We all have November 19 marked on our calendars as Garifuna Settlement Day, a holiday set aside to celebrate all things Garifuna. But did you know that today, April 12, is also important to the Garinagu?
The Garifuna scholars tell us that on this day 219 years ago, in 1797, the British rounded up just over 2000 ancestors of the Garifuna after they were defeated in the Second Carib War. They were then transported from their homeland of Saint Vincent, and then dumped on Roatan, Honduras, in a sort of exile.
Those ancestors, left to fend for themselves in a foreign land, had to survive, and in the years immediately following that expulsion, started migrating to other parts of Central America, such as Nicaragua, Belize, and Guatemala.
So, instead of commemorating it as the day they were forced out of their homes, they observe it as Survival Day, the time when those ancestors had to adapt to a new way of life.
Today, the National Garifuna Council hosted a press conference to discuss the importance of Survival Day to the local Garinagu:
ACP Robert Mariano, Pres., National Garifuna Council
"Today is 219 years since the exile of the Garifuna people from Saint Vincent. In 1797, the Garinagu people were exiled by the British. While we don't celebrate the exile, we celebrate our settlement to this beautiful jewel of ours, Belize."
Roy Cayetano, Advisor, National Garifuna Council
"Regrettably, our story is not very well known. It is not very well known even to our children, because when they do history in school, it does not include their own history. after the so-called 'Carib War' in Saint Vincent, a war in which our people stood up to what at that time was the superpower, namely the British Empire, they were eventually of course defeated. They were defeated only after reinforcements were sent with the best of the British Navy and Military. After their canoes were destroyed, after their plantations were destroyed, they had to 
surrender and they were rounded up and between July 1796 and March 1797 a total of 4,338, some say 5,000 plus, were imprisoned on Balise which was a desolate island. Even today that island which is a part of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is not occupied because it is not fit for human habitation. On March 11th, 1797 the 2,248 were boarded, what happened to the others? They had perished on the island. So between July 1796 and March 1797, about half the number died of poor conditions, starvation and disease. So 2,248 were loaded unto 11 ships, the flagship being named, ironically, HSM Experiment which meant Her Majesty's Ship Experiment. They were taken away on a day like today, the 12th of April they were dumped on the island of Roatan to fend for themselves."
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