Case file · Folklore / legend
Garifuna ancestor rites recognised by UNESCO
In 2001 UNESCO proclaimed the language, dance and music of the Garifuna of Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, including music of the dügü ceremony in which ancestors are called back.
2001 CE · 16.97, -88.22 · status: official
The account
The Garifuna descend from West Africans and Island Caribs of St Vincent, deported by Britain to Roatán in 1797. In the dügü, led by a buyei (spiritual healer), ancestral spirits may take possession of dancers and ask for food and drink to heal the living. Anthropologist Virginia Kerns described it in 'Women and the Ancestors' (1983). The coordinates are for Dangriga, Belize.