Preserving culture, history and music: an interview with members of the Garifuna Collective

17/07/2023 19 min

Listen "Preserving culture, history and music: an interview with members of the Garifuna Collective"

Episode Synopsis

On this week's episode of Cafe International, we will learn about preserving Garifuna history, culture and music from Emilio Thomas and Al Ovando – members of the Belizean group, The Garifuna Collective, and how until as recently as the 1990s, Garifuna children were discouraged from speaking their language in school.
The Garifuna are descendants of escaped African slaves – in 1635, a slave ship crashed near the Caribbean Island of St Vincent. The survivors mixed with the local indigenous community – but in 1796, the British ethnically cleansed the island, deporting the population to Central America.
With host Dan Rosenberg