Belize Identity and Ethnicity

8/8/2019 Belize Identity and Ethnicity

1/37

Belize: Identity and Ethnicity in a Multi-Ethnic State Ralph Premdas

In April 2001, I embarked on a journey of discovery into Belize. The University of the WestIndies had launched a new experimental program involving the deployment of scholars,artists, and scientists to its non-campus countries that it served also. Its main campuseswere in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad. I was granted an assignment to Belize for a month.By formal training, I am a political scientist who, over the years, had constructed hisresearch and scholarship mainly from fieldwork in places like Fiji, Papua New Guinea, SriLanka, Nigeria, Quebec, Guyana, Trinidad, etc. My research interest was focused primarilyon ethnic pluralism and conflict examining ways in which social and cultural cleavages weretransformed politically into sites of struggle over identity, power, recognition and resources.I was interested not only in the causes of these conflicts but also in the modes by whichthey were managed especially within a democratic framework. Belize, a multi-ethnic statewith eight ethno-cultural communities, was more ethnically diverse than all of the Caribbean

countries including Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname, and had a special appeal to me since itseemed to have been able to contain the rival claims of ethnic communities so as to producea harmonious whole. In other parts of the world, this was hardly the case with ethnic strifewidespread as they were destructive. In the month that I spent in Belize, I embarked on a

journey to all parts of the country seeking out meetings with citizens and groups trying tolearn about how they saw themselves in relation to persons form other communities, theiridentities and issues of communal co-existence. In this essay, I recapitulate some of theseconversations and findings locating them within the wider ambit of Belize's features and thetheoretical materials on ethnic relations. The method that I applied is a travelogue, whichcatches a glimpse into the country. A travelogue does not make claim to be scientificexposition based on a carefully selected sample. It is bounded by the route traveled and bythe interests of the observer. As a method, it has the advantage of reporting on a wideassortment of events which are often omitted in a systematic and pointed treatise. I havetried to be informative by presenting relevant statistical data so as to temper mypresentation from being solely an impressionistic enterprise.

The journey really began before I had set foot on Belizean soil having read a fair amount onBelize. The country was classified as a Caribbean country even though, like the Guianaswhich are also regarded as part of the Caribbean, it is not an island and sits on mainlandterritory, in this case, in Central America. Belize was the only English-speaking country inCentral America, due to the fact that it was a British colony and has consequently inheriteda large number of British institutions. It was not a very large country, about 8,867 sq.mls,the second smallest in Central America, facing the Caribbean Sea. In 2002, the UnitedNations Human Development Report classified Belize at the 58th position among 173countries. Its per capita income of about $3,100(US) and literacy rate of 93.2% were

comparable to most of the English Caribbean countries. It was embroiled in a serious bordercontroversy with Guatemala that delayed its independence requiring the deployment of British troops for protection. Even though Belize became independent in 1981, Guatemaladid not recognize it until 1992 even though the border dispute has not been finally settled tothis day thereby leaving the boundary issue inflamed. At least fourteen times morepopulous than Belize, Guatemala has periodically threatened to invade Belize so that todayBelizeans still harbor much suspicion of Guatemalan intentions. The border with Guatemalais 266 kilometers long through which a stream of illegal immigrants and refugees havepoured coming not only from Guatemala but other Central American such as El Salvador


2/37

and Honduras especially since the early 1980s when these countries were experiencinginternal civil strife. Belize also shares a northern border of 250 kilometers with Mexico. Ithas been estimated that the number of these cross border migrants approached 60,000 inthe 1990s, the equivalent of about 15 to 20% of the country's population, one in six,turning it into one of the highest percentages of illegal migrants in any country in theworld . 1 Hence, Guatemala and illegal immigrants have emerged as persistent

preoccupations in the Belizean imagination often tainting politics and social institutions.

Even though Belize's population of about 250,000 by 2001 was relatively small, it wasdiverse, composed of ethno-cultural communities many separated by language, culture,occupation, and residence: Mestizo, Creole, Garifuna, Maya, Chinese, Syrian-Lebanese, EastIndians, and Mennonites. Two of these communities, the Creoles and Mestizos, constituteabout three fourths of the total population so that the country can be conceived aspredominantly ethnically bi-polar. By the end of WW II, the Creole ethno-cultural group wasthe dominant community with about 55% of the population but it was slowly diminishing sothat by 1980 their numbers were about 39.7%, and by 2001, it had been reduced to justfewer than 30% while Mestizos steadily grew hovering today around or slightly exceeding50%. This was a dramatic re-alignment of Belize's ethnic demography stemming from theconfluence of two opposite migratory flows. Creoles who were the descendants of theAfrican slaves brought to toil for Europeans mainly as woodcutters in the colonial periodwere migrating since the 1970s in large numbers to North America. It is possible that in the1980s that as many Creoles left Belize as Central American immigrants entered the countryduring the same period. The resulting impact was that the previously dominant Afro-Belizean community on whose back Belize was historically colonized was being eclipsed by aMestizo population which was constantly being replenished by continuing cross borderrefugee infusions. I have heard said that the Creole community has become traumatized bythis rather rapid fall from its ascendancy, some even claiming that they were beingmarginalised, even becoming the victims of a peculiar form of "ethnocide" similar to whatAime Cesaire in Martinique described as "genocide by substitution" referring to the heavyinfusion of French Europeans into Martinique and the corresponding loss of Martiniquans toFrance . 2

While the population was ethnically diverse, Belize had a unique community of "Garifuna",sometimes called "Black Caribs" who were the descendants of Caribs from the island of St.Vincent . 3 While there were remnants of the Caribs still on the Caribbean islands, notablyDominica (4%), and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (5.3%), in contrast, Belize as well asHonduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, had become home to a significant minority of Garifuna . 4 Belize also had Mayas. The other parts of the Caribbean that had an aboriginalpopulation that was akin to the Mayas and Garifuna was Guyana (6%) which had nine tribalcommunities and Suriname (10%). As a whole, the remaining aboriginal groups in theCaribbean have been barely visible even though there has been an appreciable rise in theirself-consciousness in the 1970s and 1980s witnessed by the formation of severalrepresentative organizations seeking recognition and economic development . 5

I was lucky that my Belizean host was Dr.Joseph Palacio, an anthropologist who was theResident Director of the University of West Indies Extra-mural School of continuing Studiesin Belize. With my keen interest in Belize's people, Dr. Palacio himself was a source of intrigue since he was a Garifuna with a Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley, aninstitution at which I was an Assistant Professor at the beginning of my academic career.Dr.Palacio was a "Garifuna", and I was of East Indian background coming originally fromGuyana, the descendant of indentured laborers recruited from India for the sugarplantations after slavery was abolished. Dr. Palacio's wife, Myrtle, was also Garifuna. Their
http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.html


3/37


4/37

districts into which Belize was administratively divided. Belize District was the mostpopulous with about 30% of the country's population. I found Belize City quite "Caribbean"with it s familiar small wooden houses and narrow streets. The city, which is below sealevel, is traversed by the Haulover River creating two residential sections, north and south,each assigned social significance in the popular imagination. The lingua franca is BelizeCreole, spoken with an accent very similar to Creolese in Guyana. Belize City has been

regularly buffeted by strong winds during the hurricane season (May to November) andmemory of its devastation by Hurricane Hattie in 1961 has prompted the creation of a newcapital in 1970 in the inland town of Belmopan, about 80 kilometers southwest of Belize Cityand almost at the center of the country. Many central government buildings, constructed toresemble the pattern of ancient Mayan open squares, including the parliament, have nowbeen located in Belmopan, which is a Mayan name. Yet it is Belize City that remains themain commercial center of the country. Many civil servants continue to reside in Belize Citycommuting an hour every morning to Belmopan.

