Eboe Town in Belize City, where slaves were housed in the early days of Belize
Eboe Town was the first record of a Barracks for the enslaved population. Eboe Town was the home of where all the slaves settled.
Many Black people in Belize are descendants of slaves beginning around 1638. Most slaves were born in Africa but others were brought in from Jamaica, Bermuda, Haiti, and Cuba. During the abolition of slavery in British Honduras, the free Creole population in Belize City was 3,100. African Slaves in Belize was 3,500. Even though the majority of African slaves were housed at Eboe/Ibo town in Belize City an unspecified number was employed in towns and villages and plantation/farms etc. At one point in time, all Creoles in Belize and all Black people who arrived in the America's on a slave ship were enslaved. Here is a list of African tribes that were enslaved in Belize, British Honduras: Eboe/Igbo and Yoruba- Nigeria, Ashanti/Fantee, Nzema-Ghana. Mandinka/Mandingo, Congo's/Angola and Mungola/ D.R.C./ Brazzaville, Efik/Cameroon, Chamba-Togo and Benin, Nangoes/Nago-Nigeria and Benin, Fula/Fulani-Upper Guinea, Moco, Ijaw, Efix from southeast Nigeria, Coromantee= Blanket term for all Akan people from the Great Ashanti Kingdom of Ghana. Any thoughtful comments are appreciated!
The Garinagu are not descendants of African slaves but of Africans who were on board slave ships who took control of said ships and made their way to the island of St. Vincent were a new people was born. They make up about 7-10% of Belize's population.
These Garinagu were deported to the Bay Islands.
The earliest records that make note of slaves in Belize is made till 1717.
Also note that there has been a gradual migration of Africans to Belize over the past 40 years,
Image by Albert Paul Avila
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