Roatán, the largest of Honduras’s Bay Islands, sits off the northern coast of the mainland in the western Caribbean. Roatán is a site of deep Afro-descendant presence and struggle. From the Garífuna who were forcibly deported there by the British in 1797, to the free Black migrants from the Cayman Islands and other parts of the British West Indies who built Creole communities in the nineteenth century, Roatán is a living archive of Black Caribbean migrations, social and political struggle, and cultural memory. Despite waves of displacement, economic marginalization, and demographic change, Afro-descendant communities on the island continue to assert their claims to space, identity, and historical continuity.
Roatán, the largest of Honduras’s Bay Islands, is home to enduring Afro-Indigenous Garífuna and Afro-Caribbean Creole communities shaped by exile, migration, and resistance. In 1797, the British forcibly deported over 2,500 Garífuna from St. Vincent to Roatán; while many later moved to the mainland, a significant community remains in Punta Gorda on the island’s north shore. In the 19th century, free Black migrants from the Cayman Islands and other parts of the British West Indies settled across the island (particularly in Coxen Hole), establishing English-speaking Protestant Creole communities tied to regional maritime economies and kinship networks. These Afro-descendant populations have long challenged efforts to subsume their histories within dominant national narratives. Today, intensified tourism, real estate speculation, and internal migration threaten the political and cultural life of these communities, yet both Garífuna and Creole residents continue to defend collective memory and territorial claims. From the organizing of OFRANEH to the cultural work of local centers and the late musician and former congressman Aurelio Martínez, Roatán remains a site of ongoing struggle for Black sovereignty in the western Caribbean.
Roatán became a key node in the Garífuna diaspora when, in 1797, the British military deported over 2,500 Garífuna people from St. Vincent to the island following the Second Carib War. The Garífuna, a people of mixed African and Indigenous Kalinago ancestry, had long resisted British colonial expansion in the Lesser Antilles. Their forced arrival on Roatán marked both a rupture and a new beginning. Stranded on a relatively small island with limited arable land and resources, many Garífuna soon migrated to the mainland coast, founding enduring communities in what are now the departments of Atlántida, Colón, and Gracias a Dios, as well as along the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua, Belize, and Guatemala. However, a small group remained on Roatán, establishing the settlement of Punta Gorda. To this day, Punta Gorda is regarded as the symbolic birthplace of Garífuna presence in Central America. Here, Garífuna language, musical genres like punta and paranda, ancestral rituals, and culinary practices remain crucial to community life. Roatán’s Garífuna residents have been central in regional organizing around language revitalization, land protection, and transnational cultural advocacy, especially in the face of tourism-driven gentrification and land loss.
Alongside the Garífuna, Roatán is also home to English-speaking Afro-Caribbean Creole communities, whose roots lie in the post-emancipation migrations of free Black people from the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and other parts of the British West Indies. Following the British abolition of slavery in 1833, many Afro-Caribbean families sought new opportunities abroad, migrating through maritime circuits of trade and labor that connected the British Caribbean to the Bay Islands and the Mosquitia. Roatán's status as a British colony from 1852 to 1860 further facilitated this migration.
Creoles established themselves in key settlements like Coxen Hole, developing tightly knit communities rooted in Protestant religious practices, English-language schooling, shipbuilding, fishing, and small-scale commerce. Their cultural and linguistic continuity with the Anglophone Caribbean, especially in speech patterns, culinary traditions, music, and kinship networks, made Roatán a Black Caribbean enclave within a predominantly Spanish-speaking Central American republic. Despite facing historical marginalization under Honduran rule after the Bay Islands were ceded to the state in 1860, Creoles have maintained cultural distinctiveness and a strong sense of island-based identity. Roatán Creoles have often been leaders in defending local land rights and maritime access, advocating for bilingual education, and resisting efforts to erase their historical presence through policies of national assimilation.
Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Roatán’s population and cultural landscape have been significantly reshaped by waves of internal and international migration. The growth of mass tourism, especially through cruise ship traffic and the diving industry, has led to a major influx of mestizo settlers from the Honduran mainland as well as expatriates from North America and Europe. These changes accelerated after a 1998 constitutional amendment permitted foreign land ownership, resulting in more than 75 percent of land across the Bay Islands now being held by non-Hondurans. As a result, Garífuna and Creole communities have been steadily displaced from ancestral lands and now retain only a small fraction of the island’s territory.
