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From the Publisher

PublisherFrom the Publisher

A year after I entered public life in early 1969 at the age of 21, I was arrested and charged with sedition, a major political offence. In my mind, at the time what I wanted to do was write, just as how some people want to play music and other people want to paint. I wanted to use the written word to create works which would be enjoyable for readers, primarily Belizeans, in different ways.

In 1969, the only professional writers in Belize were newspaper journalists. I suppose those who prepared the news for the government radio station and wrote the articles for government publications could also have been considered professional writers. Perhaps Emory King was a professional writer of sorts, but in 1969 he was selling insurance for a living. I guess Zelma Tucker Edgell became Belize’s first real professional writer when she started to write novels. Zee had been trained as a journalist in London, and I believe she may have still been editor of The Reporter as late as the latter part of 1968, The Reporter post being, to the best of my knowledge, her first employment after returning home to Belize.

I began Dartmouth College in September 1965 as an English major, it being the case that there was no Dartmouth major in creative writing. The circumstances surrounding my being granted a United States State Department scholarship in early 1965 were unusual, because of my personal problems with the Dean of St. John’s College Sixth Form, Ronald Zinkle, S. J. At one point before I left Belize, he had even threatened to have the United States Consulate in British Honduras take away the scholarship.

Because of the Zinkle circumstances, I felt substantial pressure on me as I began Dartmouth. I had eight younger brothers and sisters coming after me who would have to deal with the educational realities in Belize. These realities were that the priests and nuns had enormous power, and I had run afoul of one of the prominent priests. This could have negative consequences for my siblings who would follow me in the Catholic school system. As I began Dartmouth, I felt that I could not afford to fail.

In order to earn a degree in these universities, you have to satisfy course requirements in the disciplines outside of your major. English is inside the discipline known as the humanities, so one had to do four courses in the sciences, four in the social sciences, and four in the humanities outside of one’s major. One also had to satisfy a foreign language requirement. In my first two terms at Dartmouth, I took two courses in government, which is sometimes called political science, in order to begin satisfying my degree requirements in the social sciences.

The lecturer in my government courses was a Professor Vincent Starzinger. He dressed in stylish suits, smoked cigars in class, and had an overall air of confidence which was close to arrogance. I liked Starzinger’s braggadocio, and I became interested in the subject he taught. In those two terms, I learned about political theory and about international relations.

I actually thought about changing my major from English to government, but I was intimidated by the aforementioned circumstances surrounding my scholarship. I let things be. Later, I would also think about trying to transfer from wintry Dartmouth, but again, I felt I had to stay put and work things out. I was young, inexperienced, and under pressure.

I did not like political science because I had any thoughts of becoming a politician. I liked political science as an academic subject in its own reality. I understand electoral politics to involve the quest for popularity, and such a quest was something alien to my personality. Political science, however, was not about electoral politics: it was the study of how human societies are governed and how they interact regionally and internationally. As a Belizean, such knowledge was more important and more valuable to me than the poetry of 17th century English Romantic writers.

In any case, I managed to graduate from Dartmouth and return to Belize with my English degree. During my three years in New Hampshire, I had become an advocate of black power, mostly because of the speeches of Stokely Carmichael (later “Kwame Ture”) and the autobiography of Malcolm X. I had also become an opponent of the Vietnam War. In retrospect, because of these two positions, my youthful naivete, and my recklessness, I was quickly sucked into public life in Belize.

My black power beliefs were very popular with black youth in Belize, and the organization I led attracted a huge following in the summer of 1969. We then became allied with a socialist group. That alliance broke up in January of 1970, and I was charged with sedition the following month.

It may be said, from my personal standpoint, that my career in public life ended with my candidacy in the Collet constituency in the October 1974 general election. I ran as the only candidate for the UBAD Party, and received a little over 4 percent of the vote.

I continued to struggle to survive as a writer because, I would say, my personal positions were so resented by the power structure in Belize. In 1977, however, the ruling People’s United Party (PUP) was under so much pressure from the Opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) that they decided to assist me in modernizing my printing technology. In other words, the political support I had, as expressed in the Collet vote in the 1974 election, had a potential value for the PUP which made it possible for Amandala to become technologically competitive.

The PUP then asked that I run as one of their Belize City Council candidates in the December 1977 election. This election was a disaster for the PUP, as well as a personal disaster for myself. Strictly speaking, that would have been my last participation in public life. I don’t like to think of that experience, however, because I felt that I was under some duress.

After their defeat in the 1993 general election, the PUP approached me with an offer that I become their Lake Independence candidate. The PUP leaders are experts in electoral politics, but my experiences in the 1970s had convinced me that I was un-electable. I therefore proposed to them that my second son, Cordel, become their candidate.

Overall, I believe Cordel has performed impressively through the years, and he is now totally experienced and matured. Early on, his critics argued that he was my surrogate, or a puppet of mine, but that was soon disproved. Cordel Hyde is his own man.

My purpose in writing this column is to show that, despite my personal unsuitability for electoral politics, the fact that there was a group of Belizeans who supported me and shared my views, contributed to whatever success I’ve had in my writing career, especially after 1977. So that, it is almost impossible to get away from politics. It is through democratic politics, flawed as it is in Belize, that we decide how to govern ourselves.

I ask that you respect and support the process of national municipal elections in which Belize will be involved next week Wednesday. Our democracy is flawed, to repeat and to be sure, but we have the vote. The vote is a precious institution for which men and women through the ages have fought and died. Theoretically then, we can make changes for the better with our ballots. On the ground, it has appeared that it is money which rules. But, in theory, we, the people, have the power in Belize. Trod on, beloved. Trod on.

Power to the people. Power in the struggle.

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