothers, but there are also reasons behind that. i have been trying to get behind the reasons the Young people are not forming stable families,why they have such AIDS rates, why they are immigrating,why they are not farming why they are so frustrated they turn to drugs or theft. The results are interesting,but disheartening