St. Vincent and the Grenadines played host to the First International Garifuna Summit, from 8 -15 March 2015 under the theme “The Garifuna, a Nation Displaced – Cultural Rights, Economic Survival and Reparations”
National delegations participated from Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the USA. Scholars and practitioners of the Garifuna Heritage and Culture were part of the week-long event.

In recognition of the UN Declaration and Launching of 2015-2024 as the “UN International Decade for People of African Descent” the Summit sought to focus attention on the African component of the Garifuna Heritage and Culture.

The Garifuna people are a group of mixed racial ancestry living in Central America, especially in Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The group originated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines as descendants of African slaves who intermarried with native Carib and Arawak Indians, leading some people to refer to them as “Black Caribs”. In the late 1700’s the Garifuna people were forcibly removed from St. Vincent and the Grenadines because they were seen as a threat to the new British colonisers. They eventually settled in Central America and some later moved on to the USA. The Garifuna Heritage Foundation, organisers of the Summit, are seeking to preserve the language and culture or the Garifuna or Kalinago people and maintain their historic ties to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, their ancestral homeland which they call Yurumei.

Full story: Garifuna Heritage Foundation