My temporary home was in Belize City, the capital, which is preponderantly populated by"Creoles", the local name assigned to the descendants of the African slaves who wererecruited not for sugar plantations as in the insular Caribbean but for harvesting logwood,mahogany and other lumber by the British. The British presence commenced in the mid-1600s in a region claimed by Spain and was alternatingly marked by periods of accommodation and conflict. The final decisive attack occurred in 1798 when a numericallysuperior Spanish military contingent was routed by the "Baymen" as these English settlerswere called. This has become a signal event in Belizean history around which has emerged amythological basis for the claim of Creoles as the rightful cultural and political inheritor of Belize after the departure of the British. The narrative depicts victory over the Spanishforces in the Battle of St. George Caye by the heroic combined effort of the enslaved Africanslaves and the British colonists so that Belize's status as a former British colony and todayas an independent English-speaking state is due to this historic event. The part played bythe Creoles in repelling the Spanish as it is now being recounted attests to their loyalty toBelize as an autonomous and free entity and stands as a symbol that affirms their privilegedposition above all other communities in the country. This mythology is backed up at the

level of culture where today an adapted English culture is dominant in Belize, even though itis now highly Americanized. The main language is English and the medium of instruction inall schools and of commerce is English. The main political institutions such as theparliamentary system are similarly of British origin. The Creoles are the main culturalcarriers of this cultural inheritance while others adapt to it. Two respected observers statedthis point thus: "Anglophone Creoles came to consider British Honduras as 'theirs', definingit as Black, Protestant, and English-speaking. In doing so, they sought to define all otherethnic groups as marginal outsiders, or 'aliens'" . 7 They often parade this cultural inheritancein symbolic ways in public to assert their paramountcy .The Creole community is repletewith professionals in the areas of law, medicine, education, the public service, etc (but notbusiness and commerce) and there is a well off Creole elite, many mixed with Europeanancestry and of light pigmentation, locally referred to as "the Royal Creoles". Many Creolesregard themselves are socially superior in status to members of other communities whichhave had to acculturate to English ways. While their cultural standing has been maintained,the same has not been the case in the political realm because of their diminished numbers.In Belize City however they remain dominant but even this is being restructured with theentry of many Central American "aliens" into the city. Since independence in 1981, therehas never been a Creole Prime Minister even though they have occupied powerful cabinetposts and other positions of power. One of the two major political parties in Belize, theUnited Democratic Party (UDP) is seen by many as grounded in the Creole communitypresently led by Dean Barrow, from a "Royal Creole" pedigree. It has been remarked to me
http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.html


5/37

more than once that Dean Barrow as the Leader of Opposition in the Parliament wouldnever be able to become Prime Minister of Belize since he was Creole.

Living in Belize City, I was warned right away that crime was rampant and discovered thatBelizeans feared crime more than anything else especially personal assaults and robbery. Iwas warned not to live in an area south of the Haulover River since it was crime and drug

infested. Crime in Belize City was an acute problem and the heavy iron barricades on manyhouses attested to the insecurity of residents especially about burglaries. The word "jacking"was widely used to describe a robbery as in some one being "jacked" or robbed usually atthe point of a gun. The most frequent mode of jacking was committed by robbers on bicyclewho could easily escape into narrow streets and back alleys. Guns are evidently easilyavailable in Belize City. Over the past year, the police had launched a program of buyingback guns from residents. I witnessed on a Saturday at the main city square the publicdestruction of the guns that were collected. Several observers to the event pointing to theescalation of robberies with guns argued cynically that the gun owners simply traded in theirweapons so as to buy newer and better ones. In the frequent debates about the crimesituation, many citizens contended that the police force was part of the problem since it wasallegedly corrupt and involved in some of the crimes. The Ombudsman's Report that I readshowed that more than half of all complaints from citizens from 2000 to 2002 wasconcerned with alleged abuses and brutality by the police. A report from an investigation of the crime situation disclosed that most citizens lacked confidence in the police as well as the

judicial system as a whole . 8

The unemployment rate in Belize was about 12% and large numbers of youths in the cityprobably as many as 30% were jobless. Dr. Palacio underscored the presence of a growing"crack cocaine" population in Belize City and that that was a major source of crimes. Belizehad emerged as a drug transshipment point to the USA. However, many local persons hadalso become addicts. I myself saw several dazed and drugged persons on the streets and Iwas warned not to display anything of great value. It was argued that the few beggars thatwere in the streets were "crack heads". Many economic analysts argue that a main pillar of the Belizean economy is based on drugs, much sold to local tourists but more exported.

Belize's contiguity to Central America, its porous borders, and its long and largelyunguarded coast suggest great opportunity for drug traffickers.

The crime situation had two other dimensions in Belize City that were completelyunanticipated. First, like many islands in the Caribbean, Belize has become the recipient of deported criminals from the USA and Canada. These are Belizean citizens who typically havelived only a small part of their lives in Belize but had ran afoul of the law in North Americaor are hardened felons. They are dumped without notice in Belize and tend to re-enter thecrime world with greater sophistication acquired overseas. In 2001, it was estimated thatsome 150 such persons lived in Belize and the police contend that they contributesignificantly to the crime scene. Legislation in Belize has now required these persons toregister with the police. Second, as in Los Angeles, there were gangs in Belize City

demarcated from each other by the colour of their attire, "Reds" and "Blues". The LosAngeles connection was not likely to be evident to someone coming from one of the islandsof the Caribbean. It was a matter of knowing your Geography. Belizeans frequently travel toLos Angeles by road in their cars, making the journey through the Yucatan Peninsula inabout two to three days. It is no accident then that larger numbers of Belizeans live in LosAngeles than in any other city in North America. In the Streets of Belize City, I have seenseveral cars with California license plates. The colour-identified gangs of Los Angeles foundtheir imitation in far away Belize City. But this was not the only crime imported into Belize.


6/37

It is alleged that several gangs from other Central American states have also infiltratedBelize, mainly running drugs.

To the problems of drugs and crime has been added, especially in Belize City, the spread of HIV/AIDS. Among the states of Central America, Belize had the unenviable record of thehighest incidence of HIV/AIDS per capita . 9 It was part of a familiar syndrome that combines

drugs, crime and HIV/AIDS as has occurred in many other parts of the world. Speaking toone of Belize's Commission on HIV/AIDS, he expressed grave alarm pointing to the role of prostitutes from Central America entering Belize which is economically much better off andfreely mixing with the general population. Hence, overall, especially in Belize City, drugs,crime, guns, and HIV/AIDS have arrived.

Walking and driving around Belize City I quickly registered the fact that while it was Creoledominated, about 65%, it was also populated with an assortment of other ethnicities. As Iintroduced myself to Belizeans and usually before I asked them questions about their ownidentity and surrounding issues, I would request that they tell who they thought I was inrelation to their own domestic diversity of ethnic and racial communities. I am what manypeople would call an East Indian, or more frequently, Indian in Belizean popular usage. The

range of answers I received was startling. One must bear in mind that Belize has a verysmall "Indian" population of about 3.5%, many recruited from Jamaica by AmericanConfederates who came to Belize after the American Civil War and established sugarplantations. Others arrived directly from India, having been expelled as mutineers. Apartfrom these, there was also a very small contingent from India that arrived in Belize in the1960s forming part of the merchant population owning businesses, especially stores. Thesewere called "Hindus". Finally, there was a smattering of Indians, mainly from India andPakistan, consisting of professionals working with UN agencies.

The first Belizean who described me called me a "Turk". I was bewildered, wanting to knowwhat this category meant in Belize. Later, I learnt that the term was used to describe theshopkeepers who were originally from the Middle East, mainly from Lebanon and Syria aswell as the "Hindus". The Prime Minister of Belize, Mr. Said Musa, was such a descendantfrom this community. I was really appalled. While I was of Indian origin, I certainly did notwant to be associated with the Indian merchants in the popular mind. I wanted to affirm mybackground from the indentured laborers who labored on plantations. Then, about a weeklater, one Belizean pleased me immensely when he simply called me a "Coolie"! This wasthe pejorative term that was applied to descendants of East Indian laborers living in theformer British West Indian islands and Guyana. Today, I personally do not take offense bybeing called a Coolie and often would describe myself by that designation.

Walking around the streets of Belize City, I encountered many persons of clear pigmentationselling food from carts. This was a self-reliant occupation typically carried out by relativelypoor people. The idea of poor whites was jolting. Quickly, however, I was to learn that thesepersons were the ones that many Belize citizens refer to derogatively as "aliens" referring to

the Spanish-speaking refugees from Central America. I went to one of the carts standing inline and tried the tacos, which were three for one dollar, and they were delicious. I tried toengage the woman seller in a conversation and she spoke with halting English, havingdeveloped an ample command of English for her trade. I became conscious of the "aliens"on the streets, many manifestly underprivileged, and learnt that many resided inovercrowded houses and squatter settlements on the periphery of the city. In fact, most of the cross-border migrants gravitated to Belize City, finding it easier to make a living in theinformal sector as well as on construction projects. Later, in a discussion with the mayor of the city, he affirmed that no one knew exactly how many of these migrants lived in Belize


7/37

City and he predicted that when an accurate census was eventually taken, he would not besurprised if the group came to a substantial minority. In any case, the ethnic composition of Belize City was being restructured by migration not only from the migrants but also fromother communities as well as from the hemorrhaging exit of Creoles.

