The Garinagu, an ethnic group from Central America, perform the Dugu, a sacred ancestral rite known as the Feast of the Dead, to honor their ancestors and explain community problems. The Garinagu are descendants of African, Arawak, and Caribbean and are found mostly in Belize, as well as Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. The Dugu is performed by a shaman or healer called a Buyae, who contacts deceased ancestors with the help of helping spirits called hiuruha. The Dugu is a week-long celebration that includes dancing, singing, and sharing food.
A Dugu is a sacred ancestral rite performed by the Garinagu, also known as the Garifuna, an ethnic group from Central America. The Dugu is known as the Feast of the Dead and is performed as a culmination of respect, appreciation and sentiment for the ancestors of the Garinagu. It is one of the three main rites and is the most celebrated in Garinagu culture. The Dugu is used to explain a particular problem or misfortune in a community.
The Garinagu are a mixed ethnic group found mostly in Belize. Also inhabiting Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, the Garinagu are descendants of African, Arawak and Caribbean. They are sometimes called Amerindians or Garifuna, and there are an estimated 300,000 of them living in the Americas.
The Dugu performed by the Garinagu, combined with feeding the dead and bathing with the spirit of the dead, honor the importance of the Garinagu ancestors. Dugu is performed when a deceased ancestor requests it from a living one. The request is carried to a ceremony called Arairaguni (“the felling”), and the ceremony is performed by the shaman or healer of the community, called a Buyae. During Dugu, the Buyae summon helping spirits, called hiuruha, to help explain a problem.
These problems that the Dugu tries to explain can include many things: an unexplained death, a series of droughts, a series of accidents, an untimely illness or many other things. In the Dugu, the shaman, with the help of the helping spirits, contacts the deceased ancestors. The ancestors, called Gubida, are contacted on behalf of the unfortunate family, at which point the deceased will make his wishes known to the family and explain his predicament.
As a sometimes week-long celebration, the Dugu brings the whole family to honor the deceased ancestors. Dugu is usually performed a full year after the deceased’s passing, and usually in the village where the family lineage originated. A small mound of earth is built outside the house where the ancestors lived and spirits are channeled through this mound. The Dugu ritual includes dancing, singing and sharing food. The most sacred action of the Dugu, the amalihani, is a dance performed and led by the Buyae which signifies the entrance of the spirits into the ritual.
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