Our Garifuna people must realize that Baliceaux is a crime scene for us, because the genocide that was committed by the British against our people occurred there.

by Wellington C. Ramos

For several years now, we, the Garifuna people, whose ancestors are Vincentians, have been hearing about a plan by the government of Saint Vincent & The Grenadines, to purchase the island of Baliceaux from the Linley family, who claim that they own and have title to the island. They said that they inherited this island through their great grandfather, Thomas Franklyn Linley, who bought it from his father, Richard Phillip Linley (1825-1910) in 1899. In 2019, I decided to conduct a research on the history of this island.

A PICTURE OF THE ISLAND OF BALICEAUX

However, even if the Linley family possesses a title, that title was obtained during the time when the Kalinagu/Garifuna nation was under British military occupation. This was after the British had signed a treaty with the Kalinagu/Garifuna people in 1773 acknowledging their rights to their lands and territories. In Real Estate Law there is “Title” and “Real Title,” and we must look at the circumstances under which the family obtained their title to the island of Baliceaux.

Forcefully removing a person or a group of people from their lands and territories, then subsequently granting Usage, Leases and Titles to the persons’ or peoples’ lands and territories to another person or group of people is inhumane and unlawful. In this case, those people are our people, the Kalinagu/Garifuna.

THE FLAGS OF THE COUNTRIES WHERE MOST GARIFUNA PEOPLE LIVE

Any person or group of persons who obtained Usages, Leases and Titles of lands and territories through military occupation, does not have a Legal Title to the lands or properties they occupy or possess. Why? Because the lands or properties they occupy or possess, were obtained by the use of force against the rightful owners. Even though the unlawful actions were committed years ago, it was unlawful for the Spanish, French, British and all those colonial powers to have committed those criminal acts of genocide against our people. This is why International Laws were passed to prevent these types of occurrences from happening again.

These laws are supported by: ILO-169, UNDRIP, Treaties and other legal instruments which the Kalinagu/Garifuna people do have with the French and British. Saint Vincent & The Grenadines was under British military occupation from 1801 when they gained full control of the island after they unlawfully removed about 5,000 of our Garifuna people from our homeland in 1796 to the island of Baliceaux. On that island our people were unlawfully imprisoned, tortured, killed, and those who died were buried there.

Our survivors numbering about 3,000, were forcefully removed from Baliceaux to the island of Roatan in the Bay Islands, which is now a part of Honduras, in March of 1797. They were dumped on that island on April the 12th 1797.

A PAINTING OF OUR GARIFUNA KING, JOSEPH CHATOYER

Done by one of our Garifuna artists, Gregory Palacio

My research concluded that the island of Baliceaux, the adjacent islands off the mainland, all the islands in the Grenadines and the mainland “Yurumein,” now known as Saint Vincent, all make up the nation we know today as Saint Vincent & The Grenadines, centuries before the Spanish, French and British waged their unjustifiable wars against our Kalinagu/Garifuna nation state.

From the time our people were forcefully removed from Baliceaux, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, where they were imprisoned, tortured, killed and buried in 1797, to Roatan, Honduras, their lives have never been the same in the countries of Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Belize and the United States of America, where they live today. The act of genocide that was committed by the British against our people, has never been addressed and forcefully challenged by our government in Saint Vincent & The Grenadines.

Why? Because the French and British’s intention was to do everything in their capacity to eradicate our people from this planet earth. Due to the fact that they failed to enslave, colonize our nation and subjugate us as slaves, they became hateful. We fought against these two powerful nations and were victorious in some of our wars against them, which led to treaties that were signed with the French in 1664 (The Treaty of Saint Charles) and the British in 1773 (The Treaty of Peace). In both of these treaties, the French and British acknowledged our rights and sovereignty to our Lands and Territories.

After we were dumped in a far, isolated British occupied place by the name of Roatan in the Bay Islands, now a part of Honduras, they changed our original names and gave us Spanish names, which we bear up to this day. This was done to change our identities, so we could not trace our families back in Saint Vincent. What they failed to realize is that our physical removal from our motherland, did not separate us from the souls and spirits of our ancestors who were left behind, travelled with us and remain with us up to this day. When St. Vincent became independent on the 27th of October 1979, they had the power to declare that the descendants of those who were removed from St. Vincent by the British, who now live in the diaspora, are citizens of our nation and must be recognized as such.

