Ga·ri·fu·na  (gä'rē-fōō'nə)  n. pl. Garifuna or Garifu·nas A member of a people of mixed Carib and African ancestry living along the Caribbean coast of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Nicaragua. The Garifuna were deported to the area in the late 18th century after their defeat by the British on the island of St. Vincent, where shipwrecked and escaped African slaves had intermarried with the indigenous Carib population beginning in the early 17th century. [American Spanish Garífuna, from Proto-Carib *karipona, Carib.] |