There were many other white European-looking persons that I saw in Belize City. They were

from the "Mestizo" community, their identity derived from a mix of European Spanish andindigenous Maya since the days of the Spanish conquest of Central America. The Mestizos of Belize were originally drawn from the Yucatan in Mexico during the period of the Caste Warsin the mid-1800s. Today's Mestizos then are longstanding residents only recently emergingas the majority community in Belize, dominating commerce and politics. They are referredto as "Spanish" and where they are confused with the Central American, this generatesdeep resentment. They are predominantly Catholic in a country where about 62% of thepopulation is Catholic also. Creoles are mainly Protestants. The Mestizos assiduously takefull advantage of the best educational institutions in Belize and are among the besteducated and economically well off. In Belize City, they were a minority but they werehowever predominant in other districts of Belize, such as Corozal, Orange Walk, and Cayo.It soon became clear to me that the ethnic distribution of Belize was structured residentiallyin a way that some districts were constituted more of one ethnicity than another, althoughall districts were mixed with different combinations of peoples. This was helpful informationin my travels. The table below provides this information:

DISTRICT % OF TOTAL POP. PREDOMINANT ETHNIC GROUPSBELIZE 30 Creole CAYO 20 Mestizo, Creole, Mennonite ORANGE WALK 16 Mestizo COROZAL 15 Mestizo STAN CREEK 10 Mestizo, GARIFUNA TOLEDO 9 Maya, Creole, Garifuna, East Indians, Mestizo

Each of the districts had a major municipal centre, but overall, only 48% of the populationwas urban while 52% rural, with the growth of the rural population outstripping the urban.

In a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-racial setting such as in Belize City, it isreasonable to inquire into the problem of communal coexistence and tolerance. I gather thatit is not an issue, at least not overly expressed but as one person said to me "hush hush".One fascinating observation that I made regarding the migrant women was that a few weremates of Creoles. Racial mixing was quite unconcealed and prevalent in Belize. No oneneither looked nor cared. It seemed that Belize was a veritable melting pot of races andethnicities, at least on the surface. However, one local observer said to me that theincidence of Creole liaisons with the Central American refugees allowed for a "whitening" via

offspring towards acquiring higher social status. In the insular Caribbean, a colour-classstratification continues to prevail privileging degrees of whiteness even after most of thesecountries became independent accompanied with the rise to power and position of Creoles.In Belize, colour evidently continues to matter, especially in the Creole community. Onefamous editor of a newspaper referred to this phenomenon as "colourism".

Early in my visit, I looked around for restaurants and small stores to procure somegroceries. It was very startling to discover that a very large number of these small shopsfound practically everywhere in Belize City and in many parts of the country were owned


8/37

and operated by Chinese who had little command of English. I knew that some Chinese hadcome to Belize round about 1865 as indentured laborers. It was clear that these Chinesestoreowners were not descended from that early community. In Belize, while many of theold Chinese families have migrated and left, a number have remained and currently controlseveral prominent businesses. Several have also intermarried with other ethnic groups andgenerally they are Belizean as anyone could be. The Chinese population in Belize however is

quite varied with many arriving in separate waves in the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s, withthose arriving in the 1960s relatively integrated in the social fabric and quite different fromrecent arrivals who speak very little if any English.

Many of the recent arrivals have come as economic residents taking advantage of agovernment policy, rescinded in 2002, that offered Belize citizenship to foreigners withsubstantial capital for investment. It was clear that the Chinese shops were family affairsand that nearly all of the Chinese who I have encountered had only the barest of links to therest of the Belizean population. In Belize City, the Chinese have also opened a handful of restaurants. Asking Belizeans about the new Chinese residents in their midst, I found outthat there was some resentment in that the Chinese seemed to have gained control of thesmall scale stores, displacing many Belizeans. None of this was expressed either strongly oropenly. Many of the robberies in Belize are directed against Chinese storeowners, allegedlycommitted by Creole gangs. It is a sore area stirring some inter-ethnic malaise. Anotheraspect of the Chinese presence in Belize relates to the illegal sale of passports. Many recentarrivals, it was alleged, had acquired passports before ever setting foot in Belize, suggestingcomplicity between immigration officers and passport buyers.

Another ethnic community I encountered as I visited the supermarket for groceries butindirectly was the Mennonite group. I knew of the Mennonites and their migration to theNew World, including Central America. I had read about their presence in Belize but was yetto see one. However, I was impressed with the quality of the chicken that was sold in thesupermarkets. I found out that it was practically all produced by the Mennonites who hadhad arrived in Belize only in the late 1950s, and living among themselves, they haddeveloped a reputation for hard work and had etched a niche in the local market for

furniture, vegetables and chicken. Later, I was to run into members of the Mennonitecommunity on Fridays and Saturday's selling furniture at various spots in Belize City. I hadthe good fortune of an unusual chat with a Mennonite selling furniture. His English washalting but clear; he spoke German. He told me that the Mennonites belonged to differentcommunities. Some came from Canada and these were found at Spanish Lookout in CayoDistrict. He remarked that these Mennonites had come to accept all modern technology intheir lives including radio, television, cars, tractors, computers, farm equipment etc. Forhim, this was a critical distinguishing point. His community was from Shipyard in OrangeWalk District and they did not utilize radio, television, or cars but did use mechanical farmequipment. He said that there was another Mennonite group at Burton where a moreaustere horse and buggy regimen was a way of life. Dr. Palacio informed me that while theMennonites have remained separated from the rest of Belizean society, maintaining theirown schools and economic autonomy, a few had left their communities and are now livingamong Belizeans. The Mennonite told me that a number of his people had become wealthyand had acquired much land and established large cattle ranches. They have also gotten inconstructing houses, delivering and assembling them from scratch. Generally, theMennonites are reputed for their contribution to agriculture, poultry, cattle farming,furniture, car repairs, machine repairs, etc. They have stayed away from politics eventhough their commercial success depends on government economic policy.


9/37

Overall then Belize City was marked by ethnic diversity with three recent immigrant groups,the "alien" Central American migrants, the Chinese entrepreneurs, and the Indian andMiddle Eastern merchant groups adding to the melange but still not challenging thedominant numbers of Creoles in the City. I saw no resident Whites from the old Englishplantocracy but saw many Whites who were tourists. From Belize City many ferry servicesoperate taking passengers to the offshore Cayes, referring to the many coral islands

occupying altogether over 200 sq. mls of land area serving also as a barrier against strongwinds and hurricanes. These islands, attractive for their reefs, beaches and magnificentmarine life, had emerged as a primary tourist destination, especially for snorkellers anddivers. Belize's coastal coral reef is the world's second longest after Queensland in Australia,extending over 260 kilometers with about 450 quays, several well developed such as SanPedro and Quay Caulker with expensive tourist facilities, many owned by Americaninvestors. One Quay, Amberis Quay, is larger than the island of Barbados in the easternCaribbean. A point of interest that drew attention while I looked at these quays was thelarge number of Americans and Canadians who had taken up permanent residence in Belize,many living not only on the quays but in such areas Cayo District and Placentia in ToledoDistrict. While this group cannot be described as an ethno-cultural community, it was clearthat they added to the diversity of the country's ethnic fabric. I was told that several of these persons were staffing and directing environmental and other NGOs in Belize.

Many Creoles were seen around the city doing petty businesses in the informal sector and afair number working as taxi drivers. I did see a number of Creoles and Garifuna working inteams of City workers cleaning the city streets and doing other maintenance activities.While I was visiting the Belize City Council where I met the Mayor and several of the councilstaff, I met an East Indian, Mr. Ramclam, a descendant from indentured laborers, servingas the Council's Legal Officer and, as it turned out, he was the secretary of something calledthe "Indian Cultural Council of Belize". There were other cultural councils in Belize such asthe Garifuna, Maya, Kekchi, Maya-Mestizo and Creole Councils. The existence of thesecouncils and the activist roles that they played in representing and advancing the interestsof their respective communities were intimations of ethnic rivalry in Belize. I needed toinvestigate this aspect of inter-ethnic relations and later I would discover that there was a

fair amount of tension and competition among the ethnic communities. Mr. Ramclam gaveme the names of some prominent members of the East Indian Cultural Council in PuntaGorta where I was soon to visit. This would open an interesting window to the curious worldof the East Indians in Belize.

