Garifuna Language Included in Education Curriculum

The Battle of the Drums cultural retrieval and preservation initiative, established in response to the decline observed in Garifuna culture, has been working tirelessly since 2006 to retrieve, preserve and promote key aspects of the Garifuna heritage.  Recognizing the urgent need to address the deterioration of the Garifuna language, the Battle of the Drums and the National Garifuna Council teamed up to create an initiative to prioritize the establishment of a standardized Garifuna language in schools program across southern Belize.

 

Darius Avila, President, Battle of the Drums Secretariat

“We have been at this for a number of years now.  We, meaning the Battle of the Drums Secretariat, in the midst of COVID, we reached out to the NGC to ask them for us to collaborate on what we termed the Garifuna Language in Schools Program.  You would know that the Battle of the Drums has been in existence since 2006 and we have been undertaking various programs, particularly in the Punta Gorda, Toledo area.  In 2012, I think it was, we started what we referred to as the Garifuna Language in Schools Program at the largest primary school at the time in Punta Gorda Town, by the name of St. Peter Claver School.  We saw where there was significant value in that particular program and we also extended it to St. Joseph RC School in Barranco.  Given the success of the program in those two schools, fast-forward to 2020, we reached out to NGC and suggested to them that we should collaborate to extend the program to other schools in the south, namely: St. Alphonsus in Seine Bight, Richard Quinn in Georgetown, Holy Family School in Hopkins, Sacred Heart RC in Dangriga, as well as Holy Ghost RC.  We know fully well that Gulisi Community Primary School has been at the forefront of Garifuna in schools education.  So all of these other schools that are named were going to be new in terms of this particular framework.”