ABSTRACT
Introduction The story of the Garinagu is one of uprooting and routing to new territories. Firstly, I will recount the exile of the Garinagu from St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) to Roatán. Second, I will address the issue of naming which, in the case of the Garinagu, and given the ostensive fluidity of designations used here, is a reflection of the mobility and lack of fixedness we associate with them. Last, informed by contemporary Garifuna discourse, I will problematize the notions of rootedness and routing, in the light of experiences of the Garinagu and their Carib brethren in SVG. I propose that the Garifuna narrative is one that forces us to rethink the relationship between roots and routes. Their stories of displacement and movement shatter established ideologies about attachment to territory and our tendency, in conventional analyses of roots, to favor dwelling over journey.