Living in Belize in part meant commuting every day from where I lived to the campus of theUniversity of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies (the UWI Center) which was atthe other end of town. The taxi drive cost only $5.00 and took me through the heart of theCity exposing me to some rundown as well some wealthy neighborhoods, such as KingsPark, one of which was the home of the Prime Minister. The roads were good, fewskyscrapers, and lots of traffic early in the morning. There was mixture of old houses andnew with lots of small shops with relatively clean city streets. The streets were filled with

jeeps, SUVs, and cars as well as bicyclists at peak traffic time. The UWI Center was close toanother center of higher learning, the University of Belize which was recently established tocater for the manpower needs for skilled workers in Belize. UB, as it was called, was anamalgam of the old technical institutes and teachers colleges in Belize and it was stillexperiencing the task of orienting these units to the standards of a university beyond juniorcollege. Many Belizean students attended UB and the school has produced a fair number of graduates especially in business and commerce for the local market. The UWI Center wasan extension of the UWI system based in the insular Caribbean and it has tended to followsuit in maintaining exceptionally high standards in its programs. It has developed a sizablenumber of diploma courses aimed at the general public but it also mounts regular


10/37

introductory degree courses which are on par with similar courses at the main campuses. Anumber of these courses are transmitted and taught by satellite originating from UWI inJamaica.

I was given an office at the UWI Center and was offered Internet facilities. The UWI Centeroffered computer courses to the public. The presence of the UWI Center and UB attested to

the fact that Belize City was the main educational center in the country. It was also home of the most prestigious high schools including St. John's College which was also next to thetwo university communities. St. John's College was run by the Jesuits and had establishedthe reputation as the elite high school in the country, a place from which some of the mostoutstanding leaders and professionals in Belize had been educated. St. John's also ran

junior college courses.

While using the UWI office, I would walk over at lunch to the Teachers College which waspart of the UB campus for meals. There I was to learn some interesting things aboutBelizean cuisine. The most popular dish was stew chicken with rice and beans. "Rice andbeans" was typically Central American and along with the tacos, empanados, tortillas, andtamales on the streets it suggested that the great impact that the Spanish contiguity to

Belize has had on its culinary offerings. Dr. Palacio took me out to a couple of Creolerestaurants which had more of a Caribbean offering in the use of yams and dumplings. Itwas also a place to get chimoles , a popular Mayan dish. The restaurants usually have atelevision set that piped in US programs. The US-based fast food giants like McDonald'swere still to penetrate Belize eliminating these small local restaurants. A standard Americanfare could be easily obtained from one of the tourist hotels. But, for most Belizeans, "riceand beans" and stew chicken was the popular food.

Belmopan

My first trip out of Belize City would take me to Belmopan by bus. I was on my way to visitseveral towns in the southern part of Belize, to meet with political and community leaders.Belmopan, the new capital of Belize was about 50 miles inland moving upwards on agradual ascent through changes in vegetation much more sparse than the coast. The earlymorning express air-conditioned bus carried a large number of Creole civil servantscommuting to work in Belmopan. Arrival was greeted with an array of market stalls andtraders surrounded by a network of concrete government buildings. The ethnic diversity atthe Belmopan market changed dramatically from Belize City. It was more Mestizo, CentralAmerican, and Mayan. A large number of the first wave of refugees from El Salvador andGuatemala in the early 1980s were given accommodation at a camp in Belmopan sponsoredby the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). This part of Belmopan came to be called"Salvapan". Most of the early refugees have been granted permanent residence in Belizefound jobs and have adapted finding jobs and building homes. One of the most interestingaspects of this relocation of the refugees was the fact that they sent their children to Englishmedium schools. With all public schools in Belize being instructed in English, these schools

have emerged as the most effective tool of social and cultural integration in Belize. Parentsof refugee children do not protest against this practice and more than willingly partake inthem to the point that they have tended to neglect their Spanish heritage. When asked whySpanish-language schools have not been established, the answer that I have received wasastounding: the final destination of most of these refugees was the USA. In fact, because somany Belizeans have relatives in North America and a culture of migration is so wellinstitutionalized that the English medium schools are viewed as invaluable means towardsthese migratory ends. That apart, the English medium schools have offered an important


11/37

mechanism of integrating the many diverse communities in Belize towards building acommon citizenship.

I stayed over in Belmopan so as to meet with some government officials and leaders of cultural groups. Apart from observing ethnic diversity in Belize, I was interested in lookingat how local village and town councils operated as part of a larger project of researching

local democracy. I was interested in Belize's sugar industry in part because it was still oneof the main pillars of the economy and I came from a country, Guyana, where sugar wasstill King. The government departments that dealt with local government and the sugarindustry were both housed under the same government Ministry. Local democracy hademerged as an important part of Belize's strategy of development and the currentgovernment in power was committed to a program of decentralization so as to increasecitizen participation in decisonmaking and improve government accountability. Bringinggovernment closer to the people was to be facilitated by transferring more powers andresponsibilities of the centralized governmental apparatus to village and municipal councils.I had done a fair amount of research on the subject of decentralization and local democracyand have written a number of essays and books on the subject. This was an area in which Icould make a contribution. On my trip to the south, the Department of Local Governmentthrough Dr. Wendell Parham, the CEO, arranged for me to meet with town majors andcouncilors. This was so successful that I was invited to give the keynote address to theannual meeting of Mayors scheduled later for that month in the Free Economic Zone inCorozal.

Before leaving Belmopan, I arranged to meet two important Garifuna leaders since the firsttown after Belmopan that I was going to was Dangriga, a town with the highestconcentration of Garifuna in Belize. The first of these two Garifuna leaders was Mr. RoyCaeytano who was the CEO in the Ministry of Community Development in charge of villagecouncils throughout Belize. He was also the President of the National Garifuna CulturalCouncil. Articulate and highly educated both in Belize and overseas, he decided that hewould like for me to meet with him and his family at his home in Dangriga on the weekendfor dinner and wider discussions. The second Garifuna I wanted to meet was famous

throughout Belize as an entertainer, Andy Palacio, a key artist who had contributed to theevolution of Belize's unique musical form called "Punta Rock". He has several CDs and hasgone on several overseas tours that have brought him international recognition. Youthfuland attired in well-groomed Rasta dreadlocks, he met me at the Bullfrog Hotel for a beer. Iasked him numerous questions about his background and about the Garifuna but also aboutthe problem of unity and a national identity in Belize's multi-cultural setting. What did allBelizeans share? Laughing, he said three things. First, Punta Rock which has becomeBelize's main musical form; second, fear of Guatemala; and third, rice and beans and stewchicken. Observing me as being of East Indian ancestry, he mentioned that in the southerntown of Punta Gorda which was on my itinerary, there was a popular East Indian bandcalled "Coolie Rebels" playing Punta Rock. He also mentioned to me that Belizeans listen toall kinds of music but included among their repertoire were calypso from Trinidad andreggae from Jamaica.

The Hummingbird Highway to Central America

I was bound for Dangriga on the Hummingbird Highway by bus. It was to be a trip repletewith surprises beginning with the majestic Maya Mountains and lush valleys on a windingthoroughfare. Dangriga, the main municipality of Stan Creek District occupying about 840sq. mls and containing about 14,061 persons (2000 Census), was a preponderantly Garifunatown. Going onwards to Dangriga then, I had expected to find the bus packed with Garifuna


12/37

passengers. I was therefore surprised when instead it was overcrowded with CentralAmericans mainly women, with colourful skirts, each having in tow several young childrenwho were all squeezed together on one bench of seats. This was a puzzle, which was soonsorted out as I witnessed the landscape of jungles periodically broken by stretches of citrusgroves carefully ordered into symmetrical formations. At its first stop about one hour later,a few batches of women and children descended heading in the direction of a series of

wooden shacks and barracks. These were the homes of the Central American migrantworkers who were recruited to labor on the citrus plantations doing low paid drudgery,which ordinary Belizeans refused to do at such low wages. The families who exited from thebus were returning from Belmopan either for shopping, medical facilities or both. Many livedin shanty towns such as Pomona, Middlesex and Alta Vista along the highway . 10

