garifuna culture Archives - Warasa Garifuna Drum School

Malate Isien (Worthless Love)

Malate Isien is one of the most popular traditional Garifuna songs. It is a catchy Paranda song, and as with many Garifuna songs, it relates to daily life. In this case, it is giving advice about love. It was originally written by Bernard “Gabaga” Williams. Our group also regularly perform this song.

There are various recordings of the track, and some feature only one or two of the verses. Likewise in some live performances only one or two of the verses are sung. Hopefully by documenting more of the known verses we can encourage groups to sing the entire song.

We have included English translation for the Chorus and two of the verses so far. We will update with the translation of the last two verses when we have it finished – or if any of our Garifuna readers would like to contribute translations, then feel free to comment!

You can purchase this song (sung by Dale Guzman) and more from Stonetree Records, or if you have Spotify access, listen here.

Malate Isien (Worthless Love)

Madayagua harabana luagu tirau noufuri (Sing 2 times) (They have ganged up on my aunt’s daughter)
(Following 3 lines are sung 3 times)
Mabarase ba gia hau, mabarase ba gia hau (Don’t worry about them)
Luagu halugun heiginibu (How they tried to eat you alive)
Laduga heigadi gurigia (For their love of human flesh)

Chorus (Sing 2 times)
Malati isien ganeiwa ruguti (Love that is bought is worthless)
Michiga ba purisima dan le misien ba (Don’t extend a greeting where you are not loved)
Malati isien ganeiwa ruguti (Love that is bought is worthless)
Malati dan le misien ba (It is useless when you are not loved)

Gundabadina luni latigirunina mutu luagu niduun aü (sing two times) (I would gladly agree to be hanged for a crime I have committed)
(Repeat following 2 lines x 2 times)
Buguya haruguti buguya hebenene (You are their grandfather you are their godfather)
Buma hafureindera ligia lagarida bun aü (They learned from you now it hurts you)

Au gufuruma badina luni hahuluchunina mutu luagu niduru (sing 2 times)
(Repeat following 3 lines x 2 times)
Amuru haruguti, amuru hebenene
Buma hafurendera iweru
Larigien tagarida bun

Numada rau wau mamada ba ya ubowagu
Tueidugien buguchu luma buguchili
Hagia rugubana bumadagu ubowagu
Ibidie bei mutu le lun bei lagumuchu bau

How to shake your arse (Belize style)

Go to any bar with live music at night in Belize, and you will witness the dominant form of Belizean dancing, which like the dominant form of Belizean music (Punta rock), originates from traditional Garifuna culture. That is, it involves shaking your arse. Visitors to Belize often marvel at how Belizean women especially are able to “move their ass completely independently of the rest of their body”, and think that they have developed special arse muscles that allow such frenetic yet well-controlled booty manoeuvres.

I have a secret to share: no special arse muscles are involved. In fact, I would venture that you don’t really use your arse muscles at all. Or even your waist muscles (not at beginners’ level punta/punta rock dancing anyway). The key is all in the feet and legs. If you stand still, feet shoulder width apart, bend your knees slightly, and then bend one knee more than the other, you will find your other knee straightens. Then you switch and bend your other knee forward more. Keep doing this, and you will find a funny thing happens: your arse moves side to side. No special arse muscles required.

Of course, to look professional, you have to do it in time to the music, and be able to move around side-to-side, forwards, backwards, in a circle, and a few other little fancier movements here and there, but that is the basic secret. So stop focussing on your arse, shift your knees, and be prepared to look like an idiot.

Ray likes to take credit for the fact that I can now dance punta (and paranda, and to a certain extent hungu-hungu), and while he did give me two or three lessons (where even though it was just me and him in the house I still felt like a complete idiot!), I think most of it just came from getting bored sitting down watching everyone else having a good time, and finally thinking “ach stuff it who cares” to all those that wanted to laugh at the white gal who (couldn’t) dance.

https://www.warasadrumschool.com

Yurumein: The story of the Garifuna

Every year on 19^th November, Ray, his family, and pretty much every Garifuna person in Belize (plus lots of other interested Belizeans and visitors) will attend their local “Yurumein” on the national holiday known as Garifuna Settlement Day, the anniversary of when the largest group of Garifuna people arrived on the shores of Belize.

Yurumein is the Garifuna name for St. Vincent, the island where several Spanish slave ships were wrecked in the 17^th century, allowing their occupants to escape slavery and mix with the local indigenous Arawak and Carib Indians living on the island, creating the Garifuna culture, language and ethnicity. But the word “Yurumein” now also refers to the annual re-enactment of when the Garifuna arrived in their new homelands in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua after being expelled from St Vincent by the new British colonialists in the 19^th century.

In PG, this re-enactment involves two or three boatloads of Garifuna people paddling towards the main dock, carrying essential crops such as banana, plantain, cassava and coconut to plant wherever they land. The also carry their flag, and also come playing drums to announce their arrival. Unlike the original arrival, in the Yurumein re-enactment, hundreds of local Garifuna people line the shore and the dock waiting to greet their brethren, wearing traditional clothes and also carrying flags, drums, and crops, and singing and dancing in greeting. Local British/Zimbabwean/Belizean Jack Nightingale, who is a portly middle-aged white man with blonde/white hair and an English accent, takes on the role of the British Governor General, and thus when the first boat requests permission to settle in Belize (British Honduras way back then), he refuses the request.

