°ANDY
PALACIO°
I worked with small groups of Garifuna and
was struck by their almost complete loss of
identity. People were embarrassed that they
couldn’t speak the language. I resolved then
to prevent that loss happening in Belize...”
Sue Steward catches up with Belize’s Andy Palacio, spearheading the
development of music from Central America’s Garifuna community
PORTRAIT BY KATIA PARADIS
B
elize is one of Latin America’s
most incongruous countries:
formerly British Honduras, its
head of state remains the Queen
of England and English its official
language. But the tiny country (population
around 300,000) is wedged between Spanishspeaking Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala,
and a stroll through Belize City offers a mix
of Creole, English, Spanish, Mayan and
Garifuna conversations. Belize is popular
with eco-tourists, snorkellers and cruise
ship passengers, but its growing presence
in the world music arena points to a future
destination for music tourists as well. The
attraction will be the distinctive, strongly
African dance music, and particularly its
best-known singer-songwriter, Andy Palacio.
He is a passionate ambassador for the
music of his Africa-descended Garifuna
people and this year, he shares the WOMEX
38 Songlines
November 2007
November 2007
award with his producer-collaborator, Ivan
Duran, for their fabulous Wátina album.
Palacio’s mission to spread the word about
the endangered Garifuna culture led to a
Wátina tour this summer with the ninepiece, cherry-picked Garifuna Collective.
From Slovenia to Canada, via Dublin,
Liverpool and London, France and Germany,
they introduced the word ‘garifuna’ (‘cassava
or manioc eaters’) into many languages. With
Palacio on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, the
musicians included neighbouring Hondurans
(Eduardo ‘Guayo’ Cedeño playing a
shimmering lead electric guitar and Rolando
Sosa on rhythm guitar and honeydew melonsized maracas), and Belizeans Carlos Perrote
(segunda (second) drum), Joshua Arana on
primero (first) drum, Al Ovando (bass), and
Giovani Chi playing four roped-together
turtle-shell drums. Special guest was 83-yearold Paul Nabor who received tumultuous
applause everywhere – not for his longevity
but his extraordinary voice. Nabor is a kind
of Belizean Compay Segundo, with a
countryman’s straw hat and a voice as strong
and jagged as a power drill, whilst youthfully
melodic and well pitched. He closed the
London show with a startlingly expressive
version of the harrowing ‘Yagane’ (My
Canoe), accompanied only by drums.
Most surprising is this music’s distance from
the salsa and merengues ubiquitous in adjacent
countries, but they share the influence of
reggae, which wafts amongst subtle Congolese
and Haitian guitar phrases, and is particularly
effective in the lilting reggae-paranda ‘Lidan
Aban’ (Together). The Garifuna Collective’s
shows are relaxed and family-like, but as
Palacio announces, “We dance for reasons, not
just for fun,” they launch into the catchy, shuffly
punta-rock rhythm synonymous with Belize,
the fast dum-dum-dum, dum-dum beat of »
Songlines 39
° A NDY
maracas and drums, shaking dancers into
action. Slower numbers like the paranda ‘Beiba’
(Go Away: a drunken husband’s defence)
possess some of the yearning of Cape Verde’s
morna tradition.
During a conversation in London before
his show, Palacio explained the background to
the Garifuna people – how a group of West
African slaves revolted on their ship, which
ran aground on St Vincent in 1635. They took
refuge with the local Carib and Arawak
Indians, adopted their language and some
customs, and gradually created ‘a hybrid
nation’ – the Garifuna. But, in 1797, St
Vincent was taken by the British who expelled
them to an island off Honduras. From there,
they spread along the coast; Palacio is
descended from the community in what
became British Honduras. As deputy
administrator at the National Institute of
Culture and History, he is involved in the
annual Garifuna Festival which re-unites
musicians from the diaspora (including the
US) and the celebrations for Ancestors’ Day
which marks when the Garifuna landed. At
school, he recalls, “We were taught that they
were ‘welcomed’ by the colonials; historians
have proved the opposite – they were
expelled and forced to settle in Guatemala,” he
says fiercely. “But,” he adds, “The experience
of being driven out of our homeland is
immortalised in our national folk songs.” He
explains that the Spanish-speaking Garifuna
are only very recently aware of the concept of
a ‘Garifuna Nation’ beyond their borders.