Citrus, mainly oranges and grapefruits, had emerged as the second largest export crop of Belize valued about $88.5 million in 2001 sent off as "concentrates" to the USA and Japan.Along the Hummingbird Highway, I had noticed large trucks brimming with bright yellowcargoes of oranges destined for two citrus processing factories. The bus stopped longenough at one of these factories where the trucks disgorged their cargo of citrus onto alarger space with hundreds of thousands of oranges and grapefruits where they were, inassembly line fashion sorted, cleaned, squeezed and frozen, as concentrates boundoverseas. I found out that the citrus groves ran a range from a few acres to a thousand, thelargest owned by a few local families and by the citrus factories which were foreign owned.To be competitive internationally, it is argued that the citrus plantation owners depended oncheap field and factory labor from Central America who constituted a majority of theworkforce. In an arrangement with the Immigration Department, the citrus ownersthemselves were authorized to provide the Central Americans with short-term visas which inpractice produced long term and permanent residents. Coming from Honduras, Guatemala,and El Salvador where wages were about 50 to 60% the Belizean, these migrants foundBelize a vastly superior place to live and allowed themselves severe abuses at the workplacehabitually underpaid, cheated and verbally assaulted . 11 A few years ago in May-June 1999,when Belize launched an amnesty program to regularize the residential status of its residentCentral American population estimated to contain as many as 40% illegal persons, many

accepted the offer becoming either permanent residents or full citizens. Attempts at evictingillegal migrants never seem to succeed most returning . 12

Farther along the highway getting closer to Dangriga, the citrus plantations yielded to rowsof orderly banana fields. Stan Creek District was the banana capital of Belize. Actually, themain banana belt was south of Dangriga in such places as Mango Creek and Cowpen. Likethe citrus industry, bananas have become one of Belize's major export crops bringing inabout $66.7m. in 2000 (falling to $40.5m. in 2001 after the devastation of Hurricane Iris)and providing jobs for some 2,000 persons. Banana production in Belize was in decline untilthe 1970s when the central government, in an attempt to revive the depressed southerneconomy and solve the problem of persistent high unemployment, re-organized the industryspending enormous amounts on improving the infrastructure including building its ownshipping facility at Big Creek. Run by a Banana Board, the industry, while it created a newindustry that employed many persons and literally solved the unemployment problemamong Belizeans in the contiguous area to the point of requiring the importation of laborfrom Central America, was costly to the Treasury and was finally privatized in 1985 . 13 Froman industry that was at one time small scale with numbers of tenant farmers, it had becomeone under the control of nine owners, some foreign but mainly local investors. Locatedmainly in Stan Creek District close to Dangriga, the revived industry occupying about 9,000acres continues to strive. Today, the overwhelming majority of banana workers, about 92%,are Central Americans with only about 3.4% of the banana workforce Creole or Garifuna andanother 4% Maya, starkly attesting to the displacement of Belizeans by the deliberate
http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.html


13/37

recruitment of inexpensive Central Americans . 14 All of Belize's bananas are exported by theIrish-based FYFFES corporation which has a monopoly in purchasing and selling bananas forthe overseas market gaining access under the ACP Accord to the preferential high-pricedEuropean community. FYFFES was until 1986 an integral part of the multinational bananagiant, United Fruit Company, later called Chiquita, which is one of three companies today incontrol of the banana market in Europe and North America, the others being FYFFES and

GEEST of Holland. It has not been a smooth ride however as the industry was plagued asmuch as the citrus with abuses and exploitation of its migrant labor force. Interestingly,practically all of the laborious work of sorting the bananas is done by part time CentralAmerican women who ensure that only high quality bananas from six to ten and a half inches are packaged resulting in the rejection of about 18% of the bananas. In 1995, themigrant workers organized themselves into the United Bananas Workers union and came upagainst the banana Growers Association which had received between 500-1,000 permitsfrom the government to recruit Central American labor. The labor permits facilitated threatsand abuses by the growers and, when representations to the growers were rebuffed, theywent on strike in May 1995. Police and military forces converged on the workers packingmany of them off to the Guatemalan-Belize border so as to intimidate them intocompliance . 15

I had become used to banana trees growing several clusters in my own backyard in Trinidadbut had never witnessed huge banana plantations such as I beheld with large bunches andbig bananas. The banana bunches while still on the trees were wrapped by blue plastic bagsto protect them from rodents and birds. While I was in Belize City, I had bought from streetvendors batches of about 15 bananas for only one dollar. I now discovered that althoughthese bananas were quite nice they were in fact the discards from these plantations, whichexported only the highest quality overseas. The vendors procured the discarded bananas forlittle and brought them to market throughout Belize. In 2001, Hurricane Iris ripped throughthe banana plantations doing havoc permitting only about 40% harvesting but it is beingrebuilt. I had heard many stories about the interlocking marriage relationship between someof the big banana owners and political party leaders in Belize. This, it is argued, hasfacilitated the continuing entry of cheap labor from Central America to the detriment of the

Belizean labor force. The reaction of Belizeans to the Central Americans has been less thancordial leading to many reports of open ethnic attacks and the evolution of invidiousstereotypes hampering inter-racial relations.

Dangriga Township

From Belmopan, it took about two and a half hours to get to Dangriga Township. TheHummingbird Highway had disclosed a perspective of the varied topographical andgeographical diversity of Belize and now several hundred feet back to sea level I was to beindulged with an urban sprawl. Along the Hummingbird Highway, there were otherattractions such as its world-renowned bat-infested subterranean caves, which I was unableto visit. While the space around the Hummingbird Highway was preponderantly populated

by Central American migrants living in shacks next to the vast stretches of citrus grovesliterally configuring a different country with its own people, sounds, and endeavors, the nextdestination was a packed urban area. Dangriga, located on the coast, was a preponderantlyGarifuna town with a Garifuna mayor and Garifuna members of parliament, including theSpeaker of Parliament, Sylvia Flores. Dangriga was an old fishing settlement pointing to thepotential for a marine industry. This I did find, but it was not constituted of a fishing fleetbut shrimp farms on land, that is, fish farms next to the coastline. Expatriate owned andcontrolled, these farms produced 6,367,886 pounds of shrimps in 2001 valued at
http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.htmlhttp://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/premdas.html


14/37

$46,497,000 thereby making a major contribution to Belize's export sector. But they werenot integrated into the Dangriga and Garifuna landscape.

Dandriga recollects some of the early strivings of the Garifuna people as they entered Belizeat the southern coastal parts, setting up villages including Dangriga. They were soonrecruited thereafter by the Baymen as woodcutters joining the Creoles in this founding

colonial enterprise. But the Garifuna were also great seamen and wharf workers, a set of interrelated occupations that came to define part of their identity throughout Belize andCentral America. In Dandriga, the Garifuna had evolved further into other niches carving outa distinctive claim as educators and teachers. In Dangriga, my host was Austin Flores, aretired High School Principal of high regard among the Garifuna. He ran a small motellocated on a beachfront. From the bus top, it was a short walk to Flores motel where I wasexpected and warmly greeted. An educated, well travelled and very articulate man, Floreswas also Vice-President of the National Garifuna Council. I asked him why he did notmigrate to the United States which he had visited many times and in which he had severalfamily members, he said that he could not stand racism and preferred living in dignity inBelize. Asked about his retirement pre-occupations, he said he was busy with his motel butalso a small citrus farm. He remarked that although there was a high unemployment rate inDangriga, the Garifuna refused to take available jobs in the banana and citrus plantationsarguing that they paid too little. He contemptuously declared that the Garifuna hadabandoned village and farm life for the bright lights of towns not only like Dangriga andBelize City but also Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.

Dangriga itself was a fairly compact town with a busy and dusty main street, St. VincentStreet, closely rimmed by an assortment of shops, houses and vacant spots. The next day, Itook a walk along the main street in the direction of the river that divides the town into twosections. Along the main road I was struck by the remnants of a number of dilapidatedhouses interspersed with well-stocked stores. In particular, I was struck by a particulardilapidated house, which was partly occupied by young people drinking liquor and playingcards and dominoes. The shops seem to be all stocked with the same plastic wares andcheap household goods and, as in Belize City, owned by Chinese business people. To be

sure, a few shops were owned by local residents and I entered one of these after seeingsome sweet potato pies, a Garifuna specialty. I struck up a conversation with thestorekeeper, a middle aged woman, who told me that she was Garifuna and had migratedfrom Honduras to Belize. She said that the several Garifuna settlements in Central Americashared a common communication grid among relatives who pass across borders frequently.