THE GARIFUNA FLAG THAT WAS DESIGNED BY THOMAS VINCENT RAMOS

All Garifuna people, from the time they were removed, were certain, and continue to tell their children, that St. Vincent is their motherland.  It is not too late for the government of St. Vincent & The Grenadines to take this necessary and justifiable bold action in their parliament. This will be much appreciated by our ancestors and our brothers and sisters worldwide, who were all left homeless by the British in 1801, when they forcefully took over our lands and unlawfully removed us from our nation for no justifiable reason.

When our people were removed from their homeland to Central America, their citizenship status in the diaspora countries was not determined, because most of the colonies they were living in were colonized by Spain and Great Britain. When these countries obtained their Independence in 1821, they treated our people like strangers, despite the fact that we were born there. This human rights violation is happening in all the diaspora countries, especially in Honduras, where many of our people have been and continue to be killed on several occasions by their law enforcement officials.

UNESCO Proclamation of the Garifuna Language as a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” www.unesco.org/bpi/intangible_heritage/belize.htm

On May 18th, 2001, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the first time awarded the title of “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity,” to 19 outstanding cultural spaces or forms of expression from different regions of the world.

The Garifuna Language, Dance and Music of Belize were among those declared “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.” The oral and intangible heritage has gained international recognition for its provision of cultural identity, promotion of creativity, and the preservation of culture.

It plays an essential role in national and international development, to promote harmonious interaction between cultures. In an era of globalization, many forms of this culture are disappearing, threatened by cultural standardization, armed conflict, industrialization, rural exodus, migration and environmental deterioration. This initiative to help preserve traditional and popular culture is intended to complement UNESCO’s World Heritage List of natural and cultural sites.

The government of St. Vincent & The Grenadines has a legal obligation to its removed citizens, but has never condemned the way that their citizens are being treated in Honduras and the other diaspora countries. This is not the way for a nation to treat our sons and daughters from our soil. The only way for this problem to be resolved, is for our brothers and sisters in St. Vincent & The Grenadines and the diaspora, to apply public pressure on the government of Saint Vincent & The Grenadines, to grant citizenship rights to the descendants of their citizens. All Garifuna people living in the diaspora countries are proud of their Vincentian heritage.

Visiting St. Vincent & The Grenadines is no remedy for the ordeal, pain and suffering we have endured in the countries where we currently reside. For me, it was seeing many people who look like me and did not know how we were related to each other. You can visit the cells up the hill where they were imprisoned before they were removed to the isolated island of Baliceaux.

Also, to visit Baliceaux and see some of my ancestors’ human skeletal remains surfacing from their burial ground as if they were animals.

A PICTURE OF GARIFUNA PEOPLE FROM THE DIASPORA ON BALICEAUX

This will give our people the opportunity to reconnect with themselves, and our ancestors’ spirits for healing. Proposing to sell this historical site will bring more problems to the people and nation of St. Vincent, because our ancestors are unhappy with the way that they were treated on this island prior to their deaths. Some of our people must stop engaging themselves in trivial activities and plan real fundamental and significant activities to tell and live the true story of our resilient Garifuna people and nation. How much longer must we wait for the injustices to end against our people and nation? My people at home have lost their nation, autonomy, land, history, language and culture. Yet, some of them believe most of the lies that the British taught them in their schools after they committed genocide against our people.

Let us all come together as one people to reconnect for justice on behalf of our Garinagu people. We must commit ourselves to making sure that this heinous crime they committed against us will not go without seeking reparations and justice.  Our people in St. Vincent & The Grenadines, along with our people who live in the diaspora, must all come together to seek justice for these gross human rights violations. Included in the resolution must be a proposal to make Baliceaux a Garifuna memorial site, with an ongoing cultural exchange program among the Garinagu people from the diaspora countries and worldwide to meet there annually.

We were once an independent and resilient, self-sufficient people and nation, but have reached the point where some of our people are now dependent on the governments in the countries where we reside. Many of our people are hoping for their conditions to improve, while we are being deprived of the opportunities to acquire the basic necessities of life to survive.

This unrealistic hope and dream will never materialize. Unless, we get a hold of our own destinies and futures, and demand our rights as citizens in all the countries where we live as one nation of people that make up our Garifuna Nation. In the same way that our ancestors gave us the will and determination to fight and risk death, rather than to succumb to colonization and slavery, we prevailed. We must admit that to keep surviving, our struggles remain constant in our lives until we join our ancestors.