Land Rights and Garifuna Identity

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2004 REPORT ON RACE, PART 1 These consequences will remain unclear, in turn, until well be the most reasonable means at hand. If so, it will ihe process of Maya rearticulation begins. Given the be especially crucial to name that space, to highlight the genocidal brutality of Guatemala's ruling elite, amply menace it entails, and to subject its occupants to strin- demonstrated in recent histor)', this process is sure to gent demands for accountability to an indigenous con- turn ugly. It would be fatalistic to abandon hopes for stituency with an alternative political vision. Otherwise, rearticulation in anticipation of this ugliness, but irre- It will be safe to assume that those who occupy this sponsible to advocate Maya ascendancy without imagin- space have acquiesced, if only by default, to the regres- mg some means to assuage the fears and lessen the polar- sive neoliberal project that the indio permitido is meant ization. To occupy the space of the indio permitido may to serve. • Land Rights and Garifuna Identity The undeveloped beachfronl of Tela, Honduras, an increasingly popular tourist destina- tion. byEvaT. Thorne HE HISTORY OF THE GARlFUNA PEOPLE HAS tered fierce resistance from the Garifuna. The long been tied to land. The Garifuna conflict erupted into a yearlong war in 1772, Toriginate from the 17th century when, ending in a treaty considered by most accounts on the windward Caribbean island of St. to be the first signed between the British and Vincent, the island's indigenous Arawak- an indigenous Caribbean population. Caribs integrated runaway and shipwrecked A second war broke out over the failure of Eva I Thome is African slaves into their communities, Meyer and Waller the British to honor the terms of the treaty, but Jafje assistant European colonists first referred to their prog- this time the overpowered Garifuna surren- professor of politico eny as "Black Caribs" and later "Garifuna," as dered on British terms. The entire population at Brandeis they are still known. When the English pushed was imprisoned for a year in a camp on a near- l/niversity in out the French settlers of St. Vincent and by island, where more than half perished. The Waltham, Massachusetts. sought possession of the island, they encoun- survivors were then loaded onto the H.M.S. 21 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS REPORT ON RACE, PART 1 Experiment, no less, and transported thousands of miles a vital role in reducing rural poverty and remains an away to the Honduran island of Roatan. Erom there, important political and policy issue in the region. Most they fanned out throughout the Caribbean coast of Afro-descendant communities in Latin America are still Central America, Garifuna communities now ring the heavily reliant on access to land for their cultural, eco- coast from Belize and Guatemala to Honduras and nomic, environmental and social security In recent Nicaragua. years, these communities have asserted collective claim to the lands they have inhabited since the colonial era, pressuring national governments to provide them for- mal title. As a central element of this struggle, rural blacks across Latin America are demanding recognition as distinct ethnic groups vrtth group-specific rights, including to land and territory Here, the distinction between race and ethnicity is important. In the juridical context of most countries of the region, historically derived ethnicity, and not race per se, forms the legal basis for col- Garifuna lective claims to a distinct territory Not all rural black children in communities can successfully claim such rights: only rela, Honduras those able to document their history as communities sell cassava founded by escaped slaves. Thus, most Afro-descendant bread to a groups pursuing collective land rights have begun their tourist. struggles for land by first upholding a set of claims relating to ethnic lineage and historic residency Honduras currently has the largest population of Typically, these groups first seek legitimation based on Garifuna at 250,000, according to the country's Special social memories of their battles, dating from the colo- Office on Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage. Their com- nial era, against racial oppression. They also affirm their munities reside, as they have for generations, along the distinct ethnic identity and link this to longstanding northern coast of the country and La Mosquitia in the occupation of a given territory, dating from before the east. There, they have managed to preserve their lan- founding of the independent Latin American nation- guage and many cultural practices, including unique state. These claims confer upon them indigenous-like musical, culinary and religious forms. The high degree legal status. of coherence and continuity that characterizes their cul- This strategy stems from the constitutional reforms tural identity and residency patterns has become central that became an integral part of the Latin American polit- to their renewed struggles to secure land. ical landscape as democratization swept the region in In fact, the