Proceeding to the river where the bridge crossed, I found a new set of riverain commercialactivities both from the small boats plying the water as well from a series of shops thatbordered on the confluence of the river and road. Across from river was the fresh vegetable,fish and fruit market of Dangriga which I made a point in visiting the next morning, aSaturday, Market Day. Like many tropical markets that I have seen around the world, thisone was full of life, teeming with buyers and sellers, fruits and vegetables spread on the

ground, and everyone colourfully dressed for the occasion. At a section where there werequite a few small vendors plying a large variety of familiar fruit and vegetables, I saw"ereba", the white stiff cassava bread, for which the Caribs and other Amerindian groups inthe Caribbean were famous. Everyone seemed to know each other and there was quite a bitof socializing and revelry. Next to the market was the river bank to which gathered anumber of boats carrying vegetables and fruits from farmers from other parts of Stan CreekDistrict. The supply was abundant and relatively inexpensive.


15/37

Mr. Flores had arranged for me to see the mayor of Dangriga, Cassian Nunez, who hadreturned from Los Angeles to assist in the development of Dangriga. He was mostpersonable and like so many of the Garifuna I had met extraordinarily articulate as hepainstakingly took me for a trip through the township. He was very keen about stimulatingeconomic development in Dangriga where the unemployment situation was serious. He sawthe need to attract new investment in tourism and small manufacturing businesses as the

solution to this end. He remarked that there was an acute shortage of land whilesimultaneously there existed very large citrus and banana plantations just outside of thetown. He was as concerned like Dr. Palacio was about the rise of drug use among theyouths and said that the place along the road that I saw with many persons drinking andplaying cards was a main staging area for the drug trade and criminal activities. Crackcocaine was a critical problem in Dangriga as well as HIV-AIDS. Along the way, I wasattracted by some new construction of low cost houses which it was explained to me waspart of a promise that the Prime Minister had made in the last elections to provide 200,000such houses during his tenure. Cassian was concerned because at mid-point in the life of the new government not much was yet done to construct enough of them. He was askedabout political patronage in the construction process and he said it pervaded the entiresystem so that party stalwarts were the recipients of benefits. He said that was the case ineverything in Belize.

At another location of the town, I saw a mass outdoor event in the making on a largefootball size field on which were numerous plastic chairs crowned by a stage and a podium.It was an Evangelical or Pentecostal religious revival meeting which was very popular inmany parts of Central America conducted by expatriate religious groups from the USA. TheMayor explained that the group that I saw was from Guatemala and had found fertileground in Dangriga as in other of Belize where unemployment was high. I asked about theGarifuna faith and its importance to the Garifuna people today. He said that many Garifunahad become Christians mainly Catholics but also many had combined their adherence toChristian rituals with the Garifuna. I was told about the persistence of traditional "dugu"ceremony and ancestor worship among the Garifuna suggesting that it was one of theauthentic Garifuna defining practices still in existence. Many persons I had met in Belize

have told me that "obeah" and similar spirit possession practices prevailed but that it wasespecially pronounced among the Garifuna. I was invited to meet a main practitioner of thedugu ceremony but I declined.

Mr. Flores also felt that I should meet a distinguished Garifuna couple, Eugene and FeliciaHernandez, who were also Garifuna returnees from the diaspora and who had established ahome in Dangriga. Felicia Hernandez was famous for her many books on Garifuna folktaleand children's books. I was invited to dinner and entered a very substantial but well securedbungalow attesting to widespead fear of burglary in Dangriga. Eugene and Felicia wereretired and wanted to preserve the Garifuna way of life and its historical memory. Eugene,who was the one who insisted on returning to Belize, had taken up farming aroundDangriga. Felicia reluctantly joined her husband pointing out that she was adapting to all of the inconveniences of Dangriga and was not too dissatisfied. She had written severalchildren's books and had etched much recognition for her work, several copies of whichwere given to me. They had children who continued to reside in the USA.

When I was in Belmopan, I had taken time out to see Mr. Roy Caeytano who was thecurrent President of the National Garifuna Council. He had invited me for summer with hisfamily at his home in Dangriga that weekend. Cayetano was tall, trim and articulate as wellas well traveled and educated with advanced university degrees. He has been a frequentlyinvited person to international conferences on development issues. At dinner, his teenage


16/37

children and wife joined him in a Garifuna prayer of thanks. Mrs. Cayetano was also a well-educated Garifuna schoolteacher. The home was decorated with Garifuna artifacts andpaintings. We discussed many problems of the Garifuna people of which the main onepertained to the loss of the Garifuna language and Garifuna traditions generally in partstemming from the large Garifuna diaspora. I asked Roy about an upcoming Garifuna eventsponsored by "The World Garifuna Council" that was scheduled a month later. I was told

that the event was hosted by Dr. Ted Aranda, A Garifuna member of parliament in thecurrent government but that the event did not receive the blessing of the National GarifunaCouncil. Evidently, there was quite a bit of infighting among the Belize Garifuna elite andthis was manifested in the event for all of the public to see.

Onwards to Toledo and Punta Gorta, my heart was palpitating with expectations. Toledo isBelize's most southern district, some 1,704 sq.mls or 20% of Belize, bordering onGuatemala. Before leaving Belize City, I was told by Dr. Palacio that Punta Gorda or PG as itwas known, was the most ethnically diverse part of Belize: "If you really want to witnessdiversity, go to PG". Present were Mayas, Garinuga, Creoles, and East Indians. Theproportions in Toledo were Garifuna 37%, Mayas 21%, Creoles 7% and East Indians 6-8%.While this diversity attracted me, it was the Maya Mountains that drew my first attentionreaching 3,000 feet above sea level at whose foothills was located the largest Mayatownship, San Antonio. Outside of PG, the Mayas were the predominant community. In PG,however, the ethnic composition was quite different composed of Creoles, Garifuna, EastIndians, and Mayas. A sprawling town with a fine boardwalk and extensive road fronting thecoastal waters, PG had a cosmopolitan air about it. While Garifuna were the largestcommunity with about 37% of the population, they were not dominant with Creolesnumbering 7%, Mayas (Mopan and Kekchi) 15%, Mixed 16%, East Indians 5%. About half of the town was Catholic and the other half Protestant. Five languages were spoken.

As I entered Toledo district, I was confronted by a very large flat forested underpopulatedplain truncated by many rivers. There was lumbering operations being conducted by foreignfirms, mainly Malaysian, which aroused the wrath of the Mayas and environmentalists. Themain road, the Southern Highway, was under construction and was very dusty. It was in

Toledo that the Mayas were claiming a Maya Homeland of some half a million acres. Myentry into Toledo signaled meeting the largest concentration of peoples of Mayan extractionin Belize. Southwest Belize and the Mayan Mountains are the home of such large Mayansettlements as San Antonio. I was intrigued with this Mayan category since none of thecountries of the Caribbean possessed any such grouping. Belize did and for someone comingfrom the insular Caribbean based in Trinidad, the idea of a Mayan had the exotic aura of novelty. To be sure, before arriving in Belize, I had read about some very large newarchaeological digs of ancient Mayan settlements in Belize, and that apart, I have read a fairamount of materials about the Mayas in Central America. However, my prior knowledge of the Mayas in Belize was practically zero. I was equally unprepared for the contestations thatI would encounter regarding the Mayas and their identity and claims in Belize. It was inToledo that these issues were in turmoil focused around the argument that the Mayas of theToledo District were indigenous to that part of Belize. The Maya Cultural Council of Toledobased in PG, claimed indigenous status of the Mayas as a means of justifying ownership of avast area that they wanted to be officially declared a "Maya Homeland". The othercommunities of Creoles, Garifuna, and East Indians in the district challenged this viewarguing that Belize was a country of immigrants and that the Mayas of the Toledo districtwere relatively recent arrivals like everyone else in the area and consequently the claim of a"Mayan Homeland" was not justified.


17/37

The school books used throughout Belize recite a clear narrative that conceded that therewere Mayan settlements in Belize prior to the arrival of the British woodcutters in the earlyseventeenth century, but proceed to point out that the present day Mayans in Belize werenot descended from this original community of Mayas. Rather, they were recent arrivals andin some cases arriving later than the Creoles and Garifuna. The Mayas in Belize areclassified in these school textbooks as belonging to three groupings:

1. The Yucatec, who now live predominantly in Corozal and Orange Walk Districts,originated in the 19th century from the Yucatan as a result of the dislocations causedby the Caste Wars. Today, they have adapted to Spanish and English culturalpractices and gave up much of their traditional customs and rituals.

2. The Mopan, who today are found mainly in San Antonio in Toledo District and in anumber of Villages in Cayo District, came to Belize in 1876 running away fromtaxation and forced labor in Peten.

3. The Kekchi, who today live in southeast lowland river areas of Toledo, came to Belizein the 1870s fleeing from plantation enslavement in Verapaz, Guatemala.