Palacio is a modest and open man, witty and
articulate, resembling a persuasive teacher
(which he once was). He inherited his
musicality from his father, a fisherman who
played guitar and harmonica (the boy’s first
instrument) and entertained boat passengers
with English folk songs, which he also
»
PALACIO°
The Garifuna Collective in
rehearsal, with Paul Nabor on
guitar (top right)
CUBA
H A I TI
M E X I CO
Belize City
Gulf of
B E L I Z E Honduras
G UAT E M A LA
HONDURAS
E L S ALVA D O R
DOMINICAN
REPUBLIC
P U E RTO
R I CO
J A M A I CA
C
N I C A R AG UA
CO S TA R I C A
a
r i
b b
e a n
s e a
S T. V I N C E N T &
T H E G R E N A D I N ES
VENEZUELA
PA NAMA
CO LO M B I A
GARIFUNA TIMELINE
1748
1797
1800s
1970s
2007
Two Spanish ships, carrying
African slaves to their colonial
masters, are wrecked off the
coast of St Vincent. The slaves
establish themselves on the
island, mixing with the local
population and adopting
their customs and languages.
They are largely left alone by
colonisers, as St Vincent lacks
the natural resources of other
nearby islands.
St Vincent, Dominica and
Tobago are declared to be
under the possession of the
Caliponan people (of Indian
origin).
Months of fighting with the
English prove too much for
the Garifuna community
and they are expelled to the
large island of Roatan. Many
then migrate onto mainland
Honduras.
The Garifuna communities
spread along the coastal
countries of Central America
– Belize, Guatemala,Honduras
and Nicaragua.
Delvin ‘Pen’ Cayetano, with his
group the Turtle Shell Band,
invents punta-rock – adding
guitars to the traditional
Garifuna drum rhythms.
DJ Fatboy Slim arrives from
Brighton to Belize in search of
inspiration from the Garifuna
drums for his new album.
A collaboration on Hopkins
beach involves Andy Palacio
and the Garifuna Collective’s
drummers appearing on three
of the album tracks. In return,
the DJ offers to remix tracks
from Wátina for later release.
demian solano
1635
Source: www.garifuna.com
November 2007
Songlines 41
° A NDY
Garifuna CDs
KATIA PARADIS
Various Artists,
Paranda (Stonetree)
A historic compilation
of Garifuna rhythms,
recorded in villages
across Belize, Guatemala
and Honduras.
Palacio at home in
Barranco, Belize
taught his son. In the 70s, Palacio took up
guitar, playing soul, reggae and soca, and
dreaming of being a Belizean Bob Marley.
Musical influences flew in by radio from
Jamaica and the Francophone countries:
reggae, soukous, compas and cadence all
permeate his songs. After school, he taught
primary school children, trained in Belize City
and entered the club scene, then volunteered
as a literacy teacher in Nicaragua. He sought
“I thought the record would
appeal to old people, but now
there’s young people’s interest.
It’s accomplishing everything
I ever dreamed of”
out the coastal English-speaking communities
but found no official awareness of Garifuna
people: “The assumption was that all blacks
were immigrants from Jamaica,” he recalls, “I
worked with small groups of Garifuna and was
struck by their almost complete loss of identity.
People were embarrassed that they couldn’t
speak the language. I resolved then to prevent
that loss happening in Belize; my plan to be a
soul/reggae star went on the back burner!”
