Where to Find Tastes of Africa in the British Virgin Islands

In the British Virgin Islands, you’ll discover a rich African history to explore, filled with rhythms, flavors, and traditions.

For seven glorious days during the annual spring regatta, I joined the army of boaters coming from far and wide to behold the sights and sounds of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). While living on a 27-foot leisure catamaran courtesy of Navigare Yachting, I saw massive boulder-filled beaches, towering conch shell mounds, and the birthplace of the painkiller cocktail while popping in for refreshments at renowned private island resort hangouts at Saba Rock and Scrub Island.

With golden sun-drenched days and the paintbox-blue waters of my wildest dreams, my time cavorting between the four principal islands—Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke, and Anegada—was everything I was envisioned and more. What I wasn’t expecting, though, was to find so many familiar traces of Africa in present-day BVI.

As a British Nigerian, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Tortola, the largest island in the archipelago, had a restaurant called Mama PUT. This took me back to my younger years in Nigeria, as “mama put” is slang for a female street vendor. Then, when staying at Rosewood Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda, the spa menu had a treatment called the Afri-Cure. It was a four-handed healing massage using tamarind tree and jumbie tree leaves, which were introduced to the islands from Africa. In the traditional folk music of the British Virgin Islands, fungi, I heard sounds that reminded me of highlife music, one of my parent’s preferred genres that originated in Ghana and Nigeria.

Despite the British Virgin Islands being a sought-after tourism hotspot, the local population’s deep-rooted customs and cultural heritage—including strong West African links—are often left unexplored and unknown by visitors. To better understand these influences, I spoke with Art K. Christopher, the president of the African Studies Klub (ASK), which has been instrumental in reviving awareness of African heritage throughout the islands.

Preserving and Celebrating African Heritage

The African Studies Klub was created in the 1990s with a simple mission: connect the dots between Africa and the Virgin Islands and remind people that the culture there didn’t just fall miraculously out of the sky.

“Our job is to make sure that our education stays alive so that people don’t forget their history,” Christopher explains. The organization, which has a traditional African governance structure with a president and a council of elders, does this via book readings, heritage hikes, African dress-up days, wreath tossing and drumming, and cultural events.

“We have a tradition where any person at any time can make a presentation on any subject that we discuss and debate,” says Christopher. Many of these study sessions take place at Mellow Moods Café, the vegetarian restaurant Christopher owns in Road Town (the capital city of Tortola), and these events are open to the public, tourists included. “Anyone can come,” Christopher says.

For those visiting the BVI, there are plenty of ways to experience its African connections first-hand. Christopher recommends heading to The Church of the Africans in Kingston or Road Town’s old prison museum for a glimpse into the islands’ past. During Black History Month, ASK also holds a libations ceremony to commemorate ancestors lost during the transatlantic slave trade.

“One of the things we find is that all across the African continent, the tradition of pouring libations is consistent,” Christopher says. “We don’t even know the beginnings of it—it’s so old.”

The Mocko Jumbies

One of the most visible representations of African heritage in the BVI today is the Mocko Jumbie stilt dancers. You see these towering figures striding through the streets during the ever-colorful Emancipation Festival, commemorating the 1834 abolition of slavery every August.

“Mocko Jumbies are definitely an African import,” says Christopher. “The words ‘mocko’ and ‘jumbie’ are linked to the Bight of Biafra (a West African coastal region).” This is a centuries-old tradition brought to life in the streets and proof that the African connection isn’t some historical footnote.

Fungi Music

According to Christopher, traditional music in the BVI also carries a strong African influence, particularly in the genre known as fungi, as I suspected. “Fungi music mixes Afrocentric rhythms with the quadrille-style music of Europe like the waltz,” Christopher says of the sound that’s similar to the quelbe music of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Also known as “scratch,” fungi music was created using whatever rudimentary instruments people could get their hands on, as well as the banjo, goatskin drums, and washboards, and historically, it served as a means of storytelling and sharing social commentary.

“Anything that was happening on the islands at the time could easily become a song,” Christopher says. The lyrics often reflected daily life, though many of the messages were cryptic and only understood by those immersed in the culture.

Fungi music once dominated the airwaves in the BVI, but as Christopher points out, it isn’t really made anymore. “There are a lot of bands that are trying to revive the music, but it’s more of a revival rather than an active form,” he shares. Still, to experience the rhythmic beats of fungi, curious parties can tune into popular bands like The Lashing Dogs and Leon & The Hot Shots.

African Influence in Language and Cuisine

Beyond music and festivals, African influences can also be heard in the everyday language and tasted in the food. BVI’s national dish is fungi (spelled the same way as the music genre), a cornmeal-based dish cooked with okra. Art Christopher points out that it’s not far from fufu, which you’ll find across West Africa. Okra, too, comes straight out of the African kitchen. It’s a key ingredient in the Virgin Islands stews and soups, which are best sampled at local restaurants in Road Town.

Christopher notes linguistic crossovers in words like nyam, which means “to eat.” This is borrowed from Wolof, a language spoken in Mauritania, The Gambia, and Senegal.

“Another word we use, obeah, we know has linkage to different African groups.” This word refers to high priests or medicine men, though Christopher explains that the term has been corrupted over time and misunderstood as witchcraft.

Healing Practices

Traditional healers are still “very much alive” in the British Virgin Islands, according to Tabitha Charles, the Spa Manager at Rosewood Little Dix Bay, which stocks South African-made Africology products and offers the aforementioned Afri-Cure spa experience.

“As part of the African diaspora, many of our ancestors brought with them a wealth of traditional healing practices rooted in the use of herbs,” she says. “Many of the older generations continue to rely on herbal remedies, and it remains a vital aspect of our cultural heritage.”

The Rosewood Hotel brand is exemplary when it comes to incorporating local and ancient practices into wellness experiences. I have stayed at Rosewood San Miguel de Allende, where the spa paid homage to Mexico’s pre-Hispanic Otomi community with lunar-themed spa treatments, and also at Rosewood Mayakoba, where a third-generation Mayan shaman led me through a self-love ritual.

This time around at Sense, a Rosewood Spa at Rosewood Little Dix Bay—an ultra-luxurious resort previously owned by environmentalist Laurance Rockefeller—during the Afri-Cure, I was literally enveloped in hot towels soaked in those Africa-descended herbs and then wrapped in aluminum to trap the heat and cleanse before getting a facial, head, and foot massage.

What’s clear is that from jumbie leaves to Mocko Jumbies, wherever you sail, the African spirit lives on in the British Virgin Islands, preserved by those who refuse to let it quietly slip away.