Feiridiwanali ei Gumugubei

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. For me, it meant that this man, from one small corner of the tiny country which people have struggled to identify on a map my whole life, was significant enough to be heard across the globe.

Palacio was an artist who spent his career and life unearthing and reenergizing Garifuna culture across Central America. Born on December 2, 1960, in Barranco, a Garifuna community on the southern Caribbean coast of Belize, he was immersed in traditional Garifuna culture, including language, spirituality and, of course, music. Though he always felt destined to be a musician, he spent much of his teenage and young adult life ambivalently pursuing a career teaching English and literature––a typical career for a well-to-do Garifuna. He did not know then how that experience would later propel his fateful career as an internationally recognized musician and purveyor of Garifuna culture.