Garifuna Ancestral ceremony at Orchard Beach, New York City, June 2023. Photo, Nodia Mena Garifuna people live along the coasts of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and the United States; they share a common origin, language, music, and ancestral placation system. They are genetically and culturally mixed with St. Vincent’s Amerindians (the Carib, Arawak, and Taino peoples in the Lesser Antilles) and West Africans (believed to be of Yoruba, Ibo, and Ashanti descent)

Historical Perspective Ereba-Making is a symbol of continuity, a food-making practice that carries the memory of migration, displacement, resistance, and empowerment. For Garifuna communities, making casabe remains one of the most recognizable counter-hegemonic expressions of resistance to identity erasure. Garifuna, a community of African and Ameri-Indian peoples in Honduras, Belize, and Guatemala, originated in the Caribbean. They learned survival mechanisms, such as gathe

Casabe Making Legacy: From Community Practice to Cultural Preservation The alliance between African and Carib peoples on the island of Saint Vincent gave rise to the Garifuna people, whose language and cultural practices have been preserved and transmitted across generations. Following their forced displacement from Saint Vincent, Garifuna communities have continued to sustain ancestral traditions, including the practice of ereba-making. This tradition remains deeply signific