These demographic shifts have introduced economic opportunities for some but have also intensified spatial inequalities, cultural marginalization, and ecological degradation. Traditional Afro-descendant settlements are increasingly surrounded by gated developments, hotels, and high-density housing, contributing to environmental damage across both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Longtime residents who historically practiced ecologically sustainable fishing, farming, and coastal stewardship have voiced concern over the disappearance of biodiversity, coral reef stress, and the erosion of community life. Despite these pressures, Garífuna and Creole communities have responded through cultural revitalization, diaspora organizing, and grassroots advocacy. Transnational family and migration networks across Central America, the United States, and the Caribbean continue to support language preservation, cultural resilience, and political mobilization in defense of land and memory.
Roatán's Afro-descendant populations continue to assert cultural sovereignty through music, language, spirituality, and place-based activism. Garífuna cultural life has been key to local organizing around education, health, and land. In Punta Gorda and other Garífuna settlements, community leaders have mobilized around bilingual schools, elder memory projects, and youth cultural programming. The Garífuna community of Punta Gorda has long resisted land dispossession and encroachment, building on centuries of cultural and territorial defense since their forced relocation to Roatán in 1797. In the 1990s, this resistance took a more formalized shape through organizations like Punta Gorda Improvement Trust (OPROMEP) and Organization for Ethnic Community Development in Honduras (ODECO), which helped recover over 68 acres of ancestral land, including sites of historical and cultural significance such as the Monument to Garífuna leader Joseph Satuye. In recognition of Punta Gorda’s historical importance as the first Garífuna settlement in Central America, the Honduran government declared it a National Monument in 1996. Land defense efforts continued into the 2000s, culminating in 2011 when, after an attempted military eviction by the state, a broad inter-institutional negotiation process led to the community being awarded a formal land title covering more than 150,000 square meters. These events reflect not the beginning, but a continuation of a deep-rooted Garífuna struggle for land, dignity, and historical recognition in Roatán.
Creole identity, though not as formally recognized through public institutions as that of the Garífuna, remains deep-rooted in Roatán’s social and cultural life. Religious congregations, mutual aid societies, family networks, and community associations continue to uphold Creole traditions and sustain local autonomy. Although Creoles have historically lacked the same legal recognition as Indigenous or Garífuna groups in Honduran law, their struggle for cultural and political rights remains ongoing. Both communities navigate a difficult terrain shaped by state neglect, environmental vulnerability, and global tourism. And yet, they continue to reaffirm that Roatán is not merely a site of leisure or international investment but rather a Black Caribbean island with deep histories and enduring claims to place.
Creole organizing in Roatán has historically centered around cultural preservation, education, and community autonomy. One notable example is the Native Bay Island Professional and Laborer Association, which played a pivotal role in negotiating the Cultural Bilingual Education Program for the Bay Islands. This initiative led to increased training for educators and health workers, reflecting a broader commitment to maintaining the Creole community's linguistic and cultural heritage. In addition to formal organizations, Creole communities in Roatán have sustained their traditions through religious congregations, mutual aid societies, and family networks. These grassroots efforts have been essential in upholding Creole identity, especially in the face of challenges such as mestizx Honduran migration, environmental degradation, and the expansion of tourism.
● Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH) — A national organization advocating for Garífuna rights, cultural preservation, and land protection.
● Organización de Desarrollo Étnico Comunitario (ODECO) — Active in Roatán, ODECO focuses on Afro-Honduran community development, cultural revitalization, and land rights advocacy.
● Organización para el Mejoramiento de Punta Gorda (OPROMEP) — A community-based organization in Punta Gorda dedicated to improving living conditions, securing land titles, and promoting Garífuna heritage.
● Garífuna Cultural Center (Punta Gorda) — A cultural center offering immersive experiences into Garífuna history, traditions, and cuisine. It serves as an educational resource for both locals and visitors.
● Native Bay Island Professional and Laborer Association — An organization representing the interests of Bay Island Afro-descendant communities, focusing on cultural preservation and labor rights.
● Bay Islands Historical and Cultural Preservation Society (BIHCPS) — Works to protect and celebrate the unique history and traditions of the Bay Islands. Its mission is to protect local history by creating awareness and promoting culture, and its vision is to become a resource of information and expand knowledge.
● Kirtsoglou, Elizabeth and Dimitrios Theodossopoulos."'They are Taking Our Culture Away': Tourism and Culture Commodification in the Garifuna Community of Roatan." Critique of Anthropology 24, no. 2 (2004): 135—157.
● Chambers, Glenn A. Race, Nation, and West Indian Immigration to Honduras, 1890-1940. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2010.
● McNelly, Carla A. "Language Learning Perspectives and Experiences of Stakeholders in the Community of Flowers Bay, Roatan, Honduras." PhD diss., University of Oregon, 2014.
● Wilmoth, Idalia Theia. "Neva Fah Get Home: Constructions of Black Roatánin Identity in Roatán, Honduras." PhD diss., Indiana University, 2023.
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