increasingly powerful Gartfuna communi- the 1980s, While these reforms often legally enshrined ty in Honduras leads one of the more successful Afro- authoritarian enclaves that shaped the emerging demo- descendant land rights movements in Latin America. As cratic regimes, they also contained elements of promise part of their political mobilization, they have affirmed for the promotion of popular interests. In particular, their racial and ethnic identity to strengthen their col- they allowed for land reform, one category of which was lective territorial claims. Indeed, the partial victories of ethnic-specific, introduced to address Afro-descendant the land rights struggles of Honduras' Garifuna cannot and indigenous land claims. These reforms reflected be understood without taking into account the ways in increasing governmental acknowledgment of the pluri- which this community has successfully politicized and cultural and multiethnic character of the region's popu- linked identity and land, and forced the Honduran gov- lations. ernment to recognize this linkage. As a result, in some Latin American countries rural Afro-descendant communities are now legally recog- LAND CONFLICTS HAVE OCCURRED REGULARLY IN LATIN nized as having a distinct ethnicity and as commanding American societies for centuries, and they continue to the right to collective and communal land title. In 1988, do so despite the regional trend toward rapid urbaniza- the Brazilian Constitution adopted Transitory Article tion. Access to land has long been documented to play 68, which recognized the land claims of descendants of 22 SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2004 REPORT ON RACE, PARTI the country's escaped slave communities, known as THESE COMPLICATED ISSUES ARE ALL AT PLAY IN THE LAND quilombos.^ In Colombia, the land rights of blacks on struggles of Honduras' Garifuna, The Garifuna are one of the Pacific coast gained constitutional recognition in nine recognized ethnic groups in Honduras, which col- 1991 with Transitory Article 55, which was implement- lectively represent about 13% of the country's popula- ed with the 1993 approval of Law 70,^ Article 83 of the tion. The Garifuna alone account for approximately 2%. 1998 Constitution of Ecuador granted Afro- Among those practices that distinguish the Garifuna Ecuadorians collective rights to ancestral lands. as a separate ethnic group are a particular set of subsis- Indigenous groups have often been granted addition- tence activities and a related gendered division of labor, al rights not afforded to Afro-descendant groups. In Garifuna men engage in non-commercial, low-intensity Colombia, for example, indigenous communities were fishing in both the ocean and rivers. They also hunt, granted not only rights over land but also political, mainly deer and iguana. In agricultural production, jurisdictional autonomy, so that local, indigenous-led men are usually responsible for soil preparation as well governments now govern their own territories. In sharp as slashing and burning, while both men and women distinction, no such privileges have been granted Afro- are involved in the sowing, harvesting and storage of descendant communities. the crop. Women cultivate and grate yucca, dry it, and The legal logic behind ethnically based land claims then bake it over hot coals into the finished product, can be both empowering and exclusionary. It is empow- cassava bread, some of which is reserved for local mar- ering insofar as it accepts the ket consumption. Women are also responsible for the The victories of the legitimacy of deeply rooted, sale of surplus fish and agricultural products. (With massive male migration abroad from Garifuna commu- Garifuna's land rights ethnically distmct community identities. It is exclusionary to nities, a growing non-traditional male subsistence role struggles in ^y^^ extent it demands strict is the provision of remittances, while women increasingly assume the formerly male responsibilities of prop- Honduras cannot be ethnohistorical "proof" that , , , draws potentially controver- erty transactions and maintenance.) understood without i L J .U J The Garifuna maintain other unique cultural prac- sial boundaries withm and tices such as the Garifuna language, a particular set of taking into account between communities, religious beliefs and associated practices, as well as cul- theways in which excluding those unable to turally specific festivals. Many of these practices are generate acceptable documen- this community has tation. In the notable cases of inextricably linked to the group's conceptions of land successfully Brazil, Colombia and and territory; Community festivals mark the planting Ecuador, for example, to be and harvest seasons and particular fishing activities, for politicized and linked ^i^g^ble to claim land rights a example, and Garifuna cosmology invokes very specific identity and land. community must be able to notions about the land and how it is to be treated. clearly demarcate the territory With respect to land nghts, the Garifuna occupy a linked to its historically rooted identity In Honduras complex position.

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