By Sheron Garraway
A contingent of Garifuna from in Los Angeles and New York that made a “Vincy Home Coming” pilgrimage to St. Vincent and the Grenadines from July 31 to Aug. 7 is calling for Balliceaux to become a sacred heritage site.
Balliceaux is the 320,000-acre Grenadine island to which 5,000 Garifuna were banished in 1797.
The majority of them died on the island — which has no freshwater source — before they were being exiled to Honduras.
The delegation was hosted by the Ministry of Culture and visited several sites and held a church service at the St. George’s Cathedral in Kingstown, where they said prayers and sang in Garifuna.
They also conducted cultural workshops in Sandy Bay, Rose Bank and Kingstown.
The highlight of the group’s visit was their Aug. 5 trip to Balliceaux.
Both young and senior persons sang and danced in merriment during the 30-minute catamaran trip from St. Vincent to Balliceaux, which is located east of Bequia.
But upon nearing Balliceaux, the members of the groups were overcome with a range of emotions. Some shed tears, some expressed elation, while others had a solemn countenance.
On the island, the party paid homage to those who were exiled to the now uninhabited island.
Poet Aurelio Martinez described Balliceaux as a historic site that must be reaffirmed as the Garifuna sacred ancestral homeland.
He noted that in 2001 UNESCO proclaimed the Garifuna Heritage and Culture a masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity and said that it should be inevitable that Balliceaux be declared sacred land.
Martinez appealed to Garifuna throughout the diaspora as well as heritage lovers, to raise funds to purchase the island, which is privately owned by a Vicentian family and is being sold for US$29.95 million.
He also thanked the government for its work at restoring the culture and called on the state to also facilitate the process to regain Balliceaux.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Consul General in New York, Howie Prince who helped to co-ordinate the visit, said that Prime Minster Ralph Gonsalves has similar aspirations to ensure that Balliceaux becomes sacred grounds.
Prince stated that Gonsalves will try to put mechanisms in place, but reminded the contingent that “the pen is mightier than the sword”.
He advised them to petition, through paper work and other means, to UNESCO and other agencies.
Zoila Ellis-Browne of The Garifuna Heritage Foundation also endorsed Prince’s sentiments and suggested that the purchasing of the island is one of the options that must be seriously looked into.
Balliceaux is about 325 Acres of land NOT 320,000 Acres as stated in the article.
Fundamentally, I disagree with this whole arrangement. This is a potential recipe for disaster. The history should be told and repeated with all the facts. Garifunas do not exist for me and a large number of Vincentians. Chatoyeer asked the French to remove the so called GARIFUNAS and they refused and the British granted the request. Repeat the Facts!!! Explain why!!!
Ralph Gonsalves is a hypocrite [who] will do whatever it takes to get re-elected: wrong and or right. Who owns Ballicieaux???.
A Vincentian is a VIncentain.
Ricardo Francis, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in Waiting and in the Making
If you give these people blood tests I doubt you will find any blood link to the original islander natives. Everyone wants to be known as a Garifuna they tend to feel in some way it is more noble than being of pure slavery background. None wants to be a Negro, but they are.
Totally agree Balliceaux should be declared sacred place, given its place in the history of Garifuna genocide..
Jolly here you are again, the Garifunas are a mixed race. They certainly have Calinago blood. Here again you are not thinking as usual.
To be a Garifuna you need to be a group or tribe of people who have been breeding and inbreeding together for many generations. Take a group of mixed race people and they breed among themselves as an enclosed group for many generations they become a particular breed, in this case Garifuna.
A Black man and a Calinago do not produce a Garifuna, they produce a mixed race person. DNA test is the way forward, stops the imposters pretending to be Garifuna.
When a Garifuna breeds with a non Garifuna, they to produce a mixed race offspring.
So unless you can grasp all this JB, go and learn and then come back.
About time Balliceaux gets the international recognition it truly deserves; and the government (irrespective of its colour) should proceed with haste to bring the proposal to fruition. Success with this will also thwart attempts to turn the island into another Mustique, a fear which is common among Grenadines people.
Never! Never! Never!
Ricardo Francis, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in Waiting and in the Making
Jolly by your own reasoning, what do you call a VincentIan whose fore parents were brought to St Vincent and who have had varing degree of other mixture from a race perpective? It may be very had to find a family in St Vincent who may have the so call pure blood to which you have alluded to. They identifiy themselves as African even though some VincentIan may have mixed with other races.
Your analogy of having pure blood and want to be Garfuna does not make intuitive sense and void of logic. That is why my position is that you write without thinking which I believe that most of the time is devoid of logic and reasoning. A VincentIan whose parents have certainly mixed with other races but identifies with the African continent is still referred to as Africa VincentIan. That person does not have 100 percent African blood . I refer you the raggae music that says goes like this “once you are a black man you are an African. ….Wake up Jolly from that deep slumber and use up so on your grey matter.
You have just proved to the World your stupidity.