Odinga Lumumba, who was Chairman of UBAD before his revolutionary role in the 1981 Heads of Agreement uprising and subsequent work and travels in Africa, then stewed the sheep in a delicious Ghanaian-style dish. At the gathering, Lumumba told us that it was the spirit of UBAD that was being celebrated. ?The outcome of UBAD has produced an intellectual awakening through the work that Amandala has been doing with its sharp focus on Belizean nationalism.?

Lumumba added that, ?I liken the present political situation to the old nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty, who sat on a wall and had a great fall, but all the king?s horses and all the king?s men could not put Humpty Dumpty together again. That is the present state that the People?s United Party (PUP) is in today.?

In these turbulent times, by celebrating Amandala, this is a reminder to us that unity is strength, Lumumba said.

UBAD, through the newspaper Amandala, had agitated for a change in the voting age from twenty-one years to the eighteen-year-old vote.

Another of the rallying cries of UBAD in self-governing Belize was for a radio station that was free from government?s control.

Eventually, in 1989, KREM Radio came on the air, the first commercial radio station that broke the tradition of government?s monopoly over the airwaves.

KREM television was granted a license to broadcast in September, 2000, and in 2003, it came on stream, striking an important balance in the saturated cable television market.

These are just a few of the milestones that have come out of the UBAD experience. There is the issue, for instance, of the changing of the school curriculum to include the studies of African and Mayan history, which is scheduled to begin this school year.

Amandala is the forerunner of all of these changes, which are helping to shape the modern nation of Belize.

Long live Amandala. All power to the people.