Rasta Mesa is a small grass roots community enrichment center. Our focus is education in art, culture and agriculture for the indigenous Garifuna children in Livingston, Guatemala.
Owner, Ras Mega is 100% Garifuna and his family has been living here for 6 generations. He has made it his life´s work to study the traditional practices of the Garifuna such as the language, drumming methods, dance, cooking techniques, traditional medicine and agricultural skills.
A Short History of
the Garifuna People
The
Garifuna people are an indigenous group of Black Carib people living on the
Caribbean coast of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. They trace their ancestors to the island of
St. Vincent where the first Garifuna was born.
They have their own culture, dance, music, food, clothing and language.
During
the slave trade several boat headed for the new world crashed around the island
of St. Vincent. In the early 1630s West
African slaves escape to the island, where they found the Yellow Caribs, a
group that emerged from the intermarriages between the Venezuelan Caribs and
the island Arawaks. Several other boats and African slave groups
intermixed. By 1750 the new race of
people called GARIFUNA or Black Caribs was formed by the integration of 3
peoples - the Arawaks, the Yellow Caribs and the Africans. The Garifuna people are said to have grown
strong and prosperous on the island. The children born
to an African woman and a Carib man where called Garifuna. This is how the tribe began.
Today
along the Caribbean Coast you find Garifuna villages, like Livingston where
people are still practicing their culture, but the influence of tourism has
made a huge impact on traditional society.
Without dedicated teachers in the community many of the cultural
practices will be lost for the youth.
Rasta Mesa is a place where we try to preserve and protect this history
and culture by educating the community in Garifuna Art, Culture and Agriculture.
Aciete de Coco Kids (2009)
