Summary “ The Black Carib Wars: Freedom, Survival and the Making of the Garifuna”
By Christopher Taylor
Publisher: Signal Books Ltd.
In The Black Carib Wars, Christopher Taylor offers the most thoroughly researched history of the struggle of the Garifuna people to preserve their freedom on theisland ofSt. Vincent.
Today, thousands of Garifuna people live in Honduras, Belize,Guatemala, Nicaragua and the United States, preserving their unique culture and speaking a language that directly descends from that spoken in the Caribbean at the time of Columbus. All trace their origins back to St. Vincent where their ancestors were native Carib Indians and shipwrecked or runaway West African slaves–hence the name by which they were known to French and British colonialists: Black Caribs.
In the 1600s they encountered Europeans as adversaries and allies. But from the early 1700s, white people, particularly the French, began to settle on St. Vincent. The treaty of Parisin 1763 handed the island to the British who wanted the Black Caribs’ land to grow sugar. Conflict was inevitable, and in a series of bloody wars punctuated by uneasy peace the Black Caribs took on the might of the British Empire. Over decades leaders such as Tourouya, Bigot, and Chatoyer organized the resistance of a society which had no central authority but united against the external threat. Finally, abandoned by their French allies, they were defeated, and the survivors deported to Central Americain 1797.
The Black Carib Wars draws on extensive research in Britain, France, and St. Vincent to offer a compelling narrative of the formative years of the Garifuna people.
About the Author:
Christopher Taylor is a writer and journalist with more than 20 years’ experience working for The Guardian in London. He is the author of The Beautiful Game: A Journey Through Latin American Football and has travelled extensively in Latin America and the Caribbean.