By the 80s, musicians in Belize were
Andy Palacio performing with
the spritely Paul Nabor
experimenting with electrical instruments
and the new punta-rock: “the traditional
punta beat turned up a few notches and is
infused with catchphrases,” is how Palacio
describes it. Electric guitar punta-rock
became a craze and he its favourite
performer, with hit singles including ‘Ereba’
(a cassava bread, the staple of Garifuna diet),
symbolising the expression of Garifuna
identity. Punta’s influences included soca,
while the neighbouring Latino countries
drew on salsa and merengue, and today, hiphop and Jamaican dancehall flood into the
region through American TV. “But,” asserts
Palacio, “Punta-rock is still proudly Belize’s
own national dance music.” I ask him how
much of the Garifuna’s African ancestry
remains in their music, and he admits that
he notices similarities when watching
African groups perform. But also influences
from Afro-Caribbean music in Cuba,
Venezuela, Haiti. “Of course,” he adds,
“Africa is in the drums.” While Belize doesn’t
possess a unique national instrument, the
drums (primera and segunda) – doubleended barrels like congas, and often with
resonating metal strings slung across the top
skin to create a skiffly snare sound – are
particular to the culture.
In the last few years, Palacio has turned his
Andy Palacio,
Keimoun (Beat On)
(Stonetree)
This punta-rock album
set the standard for
Belizean tropical music.
Aurelio Martinez,
Garifuna Soul
(Stonetree)
A fresh take on paranda
music from the Honduran
singer. A Top of the World
review in #36.
Andy Palacio & The
Garifuna Collective,
Wátina (Cumbancha)
Palacio’s latest release
sounds more West African
than Latin American. A
TOTW review in #43.
aymeric warmÉ-janville
Various Artists, Music
from Honduras Vol 2
(Caprice)
Compilation of traditional
Garifuna songs.
November 2007
PALACIO°
back on the upbeat, electric punta sound and
gone ‘almost unplugged.’ Key to this new
direction is his relationship with Ivan Duran, a
Creole-Catalan born in Mexico, in search of
traditional Belizean music but also creating
21st century dance music. Duran’s first success
in 1995, with his Stonetree label, was a
compilation of parandas – songs performed
around Christmas by neighbours processing
from house-to-house. Many punta-rock bands
(including Palacio’s) perform parandas; he was
part of The Paranda Project which, he explains,
“got rid of the keyboards and drum kit and
started to go more authentic, ie unplugged.”
Palacio and Duran recorded the Wátina album
in Barranco, the tiny fishing village where
Palacio grew up. They recorded in a local’s
thatched beach hut, the leader adding ritual
rhythms to his songs as a subtle way of drawing
attention to the traditions. “In ‘Weyu Lárigi
Weyu’ (Day by Day),” he says, “The hunguhungu rhythm associated with a healing ritual,
is taken from the ceremonies where a family
gathers with a spirit medium and dances for
days.” The gorgeous ‘Baba’ (Father), a mournful
ritual song accompanied by three drums, is
played on Sundays in all churches. ‘Águyuha
Nidúheñu’ (My People Have Moved On) is a
seemingly incongruously skippy guitar-based
song, adapted from that traditionally used
during the ‘Nine-Night’ wakes, now a
contemplation of departed ancestors. Palacio’s
song ‘Ámuñegü’ (In Times to Come) refers to
the Arumahani, a male dance and one of
Garifuna’s most endangered musics. “The men
stand in a line, hands joined, and sing a capella,
in solidarity with each other’s lives – I don’t
know how it survived,” says the singer, “Even
the vocal style isn’t still used in daily speech.
That song reflects on where we are headed as a
people. The time has come for a deliberate
transmission of culture to the next generation
– or we’ll lose it altogether. But just as
geographical areas are being declared heritage
sites, so also are cultures, and in 2001, Garifuna
was archived,” he adds proudly.
The Wátina album has transformed
Palacio’s status abroad but, most
importantly, has had profound effects at
home: young musicians are adopting the
Collective’s approach, “unplugging and
singing Garifuna songs!” he exclaims. “I
thought the record would appeal to old
people because of its mature and
sophisticated sound and its exploration of
the soul of Garifuna music, but now there’s
young people’s interest…” he pauses, “It’s
accomplishing everything I ever dreamed of
where our community was concerned.” He
smiles a modest, contented smile. l
Wátina was reviewed in issue #43
Ivan Duran and Andy Palacio will
receive the 2007 WOMEX award on
October 28
You can hear a track from
Andy Palacio’s Wátina album
on this issue’s podcast
Songlines 43