Among the Mopan and Kekchi of Toledo, this history is sharply challenged. They both claim

ancestry of the Mayas and thus are entitled to the status of the "first" inhabitants of Belizewith collateral entitlements. In Toledo, the Mopan and Kekchi dwell on small parcels of reserve land given to them by the state but they complain that it is very inadequate tosustain their traditional life as slash and burn milpa farmers. It was in 1980 when the Mopanof Toledo first registered their claim for a Mayan Homeland encompassing some half amillion acres. The request was not conceded but it has triggered a fierce debate among thevarious ethnocultural communities in Toledo about the authenticity of the "nativeness" of the Mayans in the areas that they claim. Interestingly, since history is treated as animportant tool in constructing a group's identity and registering its claims and complaints,all the communities in Belize have evolved their own historical narrative with each claimingthe status of being native and indigenous. The Garifuna for example underscore that like theancient Mayas, they are indigenous to the New World, and that apart, they arrived insouthern Belize in 1802 long before the Mopan and Kekchi. The Creoles argue for priority

based on the story of the battle of St. George's Quay in 1798. The Mestizos have taken noback seat to anyone since they have been coming into Belize at least as long ago as theMayas.

I was staying in a small hotel in PG and was lucky to discover that the Maya Cultural Councilof Toledo was scheduled to hold a meeting of its Executive Council on Saturday. I decided toattempt seeing them, after all I was meeting with all communities. When I found thelocation of their meeting place, I knocked and was met politely. The President of the MCC,Mr. Valentino Shal, asked me to return in the afternoon after their official meeting was over.Before returning, I did have a sense of apprehension since by phenotype I was an EastIndian and the East Indian Cultural Council had joined forces with the Creoles and Garifunaagainst the MCC on the Maya Homeland claim. I was shown a seat and faced about eight

interrogating gazing persons who wanted to know about my business. It was a tense fifteenminutes as I explained my mission and handled questions. I stayed absolutely clear of theland issue and focused on my University and its role in Belize. I wanted to know why therewas no Maya student in my university and pointed out that we were there to serve themalso. That led to many curious questions about UWI and the revelation that they were inneed of higher education opportunities especially if scholarships could be made available.Many of the university educated Mayas went to college in the United States with a fewattending the University of Belize including the current President of the Toledo MayaCouncil. This focus on UWI and the need of the Mayas for educational opportunities broke


18/37

the ice. They entered into a long discussion about their lack of trained people and povertyamong the Mayas who they claimed were the most disadvantaged community in Belize.Soon I was serve coffee and cake and the discussion became warm and cordial. I waspresented with a colourful book in part compiled by the Geography Department at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, describing the Maya villages in Toledo. It was clear thatthe Mayas were well connected via the Internet with other Mayas as well as First Nation

organizations in the Americas. Subsequently, I met again with Valentino Shal, the Presidentof the Toledo Maya Council and he and I exchanged ideas on development. He outlined hiseducational interests after he received his degree from the University of Belize but was nottoo interested in leaving Belize for any length of time. He was an articulate young man andhad appeared on radio and television to represent Mayan interests in Belize. Shal hadreplaced an older Mayan as President of the MCC in part because of his Western education.He was well attuned to Belizean politics and saw himself as defender of the Mayan claim fora homeland. For some time before the Homeland claim became an acute crisis pitching theMayas against the Garifuna, Creoles and East Indians, these communities talked with eachother and had a collaborative working relationship. But ever since these other communitiesappeared and voiced their opposition before the relevant parliamentary committee inBelmopan over proposal for a Mayan homeland in Toledo, relations between thesecommunities and the Mayas have been strained.

I bypassed San Antonio until a couple of days later having been urged to see this historicMaya settlement. It was only one of numerous Maya settlements but the largest with manymunicipal facilities. It was built on hills and the roads were narrow and houses small andsome adope-like. My main contact was a nurse at the Health Center. She explained that theHealth center was the busiest spot in town attesting to the poverty and diseases in thetown. There was lot of intestinal worms because of the fact that most children do not haveshoes. There was much unemployment and idleness.

I was on my way to PG where I would stay for my visit. I was rather intrigued by the factthat I was going to meet East Indians in fairly large concentrated numbers. On the way tothe township of PG, I was shown a series of villages that were East Indian settlements. Who

were these Indians? How did they get to Belize and how are they faring? I had a naturalcuriosity being a descendant of Indian laborers to the Caribbean myself. I made contactwith Tyrone Bardalez, an odd name for an Indian, and he was the President of the EastIndian Council which was based in PG. I was invited on a Sunday to the home of theBardalez in the village of Forest Home on the outskirts of PG. On Saturday night I washowever free and decided to see if there is any Indian restaurants in the town. The searchyielded a restaurant that was run by an East Indian woman and it was said that she wouldobviously have curry dishes on her menu. When I went to restaurant, I could not see anycurry dishes on the menu and asked to see the Indian woman. She was about 30 years old,spoke perfect Belizean English and said that they made mainly general Belizean food forsale but that the previous day they had made a curry dish that was not made the way Iwould have expected. She said she did not use curry power which could not be obtained inBelize so they used "yellow ginger", an ingredient of curry. They only used this ingredientwhich in its powered form was produced by the Mayas. The Mayas themselves did not usethe item to make a curry dish for themselves but produced it for sale to the Indians. Thenext day, at the Bardalez's home, a few other Indians also came to meet me. Among themwas the acknowledged local East Indian historian, Wellington Ranguy. These were allfamiliarly looking Indian faces but no one wore a traditional Indian attire and everyonepossessed a hybrid English and Spanish name and all were Christians. No Hindus or Muslimsamong them. They were in a simple but wooden home with an assortment of modernfurniture but nothing to brag about. No Hindu or Muslim icons or photos in the house butfamily pictures and of Jesus Christ. They were most warmly welcoming as if they were


19/37

meeting a long lost relative and were as cautious about me as I was curious about them. Itwas a strange feeling of affinity, about the surprise of survival in the New World, ourancestors coming across the Oceans that saw made die and many others dying on theplantations on which they were deployed, discriminated against, mistreated, and oppressed.Even though we were all several generations born locally in different locations in the NewWorld, we seem to have shared sense of belonging in a common narrative of struggle and

survival. I told them about Trinidad, Guyana, and Suriname where large numbers of Indianslived and where a fairly vibrant Indian cultural retention was in existence. They were veryapologetic claiming to be shorn of practically all things Indian remembering little andwanting me to tell them more about Indian life in the Caribbean. They were really surprisedwith the large numbers of Indians in Trinidad where of a population of 1.3 million, Indiansconstituted about 42% of the total and in Guyana of a population of some 800,000 Indianswere about 56% of the population. I noted that there was an Indian cultural revival inGuyana, Trinidad, and Suriname with much interaction and that Trinidad had emerged asthe site of a very vigorous Indian community constituted of a large reservoir of skilled andwell educated persons and professionals as well as a prosperous business community andnumerous temples and synagogues. Trinidad was also the home of many Indian culturalartists who produced new local Indian musical songs and dances. Indians had risen topositions of political leadership so that both Guyana and Trinidad had Indian PrimeMinisters. They were awed.

Belizean Indians are clearly more Belizean than Indian constituting about 3.5% of thepopulation and living in parts of the country today but mainly in Toledo, Corozal and BelizeDistricts. They came originally to Belize to provide a cheap source of labor for plantationsarriving directly from both India and Jamaica. Mr. Wellington Rangy, the Indian historian,said in an essay he gave me that Indians from India first arrived in Belize in 1858. Mr.Ranguy recounted how after the Sepoy rebellion in India, the British parliament dispatched1,000 Sepoy mutineers to Belize. Some were settled in Belize City on Queen CharlotteStreet while most were consigned to work on sugar and lumber plantations in CorozalDistrict leading to the development of three Indian settlements namely San Antonio,Calcutta Village and Carolina Village. Other Indians lived in Orange walk District, the site of

the only remaining sugar refining factory in Belize. that became known as Calcutta Village.

