Neva Fah Get Home: Constructions of Black Roatánin Identity in Roatán, Honduras

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on Black identity formation throughout Central America’s Caribbean Coast. Within the Global South and Africana Studies there has been little to no research that centers Afro- Caribbean’s from Central America. Countries such as Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama are primarily focus points. Afro- identity in Honduras is overlooked. Most of the available scholarship centers Honduras’s Afro- indigenous population, the Garifunas. Within the Bay Islands of Honduras, there is Roatán which is natively full of Black citizens. This dissertation fills the historical gaps by using narrative inquiry, podcasting, and conducting interviews with first and second generation Roatánins. As these Roatánins create hemispheric migrations, their Black identity is collapsed into the racial categorization of the United States in ways in which they leave their ethnic identity. Black Roatánins identity is racialized within an historical continuum of geographical space. The major research questions guiding this study were: (1) How do Black Roatánins (re)create or (re)construct Roatán identity? (2) How do they describe their lived experiences in relation to race and racism? 2(a) What racial and cultural context are key influencers in their identity development and lived experiences? (3) How do they describe their racial identity in relation to their nationality? And (3a) In what ways does the legacy of colonization by Honduras impact their racial identity development? The research design was undergirded by Black geography theoretical framework and narrative inquiry. Data sources consisted of podcasts and five individual interviews. Seven themes emerged from Black geography analysis of the data. The seven themes included: (1) ‘Black Geographic Imagination: Spatial Imaginaries/Memories’, (2) ‘Homeland’, (3) ‘Cultural Displacement’, (4) ‘Triple Consciousness: Social Context of Identity and Citizenship Making,’(5)‘Honduras Religious Institutions and Respectability Politics,’(6) ‘Constructing Citizenship’, (7) ‘Diasporic Identification: Triple Consciousness. Findings from this study yielded implications for future research and theory in the Global South and higher education.