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Roatan and Bay Islands Discussion List Archive
| Posted On: | 14-Mar-2005 |
| From: | SABAS WHITTAKER [sabaswhittaker.....net] |
| Subject: | [roatan] Today Marks 207 Years Since Garifuna Victory To Remain Free |
More From The Post-Standard | Subscribe To The Post-Standard Films look at African influence in Central America Three-day film festival will be at the Community Folk Art Center in Syracuse. By Frank Herron Staff writer Hurricane Mitch mauled Central America in late October 1998. At least 9,000 were killed. Thousands more were left homeless. Advertisement As news of the devastation flashed northward, many organizations in the United States gathered money and supplies for survivors. Much of the aid went to Honduras. A number of black churches in eastern Connecticut joined in the effort to help out. Sabas Whittaker, a native Honduran living in Middletown, Conn., decided to visit some of those churches on a Sunday to thank donors for their help. His visit turned some heads, he recalls. "Many were really blown away because they hadn't seen a black Honduran before," he says. That really didn't surprise Whittaker. "When you think of Central America, you don't think of Africans," he says. That type of thinking will likely change for people who attend this week's three-day film festival at the Community Folk Art Center in Syracuse. The festival, which includes a presentation by Whittaker on Saturday, is called "Voices/Voces: Colonial Experiences From the Diaspora." The first of five films runs at 7 p.m. Thursday. The last begins at 5 p.m. Saturday. Whittaker speaks after the showing of the documentary "The Garifuna Journey." Whittaker, a Garifuna author and artist, will sign copies of his book "Africans in the Americas." Garifuna is "one of the largest African-descendant groups in Central America," Whittaker explains. "We were never enslaved," says Whittaker. Each film illustrates an often-overlooked aspect of the cultural and ethnic changes brought about by the slave trade and migration that brought thousands of Africans to the Americas. "It's about African descendants," says Kheli Willetts, academic director at the center and an assistant professor in Syracuse University's African-American studies department. "They literally hit every continent." In this film festival, the focus is on the Caribbean islands and Central and South America. "Lots of countries have tiny pockets that have held on to African culture," Willetts says. The festival illustrates "the diversity that really exists in all cultures." Here is a schedule of the films and showtimes: http://www.roatanet.com To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roatan/ roatan- : | |
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