Culture

The Kalinago people were for a very long time referred to as “Caribs’ and this particular word was a name used by Europeans to describe the people who inhabited the islands of the Lesser Antilles at the time of Columbus’ second voyage in 1493.

The name “Carib” was not what the people called themselves. However, the repeated use of the name for over five centuries however, has made it widely adopted even by the descendants of the people themselves.

It has been related that a French missionary; Raymond Breton, visited Dominica in 1642, and recorded that the “Caribs’” name for themselves was Callinago in the “men’s language” and Calliponam in the “women’s language”.

This particular condition has now led to the adoption of the word Kalinago and Karifuna by cultural groups, anthropologists and historians to describe the the first inhabitants. The “Black Caribs” of Belize, who are descended from ancestors in St. Vincent, call themselves the “Garifuna”.