The important role Palacio played in placing Garifuna culture on the world stage was on par with the pan-African legacies of musicians such as Bob Marley and Fela Kuti.
When I was younger, my father, kept a copy of Belizean musician, Andy Palacio’s 2007 record breaking album, Wátina, in the glove compartment of our family’s Mazda. My father had immigrated from Belize to the US just before Belize’s independence from Great Britain in 1981 and he played this CD often for me. My favourite songs on the album were ‘Wátina’, ‘Beiba’, and ‘Ámuñegü’. The album was not the typical Latin-influenced music of the Central American region, but a distinct afro-beat with lyrics not in Spanish nor English, but in Garifuna—an old blend of indigenous African and Ameri-indigenous languages.
As I grew up, this album faded from my memory. No less than a decade later, as I found myself immersed in the study of global Black history, this album re-emerged back in my consciousness—and, surprisingly, it was available across all digital music media platforms...
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