“I don’t like the way that I was educated. Teaching me a whole lot a nonsense about a pig, dance a jig, for a fig…” – from “Dan Is The Man” by The Mighty Sparrow
The Great Fire keeps burning in California, and our prayers are with all affected, whose devastation is eerily similar to what American bombs have achieved across the globe in Gaza, as the genocide there continues. But today we will take a step back to appreciate how quickly things can change from one part of the world to another, and thus it is all our business, or it should be, when there is hope for starving and oppressed peoples rising from the ashes of foreign domination and exploitation, by whatever means necessary. Our Belizean roots are deeply embedded in mother Africa, and when “freedom rings” on that blessed continent, it reverberates in the bones of African descendants the world over. We therefore urge our Belizean people to seek out information on the African triangle of change in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, before the forces of imperialism overcome them, and then we’ll probably have to wait a long while to find out “who were the real revolutionaries”.
It’s not as if our colonial education in Belize/British Honduras was useless. The many stories we read were full of life lessons, and many were fun to read, and the poems also. And, of course, there was a lot of information – history, geography, sciences, etc., and foundational training in language grammar and the essentials of mathematics and related subjects. Yes, of course, in Belize most of us had an opportunity for a “good education”.
But it was much later in our adult years that we began hearing, often through Amandala, about major events that were occurring even while we were in school, that we had no knowledge of at the time, and, indeed, neither did most of our parents and teachers. It might appear that this was due to the state of the media in those days – one government-controlled radio station, and two political party newspapers; but there is also the suspicion that it was the well-orchestrated manipulation and restriction of certain types of news on the major international media.
How else can we explain the complete ignorance of the Belizean people— even while our leaders were agitating for independence in the 1960s in the face of the Guatemalan claim—of the fact that Guatemala itself had only recently endured a coup, the overthrow of their popular civilian president, Jacobo Arbenz, on June 27, 1954, followed by the rule of a string of military dictators, all orchestrated by the CIA of the United States. We only learned of that a couple decades ago when such CIA files became “declassified”.
Even in those surging ‘60s, one Nelson Mandela was fighting against apartheid in South Africa, and being jailed on June 12, 1964, along with his African National Congress (ANC) comrades, and we in Belize were all completely in the dark. Information blackout! Until the 1980s, when his case was internationalized, and the campaign for his freedom and the end of apartheid in South Africa became a rallying cry in the songs of Bob Marley and the Wailers and a few other musicians. Why were we kept in ignorance?
Likewise, we knew nothing about the Congo’s brief triumph through their independence, and the later assassination of their president Patrice Lumumba, on January 17, 1961, until many decades later, when again the hand of the CIA and other foreign agents were implicated.
When the great Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah was suddenly deposed in a coup on February 24, 1966, again we were completely in the dark. None of our business. But again, decades later, we learn that the CIA was involved.
We have learned about so many major events, long after the fact, when maybe it didn’t matter anymore. Who cares decades later if the U.S. helped orchestrate the coup against Chilean president Salvador Allende, on September 11, 1973, leading to decades of brutal military dictatorship with tens of thousands of civilian casualties, just as had happened in the Guatemalan 30-year civil war following the ouster of Jacobo Arbenz?
And in Haiti, after forty years of Papa Doc and Baby Doc’s brutal dictatorship, the Haitian people finally got to overwhelmingly elect their most popular president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, but he was removed from power in a coup, not once, but twice – September 29, 1991 (adst.org), and February 29, 2004 (Wikipedia); and how come we have to find out decades later that the CIA played a role in both coups?
With regime change seeming to be a special skill of the CIA, and the Monroe Doctrine still providing adequate justification for some American patriots, how many other small nations have also been victims of this type of interference?
It seems that little Belize, even with the Heads of Agreement almost rammed down our throats, through skillful diplomacy of P.M. Price and the daring obstinacy of the Belizean populace, was able to perform an “Anaasi” style maneuver to clinch our Independence even under a State of Emergency, also thanks to the blessing of President Carter (R.I.P.)
But these are different times, a new day, the age of Fake News and social media, when news blackout should no longer be a problem; but we have to seek out the sources, and an overload of questionable propaganda may be the new difficulty. We therefore need to determine what news source is credible, “pick sense from nonsense”, and then make our own judgement.
“How long will they kill our prophets?”, sang Bob Marley. He was referring to the many brave, honest and visionary leaders, who had the welfare of their people at heart, who have been murdered or removed through orchestrated coups over the years. But all we ever hear about are the corrupt African leaders who are said to be the reason that much of the continent has remained “poor and backward”, as if Africa is unable to produce great leaders and statesmen.
Right now, there are big things happening on the world scene. Although there is not much said about it on the major international news media, it appears that a new day may be dawning in Africa, with some African nations coming together to end the generations of impoverishment and exploitation of their natural resources by former European colonial masters through the bribery of a few corrupt leaders. Developments in Africa deserve keen watching as they take a stand against the domination and exploitation of their countries by their former colonial masters.
Thankfully, nowadays we have access to information from a number of sources that feature a wealth of information about these latest developments. What happens in the Middle East, or Africa, or Haiti, it all affects us in this interconnected world, and the support for our plight in little Belize comes from all over. It is good, therefore, for Belizeans, especially those with African heritage, to pay attention to what is happening in the current battle for freedom in the motherland.