Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, NOVEMBER 22-28, 2019 B
By Wellington C. Ramos,
adjunct professor history
and political science
Since our Garifuna people
were removed by the British
from our sovereign homeland
“Yurumein” now known
as Saint Vincent & The Grenadines
and dumped on the
island of Roatan, Honduras
on April, 12, 1797 our lives
have never been the same in
the countries where we currently
live.
In St. Vincent & The
Grenadines, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Guatemala and Belize
we are still asking the governments
to accept and treat us
as equals in these countries
despite the fact that we are
born citizens. With Honduras
having the worse record
on human rights, which
includes the killing of some
of our Garifuna activists up
until recently. Our Garifuna
people have and continue to
leave Honduras because of
the denial of essential governments
services, human
rights violations and better
economic opportunities. The
biggest migration occurred
when there was a mass killing
of our people in San Juan,
Honduras in 1832, which led
to Elijio Beni and Satulle taking
our people from there to
Dangriga, Belize where they
landed on the Nov. 19 that
same year.
A Garifuna Civil Rights
activist who was born in
Honduras by the name of
Thomas Vincent Ramos and
naturalized as a Belizean,
saw the need to make this
day, a Day of “Reflection” so
that we can come together
and examine what we have
been and are going through
as a people and to avoid similar
occurrences from happening
to us in the future.
Through his efforts the
British Crown granted us a
Garifuna Settlement Day in
1941, for the Toledo and
Stann Creek Districts where
we were the only people living
at the time since our
arrival in the south.
This holiday later became
a Public and Bank Holiday
throughout the entire country
of Belize in the year 1977.
I have observed that since
this day became a national
holiday, many of our people
have moved away from
“Reflecting” to “Celebrating.
As a result we are now experiencing
some serious economic,
social and political
problems in Belize and all
the other countries where
we live. We have moved away
from being autonomous
and resilient to being passive
and dependent. We must
always remember, that we
are a nation of people living
in all these countries based
on International Law, Treaties
and Conventions that
were signed with us by the
French, British and these
countries where we reside.
With that being said, we
possess Garifuna Nation
Nationality and the nationalities
for all the countries
where we and our ancestors
were born. All the countries
where we Garifuna people
live today, have a Dual
Nationality Clause in their
constitutions. Plus, almost
all Garinagu people have relatives
in Honduras, Nicaragua,
Guatemala, Belize and
the United States of America
.I
n the past when I was
growing up, I remember
going to the Dangriga pier
with my mother to welcome
my family from “Labuga”
Guatemala and some from
Honduras. The boats by the
names of Ilda, Santa Maria
and Suyapa, would come
packed with our people waving
their Garifuna Flags and
beating their drums until the
boats docked at the pier when
they came off to greet their
families. This was a tradition
that was kept up for many
years and the late George
Pastor, was the person who
was known for sponsoring
these excursions from Dangriga.
Since we are now experiencing
serious social, economic
and political problems
in all the countries where
we live, I recommend that
part of the program leading
to the 19th of November
Celebrations, schedule a day
for a symposium “Reflection”
with Representatives from all
the countries in the diaspora.
Not only to meet and
greet but to also formalize
social, economic and political
proposals to focus and
implement in their respective
countries.
Every year at subsequent
symposiums, progress
reports should be presented
By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is
executive director UN Women
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 19,
2019 (IPS) — If I could have one
wish granted, it might well be a
total end to rape. That means a
significant weapon of war gone
from the arsenal of conflict, the
absence of a daily risk assessment
for girls and women in
public and private spaces, the
removal of a violent assertion of
power, and a far-reaching shift
for our societies.
Rape isn’t an isolated brief
act. It damages flesh and reverberates
in memory. It can have
life changing, unchosen results
— a pregnancy or a transmitted
disease. Its long-lasting, devastating
effects reach others:
family, friends, partners and
colleagues.
In both conflict and in peace
it shapes women’s decisions
to move from communities
through fear of attack or the
stigma for survivors. Women
and girls fleeing their homes
as refugees also risk unsafe
transport and insecure living
conditions that can lack locked
doors, adequate lighting and
proper sanitation facilities.
Girls married as children in
search of increased security at
home or in refugee camps can
get caught up in legitimized
conditions of rape, with little
recourse for those wishing to
escape, such as shelter and safe
accommodation.
In the vast majority of countries,
adolescent girls are most
at risk of sexual violence from
a current or former husband,
partner or boyfriend. As we
know from our work on other
forms of violence, home is not a
safe place for millions of women
and girls.
Almost universally, most
perpetrators of rape go unreported
or unpunished. For
women to report in the first
place requires a great deal of
resilience to re-live the attack,
a certain amount of knowledge
of where to go, and a degree of
confidence in the responsiveness
of the services sought — if
indeed there are services available
to go to.
In many countries, women
know that they are overwhelmingly
more likely to be blamed
than believed when they report
OP-EDS
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Continued on Page 11
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Repairing damage to
the Garifuna people
End rape — an
intolerable cost
to society
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
UN Women
Wellington C. Ramos.
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