by Kenton Chance
Caribbean Net News Correspondent
Monday, March 7, 2005
KINGSTOWN, St Vincent: A group of Honduran Garifuna will visit their “spiritual homeland” on Thursday March 10.
The International Garifuna Folkloric Ballet Company of Honduras, led by the acclaimed Honduran choreographer, Armando Chrisanto Mendes, comes St. Vincent and the Grenadines for a six-day visit.
The group will be in SVG as the country celebrates the anniversary of the death their fore father, SVG’s first national hero – paramount Carib Chief Joseph Chatoyer
Andrea Leland, artist and co-producer of the documentary, “The Garifuna Journey” will also visit SVG from March 7 – 15.
She will conduct training workshops with local teachers as well as present viewings of the documentary in various communities across the country.
The film maker has in the passed focused on themes related to the documentation and interpretation of cultural expressions in the Caribbean,
“The Garifuna Journey”, with its companion Teacher Study Guide, is one of the best information and teaching packages on the Garifuna culture to date. The documentary was produced in Belize in 1997 in collaboration with the National Garifuna Council of Belize.
It is estimated that 400,000 Garifuna live in the Diaspora. From Rotan, the Garifuna people settled in other parts of Central America where they now reside.
The visit to SVG of the Honduran dance company is greatly significant for two main reasons:
It is the widely accepted view that this is possibly the first return to St. Vincent of a delegation of Garifuna people from Honduras since the Garifuna people were deported by the British from St. Vincent to Rotan Island -- off the coast of Honduras -- in 1797.
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