Dangriga - Culture

Dangriga, the largest town in the Stann Creek District, is located 55 miles from Belmopan and 105 miles from Belize City. With a population of 8100, it is one of the largest Garifuna communities in the world. The town was originally called Stann Creek when it was a small English trading station. But in 1975 the name was changed to Dangriga by the Garifuna majority of the town.

Dangriga takes it's name from the local Garifuna language, loosely meaning "here, the sweet water is close at hand". It lies peacefully along the banks of the North Stann Creek River, whose water is legendary. The town's drinking supply is refreshingly cool and arguably the best tasting in Belize.

The Garifuna are also skilled artists. Primitivism dominates their paintings, with great elaboration of details, flat colours, and unreal perspective. Benjamin Nicholas' paintings depict events in Garifuna history as well as lifestyle and culture. Pen Cayetano is also an accomplished painter, whose work is more realistic than other painters but it still retains the attractive aspects of primitivism.

Dangriga Garifuna are noted for their crafts. For the last thirty years, Austin Rodriquez has hollowed out hefty logs of cedar and mahogany to make drums. He cures his own deer and cow hides with lime, salt and the sun before working them over the head of the drums ranging from 6 inches to 2 feet in diameter.

The town's dreamy atmosphere still harks back to a past age. The houses are made of weathered wooden planks and raised on stilts. Fishing dories lie tied up along the banks of the river.

But of course the modern world has crept in. Instead of pursuing the traditional fishing and farming, many Garifuna have become teachers and civil servants. Cable television is in Dangriga and a steady flow of cash from large expatriate communities has allowed some wooden houses to be replaced by concrete. Between the slow pace of traditional subsistence living and the headlong rush for materialism, little attention has been paid to creating a tourist image in Dangriga.