Garifuna Women Stake their Claim

Garifuna land along the north coast of Honduras is experiencing an unprecedented development rush. Tourism projects financed by state and international capital such as that of Canada's 'Porn King' Randy Jorgensen with his 'Banana Coast' project, sprawling African palm plantations, as well as the expansion of neighboring urban centers are increasingly usurping ancestral, communally held lands. The community of Triunfo de la Cruz is actively resisting these encroachments by asserting their collective right to the land using legal channels as well as physically occupying the perimeter lands to maintain current borders.

The women's agrarian collective, the Voice of Women, is one such group that is holding back encroachments. A group of 22 women maintain as many plots of land which they have cleared and are cultivating yucca plants on. Much of this area in included in a land dispute between the community and the Honduran government. In 2003 residents initiated a case with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) which claimed the government was negligent in its duty to protect the ancestral Garifuna land as well as not acquiring free, prior and informed consent for the current developments in and around their community. Some of these developments are the Micos and Marbella tourism projects, as well as a large nature reserve, all of which severely restrict, if not completely remove, the land from Garifuna control and usage. The case is slowly working its way through the system with the latest milestone being the 2013 acceptance by the IACHR to hear the case in its courts. The community is now preparing the evidence needed to argue their case as well as raising funds to cover the costs of sending members to Costa Rica where the case will eventually be heard.

Sisters Beatrice and Olivia are two of the women who work plots in the women's collective and have testified before the IACHR. Olivia’s nickname within the community is "Mother Earth", a nod to her dedication to the protection of their land. The two women and the other collective members work long hours on their plots, weeding and nurturing the plants but many must travel a maze of roads to access the land.

Teresa, a member of the collective as well as a founding member of the community’s land defense committee, leads the group I was part of to a small gate in the high cider block fences. Inside are armed private security guards in the employ of the absentee investors. Many large buildings have been constructed within the cordoned off lands despite the ongoing dispute over land title. The women’s determination to continue working their fields and the daily trek along the circuitous roads, past the guards, in and of itself, is an act of defiance. 

However, not all of the fences that are built remain standing. During our visit, a new barbwire fence had been strung up blocking off the beach from the fields. Members of the women’s collective, who believe it was built by workers of the Marbella project, assert that they are illegal and use their sharp machetes to chop down the support posts. The fence will soon be rebuilt but the women's act is another way of resisting the incursions.

As well as the coastal tourism projects, the expansion of African palm plantations is putting pressure on the community from further inland. Honduran millionaire Miguel Facusse, through his extensive Dinant Corporation, holds contested titles to large swaths of land in the northern part of the country. Most of this land is used to grow African palm, the oil of which is used in a wide variety of processed foods and to a lesser extend in the manufacture of biodiesel. Many of the plantation’s processing facilities are also part of the international carbon credit trading industry. This seemingly 'eco-friendly' initiative ignores the fact that the promotion of non-native, monoculture plantations is irreparably damaging the soil in addition to the land disputes both within coastal Garifuna communities and areas such as the Bajo Aguan where numerous activist campesinos have been assassinated.

Conversely, the yucca that the collective grows is a native plant and they employ organic farming techniques. Additionally, it is largely for consumption within the community itself. A small portion will be sold to neighbouring communities but most ends up at the public kitchen back in the centre of Triunfo de la Cruz. The kitchen is a small brick building with ventilation holes blackened by the coal fired stoves that burn within. There, women dry, grind, then fry the yucca, making cassava bread. The community was connected to the electricity grid only in 1980 but access to machinery is still limited resulting in most of the work being done manually.

The Voice of Women collective is held up as an example of not only how to resist land usurpation, but as a means of establishing food sovereignty. A resident of nearby Sambo Creek praised the women’s collective and described her desire to establish a similar one, saying, “They have crops and food and they don’t have to buy their yucca, or cassava bread or plantains. Not like here, where we have to buy everything”¹. Her community is also struggling with land loss despite a favourable State ruling in 2003. A model such as the Voice of Women could be a way to maintain the land conceded back to the community as well as feeding them.

Teresa shrugs off the notion that the women in the agrarian collective, such as herself, are leading the land reclamation fight, saying, “It’s part of our (Garifuna) culture, women are in all our struggles”. Certainly in Triunfo de la Cruz, the women are making their resistance known.

¹ as quoted in Brondo, Keri Vacanti, (2010) “When Mestizo Becomes (Like) Indio… or is it Garifuna? Multicultural Rights and “Making Place” on Honduras’ North Coast”. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. Vol. 15, No. 1, page 189