And - in a few days on the 19th - not only dancing, but all the elements of Garifuna culture will be in full bloom across Belize.
Area representative for Dangriga Louis Zabaneh told us on Friday that this year's festivities are expected to outshine last year's. He shared with us a few upcoming highlights in celebration of Garifuna Settlement day:
Dr Louis Zabaneh, Minister of State, Ministry of Education
"Well the 19th will be the best ever, we thought that we had done that last year but i met with the organizers on Wednesday in fact and all the activities the hype, everything is there, we will even have the coast guard joining the parade this year, so i am excited and i want to invite the whole country to come to Dangriga, there's nothing like it. The whole experience you come from the 18th or the 17th. I have a number of my friends who are coming from abroad who are coming back home and this is a time when family gets together, friends we get together and we really enjoy the culture and we enjoy the fact that we have members of our country and members of our community as an ethnic group who have worked so hard to maintain their identity and out language and out Garifuna people are an example of what we need to do to maintain what matters to us in this country, our culture our ethnicities and the treasures that we have that make Belize unique. And that's why so many people enjoy celebrating the 19th."
We'll have coverage of 19th activities throughout the week.
