In a sense, when Edgar X Richardson, 59, passed away on Saturday, April 21, in Los Angeles, the dream that was UBAD passed with him. We say that because Edgar X participated only in the first of UBAD’s several phases. But that first phase, from February to September of 1969, was the purest of all UBAD’s phases. And Edgar X Richardson himself was the purest of all those leaders who served in UBAD.
Since UBAD was dissolved in November of 1974, we have discussed its history many times in these pages. The main reason we have done this is to link our Kremandala reality to the foundation of the United Black Association for Development. Were it not for UBAD, there would have been no Kremandala. 38 years after the establishment of UBAD, the majority of the Belizeans who work at Kremandala were not even born when UBAD was formed. So we have had to put things into context from time to time.
His service in UBAD in 1969, while he was a public officer employed at the Marketing Board, brought such pressure on the young Edgar X that his first marriage came apart. In great pain, Richardson left for Los Angeles, where he lived and worked for more than twenty years before he returned to Belize in the early 1990’s.
During his time in California, Edgar X qualified in carpentry and cabinet making. In the latter part of the 1970’s, the former UBAD secretary/treasurer, Ismail Shabazz, who had resigned from UBAD in late 1972 to work full time with Belize’s Nation of Islam, traveled to Los Angeles. Shabazz and Edgar X Richardson formed the BREDAA organization in Los Angeles, an organization which educated many young California-based Belizeans in the teaching and history of UBAD.
From 1969, Edgar X Richardson remained personally committed to the freedom, justice and equality of Belizeans, until the time of his death. Last year, while living and working in Belize, Richardson was struck down by pancreatic cancer. He was treated for many months in California. Returning home late last year, he attended UBAD Educational Foundation (UEF) meetings until he returned to Los Angeles for a checkup early this April.
It was clear that he was gravely ill, but Edgar X, ever the fighter, was traveling to the laundry in Los Angeles last week when he collapsed. His condition was so critical that he quickly became brain dead, while hospitalized, and was kept alive with life support machines until Saturday, April 21.
UBAD could not have expected that the conditions in Belize which the organization thought were intolerable in 1969, would have become manifestly worse in 2007. But Edgar X Richardson had educated himself in Los Angeles to the point where he understood the international picture where globalization and the New World Order were concerned. He saw the implications for Belize in the twenty-first century. He was truly an elder who imparted wisdom and understanding to the youth.
Kremandala is in deep mourning this week. At the same time, we know that mortal man cannot live forever. We therefore pray that from amongst our embattled young will emerge another brother or another sister to carry the freedom torch of Edgar X.
All power to the people.