Garifuna - On an ethnic minority and a fragmented people

© Salvatore Caruso - A child tries on a new pair of sunglasses

© Salvatore Caruso - “Jimmy” looks out at the sea, waiting for a boat to arrive.

© Salvatore Caruso - Image from the Garifuna - On an ethnic minority and a fragmented people photography project

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Dates

2023 - 2025
Author

Salvatore Caruso
Topics Documentary
Location Honduras

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A three-year-long reportage about the Garifuna community of Sambo Creek, Honduras

The Garifuna community of Sambo Creek was founded in 1850 by migrants from the island of Roatán and has a population of about 3,500 people. In fact, the roots of these people date back to the early 1200s and are deeply connected to the historical events that unfolded in the Caribbean and to the dynamics of the populations that lived there.
My reportage, produced over the course of three years, seeks to portray the reality of Sambo Creek through its inhabitants.

This project is a candidate for PhMuseum Days 2026 Photography Festival Open Call

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A child tries on a new pair of sunglasses

“Jimmy” looks out at the sea, waiting for a boat to arrive.

Some of the boys from Sambo play soccer on the village beach. Soccer is one of the most widely played sports in Sambo Creek.As in many other parts of the world, it often serves as a form of social gathering for children and teenagers, who come together to play matches on improvised fields, between the beach and terrain that isn’t always suitable.

A “Christian” woman brandishes a machete menacingly at her rivals in the “Juego de Moros y Cristianos” a reenactment of the battle between Catholics and Moriscos: the Muslims who lived in Spain and who, in 1492, were partly expelled (the total expulsion only took place in 1614 by order of King Philip III) and partly converted to Christianity

A woman from the Christian faction celebrates the “victory” by waving packets of snacks.

A truck loaded with plantains arrives in Sambo’s main square.

During the “Feria Patronal” (patron saint festival), held in Sambo Creek in June, it is traditional for some local boys to paint their bodies with black paint and wear masks depicting unsettling figures.

Dudu on his way to “Cayo Cochinos”.

A Garifuna woman watches over her son playing in the street from the window of her home.

A long-tailed grackle, a bird widespread across Central America, rests on a power line.The distinctive song of these birds is one of the characteristic sounds of these places.

A woman watches over a patch of brush that has been set on fire.I had the opportunity to visit a plot of land that had been occupied en masse by about a thousand members of the Sambo community following yet another attempted expropriation by some armed individuals.

A man cuts down a tree with a machete to obtain wood to build additional huts in the new settlement.

Some participants leave the camp: not everyone will spend the nights there.

A glimpse of "Coronación".The event is a symbolic representation of the passing of the crown between the “Reinas” of Sambo, the local school students.The children, dressed in traditional Garifuna clothing (strongly reflecting African heritage), parade along the village’s main street: at the head of the procession is the outgoing queen, while at the rear is the new reigning queen.

Garifuna - On an ethnic minority and a fragmented people by Salvatore Caruso

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