He refuses two or three more times, and the lead boat paddles back to discuss the next move with the other boats, but persistence pays off, and eventually the Garifuna boats are granted permission to land and settle the uninhabited coast in the south of Belize. The new arrivals land their boats, and join in with the singing, dancing and drumming, and parade town to much celebration, before going to church for a brief ceremony.

Last year, 2010, 19^th November was a rainy day, but although rain stops many Belizeans going out under normal circumstances, the Yurumein still went ahead, and had even more poignancy, as made you ponder what it must have been like to travel across the sea for weeks looking for a new homeland, only to be refused entry. I would have persisted also!

And so the coastal Garifuna towns and villages Dangriga, Punta Gorda, Hopkins, Barranco and Seine Bight were formed. The other Garifuna village in Belize, Georgetown, is inland, but was only founded after some families from Seine Bight relocated following a bad hurricane. While Garifuna people make up less than 10% of the population of Belize, their influence is widespread, especially in the areas music and education, with the majority of Belizean musicians and a large percentage of Belizean teachers being of Garifuna heritage.

https://www.warasadrumschool.com

Drums of the ancestors

Dugu – Painting by Belizean artist Benjamin Nicholas

Listening to many Garifuna songs, they are very up-tempo. My Scottish indie-rock loving music tastes assumed that they must therefore be quite cheerful – maybe about catching lots of tasty fish a particular day. But that’s not how Garifuna music works – there is a particularly up-tempo Garifuna punta song that is all about when Hurricane Hattie almost completely destroyed many towns and cities in Belize:

Wa ba bumalali, Sili, lanarime dan
(You’ve raised your voice, Syl, how terrible the storm).
Wa ba bumalali, nirüa
(You’ve raised your voice, my child.)
Nabugu yali ubüu
(The earth has been brought low)
Wa wama ferudun, wonweguü yebe
(Let us beg forgiveness, we nearly died)

Larugan aningira hüruha ubüu
(At dawn the earth lay in sadness)
Laramaüahandügü wagüa, giüngiuüahündügü wagüa
(We could only stand around, just sucking our teeth).
Higüu waban? Barüla Hati
(Where is our house? Hattie has taken it)

Garifuna people believe in ancestral spirits, and that their ancestors continue to talk to them and guide them after death. For this reason, death is not considered such a sad time, and the wake of a well-known Garifuna person in PG is one of the biggest parties to be found in any given year, with all night drumming, dancing and singing (plus a little gambling to round things off).

The most important cultural ceremony that the Garifuna conduct is the Dugu, a large ceremony that takes place in the local Garifuna temple that can last over a week – I was honoured enough to attend 24 hours at one of Ray’s family’s dugu. A Dugu is held whenever there is some kind of trouble in the family, and the ancestors ask for a Dugu through the Buyei – the spiritual leader of the Garifuna temple., in order to heal the illness or seal the family rift that has occurred. The entire extended family is expected to attend, no matter what country they live in. The drumming during Dugu is especially important, with the sacred Dugu rhythm being played on large segunda drums only, which have been blessed and should never leave the temple. Daily offerings of food are prepared, with each ancestor’s favourite food being specially prepared. Once the appropriate drumming, singing and blessings have taken place, and the ancestors have had their fill, the living family can eat, with any left over food being ceremonially buried. Drumming, singing and dancing goes on through the night, with the drummers only sleeping for one or two hours here and there. Incense such as copal (termite nests!) burns throughout the Dugu. At certain stages some family members may be possessed by the spirit of an ancestor and either start dancing in the same style as the ancestor, or may pass on some oral advice or message.

Ray told me that when he went to a family Dugu after our trip to Scotland, his grandfather told him (through the Buyei) that he had followed us, and described in detail some of the places we had visited. Sometimes evil spirits make an appearance during a Dugu, and they most be exorcised by even more spiritual drumming, dancing, singing and blessings. While I may be a sceptic when it comes to anything supernatural, I totally respect Ray’s spiritual beliefs, and have certainly witnessed for myself the healing effect it has on a family during troubling times.

https://www.warasadrumschool.com

The Drum Whisperer

Ray is famous in PG for his drumming. He may never have one the annual “Battle of the Drums” competition in PG (clearly the judges aren’t in their correct minds), but anyone that loves drumming will hire Ray and his family to drum for any event above any other local group. As Ludwig Palacio, local poet, artist and veterinarian once said to me: “some people knock drum like they’re at war with it, like they’re trying to knock it into submission… but Ronald – he caresses that drum and produces something magical” Of course I am totally biased, but I do happen to think Ray is the best drummer in Belize, possibly the world. One day, I asked Ray how he learned to play the Primero. I knew that he taught himself from age 5, but obviously he must have been watching someone. Sadly his inadvertent teacher (called Simon) is no longer alive he said, but he must have been good. Ray says his teachers at school would always scold him at school for drumming on his desk…it’s such a shame they couldn’t have channelled his talent instead of telling him off about it.

https://www.warasadrumschool.com