Belize Culture

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Belizean culture is a rich mixture of many cultures and influences from the indigenous Indian and Maya to Spanish, English, French and German and mixed American-European ancestry or mestizos.

A culture that is unique to Belize and Honduras are the Garifuna or “Black Caribs”. Shipwrecked Nigerian African slaves survived to land on the Island of Saint Vincent in the Caribbean and were assimilated into the local Arawak Indian nations. Allied with the French during the conflict with the United Kingdom that ended in 1797, the English re-settled the Garifuna to the island of Roatan in the Honduras. The Garifuna soon left the island for the mainland and populated the coast as far as the British Honduras – modern day Belize. The Garifuna culture and language still exists to the present day. English has long been the official language of the country owing to its colonial past, but many also speak Spanish, Creole (French), surviving Mayan dialects, German and Garifuna.