Garifuna Singer delivers stirring performances at Garifuna Bronx concert

Celebrating the vibrant culture and enduring spirit of the Garifuna people, singer, Ganigi, delivered heartfelt acapella renditions of two songs in Garifuna at the Garifuna Abeimahani concert held at the Bronx Music Hall on October 25, 2024. Ganigi, representing the Garifuna nation of Yurumein, known as St. Vincent and the Grenadines, used her music to honour and preserve her ancestral language, now endangered, a release approved by the artist states.

The first song, “Alugatina Tuagu Nuguchu,” transcribed by Garifuna artist James Lovell from Belize, was performed to the tune of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” a song that conveys deep sorrow. Ganigi explained her personal connection to the song, relating it to the painful history of the Garifuna people, who endured forced removal from their homeland in St Vincent during the 18th century. Many were tragically separated from their mothers, grandmothers, and families, and this cultural displacement left them, in her words, “motherless” in their ongoing separation from Yurumein. She reflected, “Garinagu remain motherless until they are embraced and acknowledged by their homeland.”

Her second piece, “Bucha Tuagu,” transcribed by Garifuna artist James Lovell from Belize, was sung to the tune of “You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban. Through her rendition, Ganigi connected with the voices of her ancestors, expressing a sense of loss for the Garifuna language and culture, which continue to carry sadness and shame from generations of displacement and marginalization.

“I sing to help preserve what remains of our ancestral Garifuna language and culture,” she noted.

The Garifuna Abeimahani concert, an all-women’s event project in partnership with NYU’s Hemispheric Institute looks to document the leading women in arts and culture in the Garifuna community. The concert presented artists from each Garifuna community: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Yurumein (St. Vincent) and marked part of the opening of the Bronx Music Hall, a significant cultural milestone. Reflecting on the experience, Ganigi said, “I hardly have words to express how I felt being in the same room and performing alongside Garifuna from all five Garifuna nations. I was overwhelmed, overjoyed, and proud of us all. We have a rich and vibrant culture to celebrate, and we must feel proud to share it with the world.”

Ganigi was born in Fancy, a Garifuna village on the northern tip of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where her heritage remains a central part of her identity and music. Through these powerful performances, Ganigi brought the audience on a journey of historical remembrance and cultural resilience, ensuring that the Garifuna spirit continues to resonate across generations. Ganigi whose birth name is Evelyn Hoyte, is the daughter of Metalyn Hoyte and the late Sanford Hoyte, hailing from Fancy, a small indigenous village on the northern tip of mainland, St. Vincent.