Livingston, Garifunas experience

Synopsis

It was a Rasta by the name of Koukoul who introduced me to the extraordinary and little-known story of his people: the Garifunas. They were the only blacks to have landed without shackles in the Americas. They should have been descendants of slaves, but for a few of them history played a curious trick. Two boats from Africa were shipwrecked in the Caribbean near St. Vincent, an island which had not yet been settled. They took refuge there as free men and mixed with the inhabitants, the Carib Indians. A few years later, they landed in Central America, in Guatemala, and founded Livingston where they still live today. That is the city Koukoul goes back to for a few weeks each year after spending the rest of his time on a factory ship in Alaska. In the midst of his Garifuna community, he celebrates their successful fight for freedom with singing and dancing.