Overview

Common heritage and language, rather than geographical boundaries, unite the Garifuna people of Central America. They are the descendants of Africans who escaped slavery in the seventeenth century and intermarried with Caribs living in the eastern Caribbean Island area. Garifuna (ga-RIF-una) refers to the people and the language they speak. Garinagu (ga-REEN-a-goo) is the plural form preferred by these people, whose ancestors settled in the countries of Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

The Republic of Honduras is slightly larger than the state of Tennessee. The country measures 43,644 square miles (112,090 square kilometers). It borders the Caribbean Sea between Guatemala and Nicaragua. The west borders the North Pacific Ocean between El Salvador and Nicaragua. Honduras' population in July of 1998 was approximately 5,861,995 people. Ninety percent of the population are of mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) ethnic origin, 7 percent are Amerindian, 2 percent are Black, and 1 percent are white. Ninety-seven...