The second batch of Indians arrived in 1872 recruited mainly from Jamaica to serve onsugar and banana plantations that were erected by ex-Confederates who had departed fromthe American South after the American Civil War. Needing cheap labor, these planters whohad acquired tracts of land not far away from PG, they traveled to Caribbean ports such asJamaica where they acquired East Indians. Most of those who came to Belize stayed aftertheir labor contract expired. Some of those who came to the Punta Gorda area of ToledoDistrict acquired land contiguous to the plantations and became permanent residents of Belize. A series of Indian villages exist today on the PG-San Antonio road named ForestHome, Cattle Landing, West Morland, Fairview, Mt. Royal, Jacintoville and Mafredi. It is saidthat the Indians in the PG villages have retained some Indian words which can be heard intheir conversations which also seem to have a special speech inflection. A number of theIndians on completion of their contract migrated to Belize City and joined the Indiancommunity on Queen Charlotte Street which became known as "Coolie Town".

The Indians I met in Forest Home explained that they were very isolated from other Indiansin the Caribbean and that they knew very little about their historical memory but throughMr. Ranguy they were assembling old books, artifacts, and furniture towards establishingsome sort of a museum later. They explained without apologizing for it that they hadconverted to Christianity through their plantation experience and mingling with other


20/37

communities. There was also a fair amount of intermarriages with other groups. Theirnames had also changed as part of a simplification process initially and then throughChristianisation and acculturation so that Ranghai became Ranguy, Ramcalorinea toRamclan, Parhemran to Parham, Suphala to Supaul, Mangharan to Mangar etc. In Toledo,many Indians adapted surnames such as Williams, Edwards, Jacobs, and Coleman. I wantedto know the extent to which Indian practices such as food preparations and clothing styles

were retained or adapted. Curry remained a dish but it was constructed almost entirely fromyellow ginger supplied by the Mayas. They made a curry dish for lunch and it was mainlyyellow but tasted just fine. Their clothing was entirely westernized like all Belizeans but theyhad no Indian music.

I asked about the Indian Cultural Council and was told that they simply followed suit by theexample set by the establishment of the Creole Cultural Council, the Garifuna CulturalCouncil, and the Maya Cultural Council. They had successfully articulated, defended andpromoted the interests of their respective communities and they felt that they should do thesame. One success that they cited to me was their wresting from the Central governmentofficial recognition of the Indian community and their contribution to the development of Belize. At the moment, the East Indian Cultural Council was engaged in a dispute with theclaims of the Maya Cultural Council for a Maya Homeland. They had linked their efforts in acoalition with the Creole an Garifuna Cultural Councils to oppose the Mayan demand sincethe land that is claimed by the Mayas include areas which have been traditionally occupiedby Creoles, Garifuna and East Indians. These communities have disputed the position of theMayas in Toledo that they were the original descendants of the area and countered that theIndians, Garifuna and Creoles were on some of this land before the Mayas had arrived in thearea. The issue had become a national affair embroiled in partisan politics. The Minister forLands was a Mayan and he was supportive of the Mayan land claim. Through theestablishment of a Toledo Development Corporation (TDC), these land claims were to besettled so that whoever controlled the TDC would win out in this conflict, which had clearlybecome ethnic and communalized. The TDC was to be run by a Board and the elections forit had already begun in the convening of village meetings throughout Toledo.

A spot in PG that was highly recommended was the market especially on a Saturday. I wentand it turned out to be a fairly small but compact area with an elongated wooden structurefacing the sea. The market was busy as it was colourful with a large number of sellerssquatting on the pavement overflowing from the wooden low-lying structure and evenoccupying the street. The vendors were practically all Mayas clustered in small groups mostwith small children and all selling he same set of bananas, cassava, and sweet potatoesmade into small heaps. Some of the Mayas were very reddish clear while others werebrownish which was later explained to me as a differentiator between the Mopan (brown)and the Kekchi. I remember one incident that was appalling where a Mayan mother wasfeeding her infant on a bottle of Pepsi at which I offered an ice-cream cone in its placewhich was readily accepted and just as quickly passed around. Inside the wooden buildingwere also many other vendors but there was a section, which was for the selling of fish. Ientered and the sellers changed to Creoles and Garifuna. Outside of the fish market facingthe sea were many fishing boats where many buyers went to purchase directly from thefishermen. I also went out and again noticed that the fishermen were also either Garifuna orCreole. As in the case of the vegetable and fruit market, the buyers were mostly PG town'speople, an assortment of everybody. Away from the wooden building almost on an adjacentstreet the products sold and the vendors themselves changed, his time to Central Americanhawkers peddling in their small trucks all manner of plastic and tin utensils. Some wereselling fancy woven Mayan decorated cloth. Everything was orderly in the blazing sun withno policemen in sight with a festive busy atmosphere. The market was a veritable medley of peoples, Mayas, Garifuna, Creole, East Indian, Mestizo and even a Mennonite who was


21/37

selling cut watermelons from a truck. I spoke to the Mennonite, a young man whosecommand of English was rather deficient.

Later in the day, I made a final and successful attempt to see the local Chairperson of theCreole Cultural Council. Creoles were the largest ethnic community in PG but not a majority,more like a third. She lived in a highfenced well-guarded compound in which was a large

barn like house. She was most cordial and after our pleasantries, she ushered me into thebig building, which as it turned out was a museum in the making. There collections of kitchen utensils, furniture, beds, and artifacts from the Creole community during the days of slavery and immediately afterwards. It was a fine collection, which was the nucleus of museum to celebrate the Creole memory and contribution to Belize. She was middle aged,confident and articulate.

Cayo District and Benque Viejo de Carmen Township

Cayo District, sharing a border of some 266 kilometers with Guatemala, is the westerninland region rising to Mt.Pine Ridge about 305 to 912 meters above sea level. Constitutedby about 20% of Belize's population, Cayo is ethnically diverse with significant Mestizos,

Creoles, and Mennonite communities (at Spanish Lookout) as well as fair number of NorthAmericans. Cayo is the location of Belmopan, the country's capital, but its main municipalityis San Ignacio/Santa Elena with about 7,000 to 8,000 persons. Cayo District has a verydiverse economy which, apart from the infrastructure provided by the many governmentbuildings and resident civil service communities, possesses a diverse agricultural base thatprovides large amounts of poultry, beef, pork, kidney beans, eggs, and furniture mainlyfrom the Mennonite colony at Spanish Lookout. It also has citrus groves, some rice farms,and a number of food processing plants as well as light industries. Apart from theseeconomic activities, it is also the site of two major Maya monuments, Cahal Pech andXunantunich which draw tourists worldwide. Further, its biodiversity makes it the home of anumber of rare bird species such as the scarlet macaws (about 200 left in the world),mammals such as the Bairds Tapir which is the national animal, and reptiles such as theMorelet crocodiles and numerous iguanas, all of which have led to a proliferation of environmental non-governmental organizations in the district. A maze of small motels andresorts have arisen to cater to tourists and environmentalists. But above all of these things,for Belizeans, the most significant event in Cayo relates to the controversial building of the$60m. Chalillo Hydroelectricity Dam across the Macal River that will cause major flooding of Maya sites and adversely affect several species of animals and birds apart from disruptingthe livelihood of a large number of residents. The Chalillo Project was shaping up as a site of a major showdown between some environmentalist groups, which themselves are dividedon the issue, and the government which is in part alleging that these opposing NGOs areforeign directed and not representative of the will of Belizeans.

The western border of Cayo fronts Guatemala where the town of Benque Viejo de Carmensits contiguous to a customs and immigration post. Benque had a special appeal to me as a

transnational site and the locus of interaction between Belizeans and Guatemalans over aninflamed border that has come to define the relations between the two countries. Benquewas literally on the frontline. My travel to Benque was across hilly terrain, verdant fields,and many flowing rivers. Of all the municipalities in Belize, Benque had the only mayor whowas not from the ruling political party of Belize. The mayor hosted me and gave me apassionate and long dose of all the harassment and discriminatory actions to which he hadbeen allegedly submitted by the government in power. A Mestizo, the mayor living close toGuatemala was very sensitive to what he deemed as persistent harsh and inhumane waythe Belizean Customs and Immigration officers, typically Creoles, dealt with Guatemalans


22/37

seeking even legally to cross the border. He remarked that he had made an officialcomplaint about it stressing that such practices did not contribute to good relations betweenBelizeans and Guatemalans. Instead, he argued that it tended to add to Guatemalanantagonism and resolve marked by racist epithets hurled against Belize. Despite, all of thisthe major pointed to several cross border events that moderated Belizean-Guatemalanrelations including soccer matches between schools as well as a particular high school on

the Belizean side to which many well of Guatemalan families send their children for anEnglish education.

For Belizeans, the border was a symbol of illegal Guatemalan incursion into

Belize Identity and Ethnicity

Documents

Transcript of Belize Identity and Ethnicity