EVENTS

Traditional Garifuna Fedu 

Fedu means celebration or a traditional Garifuna women dance performed to the beat of the fundamental Garifuna Rhythms of Hüngühüngü during Christmas, new year and Patron saint celebrations in New York City.

Hüngühüngü is a form of traditional swaying circular dance performed by the women of the Garifuna people of Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. The music for the dance is composed of rhythmic themes performed by three drummers with alternating call-and-response chanting and has a social consciousness element. It is sometimes combined with Punta. The lyrics of the songs beckon the community to consider current social problems. They raise issues and questions through call and response.

Garifuna women are the very foundation of conjuring, mobilizing, and safeguarding Garifuna ancestral memory, rituals, language, and oral histories, all embodied histories of knowledge production, across generations and national boundaries. Some of these Garifuna women live in New York City (Paul Joseph López Oro, 2021) and continue to maintain the Fedu tradition. During the month of December, Fedu groups from the various Garifuna communities, such as Organización de Damas Limonenas en New York, Asociación Unión Corozaleña (ASUNCOR), Patronato Santa Rosa de Aguan, Tirahuñu Tula, Organización Nueva Iluminación Triufeña, etc. Stay tuned for the list of upcoming events.

Professor Angel Batiz Mejia, quoted in Barauda brings traditional Garifuna dances to Teguz, Honduras This Week, March 30 1998.[1] Archived 2012-02-04 at the Wayback Machine