The Garifuna culture is the most celebrated in Belize, and known for its passionate, rhythmic music and dance along with a wide array of unique dishes, such as hudut, Sere or even Sahow. But what about the language? It was once spoken by many but in changing times, the language is being used less and less. That's why a group of passionate Garinagu are not about to let it slip away. Today they had an opening ceremony for a training workshop in the study of the Garifuna language. We stopped by to find out more about this effort.
Abdul Nunez, President of BELADA CARIBE
"The purpose is to preserve Garifuna language, spirituality, culture, history and to look at the possibility if trying to make it an institutionalized initiative by partnering with the University of the West Indies Open Campus so we could make it a course study for adults and young people."
"We have started with a childrens books fully colored and animated. It sells for 50 Belize Dollars. 25US. It is currently on sale on Amazon.com."
"One of our concerns is the language being lost especially by the men but more so once the language starts getting lost then other aspects of the culture become lost as well. We are concerned about our land issues because this will be discussed in the workshops. The indigenous status of the Garifuna people because once we lose our lands then we lose our culture all together so it is all interconnected and we are working towards the preservation because this is the beginning of a cultural revitalization."
"In the entire month of July we will be training teachers in giving Garifuna instructions to all schools. We are going to be going to Cayo, Dangriga, Punta Gorda, Orange Walk."
"The phrase I want to tell everybody is just like Phillip Goldson said. The time to save Belize is before you lose it. The time to save Garifuna language, culture, history, spirituality is before we lose it."
The "Garifuna Made Easy" Children's workbook is available on Amazon for 25 US dollars.
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