The story begins in 1675, when a slave boat loaded with a human cargo of Ibo tribes people from the Bight of Benin crashed on rocks off Saint Vincent. Over 400 blacks made it ashore. There they were rescued and integrated into the existing Carib society. By 1710, it was estimated that some 5,000″Black Caribs” inhabited one side of the island. Several thousand “Red Caribs,” who had not intermixed lived on the other side. The blacks called themselves Garinuga meaning “proud and brave people,” and their beloved adopted island was known as Yurumein.

Things were to change drastically for the islanders when, in 1763, Saint Vincent was awarded by the French to the British in the Treaty of Paris. The Caribs and Garifuna moved to the north shores of the island where they were welcomed by French sugar cane planters, from whom the Garifuna adopted many French words. They also embraced Catholicism and the French counting system. The British settled on the south shore of the island, where they established their capital, Kingstown.

British were forced to sign a peace treaty with the Garifuna, the first treaty signed with a native population

An uneasy peace lasted for 11 years, until the British attempted a full scale invasion to control the entire island. It was repelled by a Garifuna army led by a charismatic and determined Chief, Joseph Satuye. The British were forced to sign a peace treaty with the Garifuna, the first treaty signed with a native population in the Americas. And like many other treaties that the British signed, it would soon be broken.

Tension between the Garifuna and British mounted until 1795, when the Garifuna grew tired of the petty bullying and ridiculous laws and taxes of the British. Satuye, now in his late 40s, led a rebellion to finally kick the British off the island. His campaign was supported by French military aid and was a total success. Garifuna and French forces soon occupied most of the island and were poised to take Kingstown.

Unbeknownst to the rebels, a huge British relief force under the command of General Abercrombie, arrived to squash the rebellion and attacked them at night on Dorsetshire Hill, overlooking Kingstown. Taken by complete surprise, the Garifuna were routed and Satuye was shot and killed.

Satuye’s reputation for fighting the British for 26 years remains impressive to this day. Satuye is the spiritual leader of all Garifuna around the world, their National Ballet Company in New York is named after him, and he is the only national hero on the island of Saint Vincent.

Despite Satuye’s death, it took the British another year to subdue and round up the remaining 5,000 Garifuna. The new governor of the island, Sir Thomas Young had lost his sugar cane estates in the fighting and had also amassed millions of pounds of gambling debts. To offset these losses, it was decided to remove the Garifuna from the island to make way for new plantations.

The Garifuna were initially kept in camps on the tiny island of Balliceaux, where over half of them died from the pitifully unsanitary conditions and lack of medicines. In January 1797,it was decided to ship them to the island of Roatan, where the British hoped they could be used as indentured agricultural workers.

Dona Lucia with her healing plants.

Doña Lucia Leads a Quiet Life Surrounded by Family and Plants

Lucia Avila-Garcia was born in Rio Esteban in 1936. She has made her living like her parents did: cultivating the soil and raising plants and animals. Her mother Guadalupe was a farmer and her father Santos was a carpenter and cayuco maker on the north coast.

She remembers summary execution of Garifuna community men in 1930s and 40s. “The soldiers would come. They asked you to put on your best clothes for a photograph. Then they would shoot you.” This took place during the presidency of Tiburcio Carias Andino from 1933 to 1949. Hundreds of Garifuna were massacred in that time and many left the country to save their lives. “I still was frightened of loud noises when I moved to Roatan,” remembers Doña Lucia.

In 1966 Doña Lucia boarded a cayuco that sailed towards the biggest of the Bay Islands. She moved to Punta Gorda when there were only a couple hundred people living there. “If you had something you shared it. If you made cassava bread, everybody helped out,” Doña Lucia remembers.

The soldiers would come. They asked you to put on your best clothes for a photograph. Then they would shoot you

Doña Izidria Mejilla, of Balfate took Lucia under her wing and taught her all about plants and healing. Doña Lucia has no books, no notes, nothing has been written of her knowledge of the island plants, herbs and trees. It is all word of mouth, a collective memory passed from one person to the next. A valerian root is fermenting in a aluminum pot next to her house. “It’s good for diabetes, strength. I’ve been fermenting it for a week,” says Doña Lucia. Her knowledge about plants and healing also came during visions she would get in her dreams where one of her ancestors, or deceased friends would suggest a use of a particular plant. “This is what we believe.”

Her humble Punta Gorda home is painted with a fading blue paint and surrounded by dozens of trees and plants. Each plant has a special, happy place with just the adequate moisture from the nearby creek and needed sunlight or shade.“I don’t feel strong in my knees, but in my heart and in my mind I feel useful,” says Doña Lucia.

The Garifuna healer gave birth to 10 children and one was given to her sister to be raised. “This is how you did it in those days,” says Doña Lucia, who has 30 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

As she walks behind her home, she picks up a handful of coconut threads and drops them into dozens of crab holes that dot her seaside property. While in most places on the island the blue crabs are hunted for food and sport, Doña Lucia sees their value and helps these creatures.

“You don’t see things like they used to be,” says Doña Lucia. “There was respect, humility. People lost all of this. There was money, but there was also love.”