The Black Caribs of St. Vincent whose defiant fusion of African and Arawak identity survived British exile to plant their culture across the Caribbean coast of Central America.
Garifuna People — the community whose origins in the extraordinary encounter on the island of St. Vincent between the Arawak and Carib indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and the African survivors of shipwrecked slave vessels who came ashore on St. Vincent in the seventeenth century and were absorbed into the island's indigenous communities, producing through generations of intermarriage and cultural exchange the Garifuna people, a new human community of African and indigenous Caribbean heritage whose Garifuna language, a creole of Arawakan structure with Carib, French, English, and African vocabulary, and whose culture of cassava cultivation, dugu ancestral ceremonies, punta music, and communal fishing preserved in a single living tradition the dual heritage of two worlds that colonial slavery and indigenous dispossession had tried to destroy separately and whose fusion created something neither colonizer had anticipated — a people too African for the colonial indigenous category and too indigenous for the colonial African category, belonging fully to both and reducible to neither. The Garifuna world — whose people's fierce resistance to British colonial conquest of St. Vincent under the leadership of the Garifuna chief Joseph Chatoyer, the only national hero of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, prolonged the First and Second Carib Wars until the British military superiority finally prevailed in 1797 and the colonial authorities deported approximately five thousand Garifuna survivors from St. Vincent to the island of Roatán off the coast of Honduras in a second exile that scattered the Garifuna people along the Caribbean coastline of Central America from Belize through Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua where they established the coastal communities whose Garifuna culture of drumming, dance, language, and spiritual practice UNESCO recognized in 2001 as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and whose diaspora communities in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston maintain through the Garifuna Settlement Day celebrations of November 19 and the teaching of Garifuna language and punta dance to American-born children the living connection to a heritage that survived the Middle Passage, indigenous dispossession, and colonial exile to arrive in the American city still singing, still drumming, still irreducibly Garifuna. This interactive t-shirt connects you to that defiant and living legacy with a QR code linking to the full story.
HERITAG is a purpose-driven brand that celebrates cultural diversity and awareness. Wear and share your social identity and cultural heritage with a unique collection of interactive t-shirts that carry flags of indigenous people in America. Create informative and fun moments by inviting people to scan the visible QR code and learn about the diverse US population.
Making products on demand instead of in bulk also helps reduce overproduction, and this quality t-shirt is made especially for you as soon as you place an order.
Few more details about this t-shirt: • Scannable QR code printed on the back for an interactive and fun experience • Designed to educate about a nation's proud history and rich culture • Custom print-on-demand unisex t-shirt • 100% cotton Gildan t-shirt. Soft, comfy, pre-shrunk jersey knit • Sport Grey is 90% cotton, 10% polyester • Heather colors are 50% cotton, 50% polyester • Classic fit, taped neck and shoulders for soft feel • Double seam at sleeves and bottom hem for more durability • Fabric weight: 5.0-5.3 oz./yd² (170-180 g/m²)
