The Black Carib Wars: Freedom, Survival, and the Making of the Garifuna

Acknowledgments and Note on Text

IX Acknowledgments and Note on Text First and foremost I would like to thank all the members of the delegation, organized by the Garifuna Coalition Inc and led by its president, José Francisco Avila, who visited St. Vincent in July 2009 and who so generously allowed me to share the experience of their return to Youroumaÿn. In particular, I’m grateful to Carlos Gamboa and Angel Guity Fernández for several illuminating and thought-provoking conversations about Garifuna life and history. Also in St. Vincent I would like to thank Vanessa Demircyan, for sharing her interest in contemporary Caribs there and for pointing me towards some French sources, to David Fergusson for steering me in the direction of some interesting items in the Vincentian archives, and to Edwin Johnson, a champion of St. Vincent’s Carib heritage, for his views on the history of Greiggs and for accompanying me to the summit of the Soufrière. I am very grateful to Professor Peter Hulme of the University of Essex for kindly agreeing to read an earlier draft of this manuscript. His comments and suggestions for further research were much appreciated. Any errors of fact or follies of interpretation are, of course, my own. Thanks to James Ferguson of Signal Books for all his work in getting this book into print and for lending me his copy of Sir William Young’s An Account of the Black Caribs of St Vincent—I may be in a position to return it soon. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Deena, for everything, and for introducing me to Andy Palacio’s Wátina. ◆ ◆ ◆ All quotations, both in English and French, are transcribed literally and retain the at times idiosyncratic spellings and the racial terminology of the day. This page intentionally left blank The Black Carib Wars The Black Carib Wars ...