Evan X Hyde’s life is a counterpoint to that of George Price. Both men attended St. John’s College (SJC), but Hyde’s Creole view of the Jesuit orthodoxy has been at odds with the habitual faithfulness of Price. Both men have felt deeply about their “Land of the free, by the Carib sea,” but they were loyal to separate realms. One man emerged as the most influential politician of Belize; the other emerged as the most influential writer.
– pg. 163, UNDERSTANDING BELIZE, by Alan Twigg, Harbour Publishing, 2006
Over the forty years since the United Black Association for Development (UBAD) was founded on February 9, 1969, attempts by this newspaper to discuss UBAD have often been rebuffed. There are different reasons for this, but one of the problems is that the story of UBAD is, ultimately, the story of Evan X Hyde, because he was the only one at the beginning in February of 1969 who was there at the end in November of 1974. (The next closest in UBAD longevity was Ismail Omar Shabazz, a foundation officer who left UBAD in November of 1972 to work full time for the Nation of Islam.)
We have explained before that UBAD is a complex concept because we can identity five distinct phases in the organization’s history – (i) February 1969 to October 1969 (ii) October 1969 to January 1970 (iii) January 1970 to January 1971 (iv) January 1971 to November 1972 and (v) November 1972 to November 1974.
The foreigners who controlled the education system in Belize made it their business to leave UBAD out of the schools in Belize so as to eliminate it from the national history. In their business, they were assisted by the electoral politicians, who needed the votes which the churches controlled.
There was a similar elimination from national history perpetrated in connection with the Ex-Servicemen’s Riot in Belize which took place in July of 1919.
If it is true that UBAD was not important, as some wish to propagate, then it can’t be true that the 60 jobs which eventually emerged from the UBAD foundation on Partridge Street, are not. In fact, these jobs, as workers are being terminated by the millions all over planet earth, are vital. (If one took one’s logic to the limit, UBAD is responsible for most of the jobs which presently exist in radio in Belize, because it was the UBAD newspaper which forced Belize’s radio waves open in November of 1989.)
As we mark the 40th anniversary of UBAD on Monday, February 9, then, we will be focusing on the battles ahead to contribute to food, education, health care, and housing for our people. As children of UBAD, we contribute to food, education, health care and housing by creating and preserving jobs.
Power to the people.