What is the history of Placencia, Belize?

Placencia is a 16-mile peninsula in Belize. Seine Bight, which is where I am originally from, is 3 miles down at the end of the peninsula. Placencia was, from what I understand, basically a pirate community at one point. Afterwards, they then had people from Mango Creek and Monkey River, which are across a lagoon, who were the first ones to inhabit Seine Bite after the pirates left.

 

The area, Seine Bight got its name from what the geography looks like when...

Placencia is a 16-mile peninsula in Belize. Seine Bight, which is where I am originally from, is 3 miles down at the end of the peninsula. Placencia was, from what I understand, basically a pirate community at one point. Afterwards, they then had people from Mango Creek and Monkey River, which are across a lagoon, who were the first ones to inhabit Seine Bite after the pirates left.

 

The area, Seine Bight got its name from what the geography looks like when viewed from the ocean (a “bight” or curve in the shoreline) and the local word for net, with is seine. The fishermen used to hang seines (nets) that they use to catch fish, on the bight.

 

Pirate communities were the first inhabitants of Seine Bight. They were using it as a hiding place. When the pirates left, the people from across the lagoon came over and it became a little, sleepy fishing community. This was not so long ago; I can still remember it as a child.

 

The Garifuna only came in Belize in 1832 and we started spreading over the country. All of these happened over an extended period of time.

 

The Garifuna were the descendants of African slaves that had a shipwreck near St. Vincent islands. When they had this shipwreck, those who swam and survived got mixed with the Arawaks and the Caribs who were already living on the island of St. Vincent. These different groups of people got mixed and are now known as the Garifuna people. Our language has a certain background from Africa and a certain background from the Arawak and the Carib people of the Caribbean islands. Our language and the name of our people is Garifuna, which also loosely translates to “cassava-eating people.” The people from Africa were into planting food.

 

The leader of the Garifuna people was Joseph Shatillier, who led the Garifuna people to travel this way towards Belize. They had another shipwreck near Honduras. They were looking for land and the closest was Honduras, so the Garifunas first landed on the coasts of Honduras. Garifuna as a people like to venture and try new things and new places.

 

Some Garifunas landed here in Belize, first in Punta Gorda, which is nearer to Honduras,

and then they started spreading. There are Garifuna people in Punta Gorda, in Georgetown, in Seine Bight, in Hopkins, in Dangriga, and in Belize City. We also have a little community in Corazal as well. The Garifuna spread and we have settlements in different parts of the country of Belize.