Whenever I expressed an interest in learning Garifuna as a child, my parents dissuaded me by saying, "It's too hard to learn. Just learn Spanish instead."  It's an Arawakan language that was created on St. Vincent during the 1600s when Africans were shipwrecked on the island. The Indigenous groups — Kalinago and Arawak — adopted the marooned Africans into their culture.  I had spent hours standing with aching legs in the kitchen as I helped my mother knead the masa for panades . When making...