In a pivotal episode of the seminal Garifuna Expertise Podcast, Honduran-born host José Francisco Ávila, chair of the Board of Administrators of the Bronx-based Garifuna Coalition, U.S.A., Inc., on Jul. 22, unearthed a outstanding, practically 200-year-old piece of New York Metropolis historical past, diving into “The Drama of King Shotaway.”
The Garifuna, an ethnic group of blended African and indigenous Caribbean descent, traditionally often known as the Black Caribs, originated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the place Africans who escaped slavery intermarried with the indigenous Kalinago individuals.
After conflicts with British colonizers, the Garifuna have been exiled to Central America within the 18th century, settling primarily in Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.
The Garifuna are famend for his or her distinctive tradition, which incorporates language, music, dance, and spirituality and blends African, Amerindian, and Christian influences.
“The Drama of King Shotaway” is a groundbreaking play from 1823, broadly celebrated as the primary African American play written by a Black playwright.
“However what makes this play a cultural landmark is its topic: The heroic protection of St. Vincent by the Garifuna individuals, led by the revered Paramount Chief, Joseph Chatoyer,” Ávila informed Caribbean Life.
Within the podcast, Ávila explored the profound connections between Chatoyer’s valiant resistance and the pioneering imaginative and prescient of playwright William Henry Brown, founding father of the African Grove Theatre, America’s first Black theater troupe, in New York Metropolis.
“This episode is a strong testomony to Garifuna individuals’s enduring spirit and serves as irrefutable proof that Garifuna heritage has been an integral a part of NYC’s cultural cloth from its earliest days,” Ávila mentioned.
“It’s a narrative of resistance, artwork, and the indelible contributions that proceed to drive prosperity, energy, and progress for our group and the world,” he added.
Through the podcast, Ávila mentioned, “The Drama of King Shotaway immortalized Garifuna bravery and marked a pivotal second in American theater.
“Think about this: The Garifuna heritage has been an integral, although usually uncredited, a part of New York Metropolis’s cultural cloth for nearly two centuries,” he mentioned. “One of many earliest and strongest items of proof lies in a groundbreaking work from 1823.
“On June twentieth and twenty first of that yr, a visionary playwright named William Henry Brown penned and staged ‘The Drama of King Shotaway,’ which is well known because the very first African American play written by an African American,” he added. “Now, what makes this so extraordinary, so extremely highly effective, is that its topic was none apart from the epic, heroic protection of St. Vincent by the Garifuna individuals in opposition to overwhelming British colonization in 1795.
“This valiant stand was led by our revered Paramount Chief, Joseph Chatoyer,” Ávila continued. “This profound connection highlights how our heritage, already acknowledged by UNESCO (United Nations Instructional, Scientific and Cultural Group) as a ‘Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity,’ has been a significant, enriching thread within the numerous cultural tapestry of New York Metropolis from its earliest, rising days.
“Think about main a nation in opposition to a strong empire, defending your individuals’s proper to their ancestral lands,” he mentioned. “The Proper Wonderful Joseph Chatoyer – he was not only a chief; he was an excellent army strategist, the undisputed head of the Garifunas, then recognized to the British because the Black Caribs in St. Vincent.”
Ávila described Chatoyer as “a freedom fighter, a liberator, an excellent tactician, and a staunch, unwavering enemy of colonialism.
“His position as Paramount Chief designated him not solely as a excessive priest and non secular chief, but in addition the commander-in-chief of all Carib warriors, and the simple head of state of the Garifuna Nation,” he mentioned, stating that, on Mar. 14, 1795, Chatoyer made “the final word sacrifice, abandoning a legacy that continues to encourage.”
Ávila mentioned Brown immortalized Chatoyer and the Garifuna individuals’s defiant struggle in his seminal play, “The Drama of King Shotaway.”
“This play isn’t just a chunk of theater; it’s celebrated as the primary Black drama of the American Theatre, a pioneering work,” he mentioned. “It’s topic – the 1795 Black Caribs (Garifunas) protection of the island of Saint Vincent in opposition to colonization by the British – etched our story into the very foundations of American performing arts.
“And Mr. Brown himself is rightly often known as the primary American playwright of African Descent, a real trailblazer,” Ávila added. “He was not solely an American playwright however a visionary theatrical producer, a real entrepreneur of tradition.”
He mentioned William Alexander Brown was a free Black man, born within the West Indies, who gave up his job as a steward on a Liverpool, England, liner and bought a home in New York Metropolis on the north aspect of Thompson Road.
Ávila mentioned Brown observed the shortage of leisure facilities at no cost city Blacks, and, in 1821, he determined to open an institution within the yard of his dwelling, which he known as the African Grove.
There, Ávila mentioned Brown served meals and drinks to his patrons, and inspired readings of poetry and dramatic interludes.
“And inside this extremely fertile and groundbreaking context, Brown wrote and staged ‘The Drama of King Shotaway’ in 1823, a compelling historic drama primarily based on the Black Carib struggle in St. Vincent,” Ávila mentioned. “The very existence of ‘The Drama of King Shotaway’ and The African Grove Theatre is irrefutable, highly effective proof.
“It proves unequivocally that the Garifuna heritage, our wrestle, our id, our very story, was embedded within the cultural panorama of New York Metropolis from its earliest, formative days,” he added. “This play isn’t just a historic curiosity; it’s a profound testomony to the Garifuna individuals’s enduring spirit and their early, indelible contributions to the prosperity, energy, and progress of this nice metropolis, paving the best way for numerous artists and cultural expressions to comply with.”
On Mar. 14, 2002, Ávila mentioned the Proper Wonderful Joseph Chatoyer, Paramount Chief of the Caribs (Garifuna), was declared the primary Nationwide Hero of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Accordingly, he mentioned Mar. 14 was declared Nationwide Heroes Day and a public vacation.
On at the present time, Ávila mentioned St. Vincent and the Grenadines honors their nationwide hero, The Proper Wonderful Joseph Chatoyer, Paramount Chief of the Caribs (Garifuna).
As a part of the Heroes Day celebration, he mentioned a wreath-laying ceremony is held on the obelisk at Dorsetshire Hill, overlooking the capital, Kingstown.
Ávila mentioned the historic city of Punta Gorda in Honduras “holds the excellence of being Roatan Island’s oldest everlasting settlement, in addition to the primary Garifuna group established in Central America.”
He mentioned that is additionally the positioning of the one present statue of Joseph Chatoyer, the Paramount Chief of the Garifuna Individuals, within the Diaspora.
