“In their religions, the Americans paralleled the rest of mankind. Every religion derives its form and color from the mind of the worshipers, so that by their gods we may know them. From elevated nations emanate chaste and refined conceptions of the deity; from brutish natures come coarse conceptions.

    “Christianity is the highest and purest of all religions; but if we study the moral precepts of the foremost American nations, we shall see that in many respects they were not far behind, and were indeed in some instances in advance of Christianity.

     “True, the Aztecs practised human sacrifice, with all its attendant horrors; but what were the religious wars, the expulsion of Jews, the slaughter of Infidels, the burning of heretics, but human sacrifice? 

    “Moreover, while we turn in horror from the sacrificial stone of the Aztecs, where the human victims were treated as gods and whence their souls were sent direct to Paradise, yet we find among them little of that most infamous of crimes, persecution for opinion’s sake; nor yet do we read of their ingenuity being taxed for the contrivance of engines of the most excruciating torture, as we do in the history of Christianity. Tortures which, while killing the body, it was believed consigned the soul to eternal agonies.”    

    – from pg. 60, BANCROFT’S WORKS, Volume 6, (Central America, 1501-1530), by Hubert Howe Bancroft, an Arno Press book published in cooperation with McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1886.)

    The quote at the top of this column, from Hubert Howe Bancroft, is not totally relevant to the core content of this column, but religion has surged to the top of matters for discussion in Belize over the last few months, primarily because of the mobilization of Christian churches here to prevent the legalization of marijuana being proposed by the Government of Belize. In addition, a leading Christian pastor luminary, Louis Wade, Jr., has been chosen by his media colleagues to represent the media in a new constitutional reform commission.

    Because of religion’s discussion prominence recently, I thought it was important to present Bancroft’s argument that Christianity, historically, was just as barbarous as, and sometimes more so, than some of the Indigenous religions in the Americas which have been historically indicted by the said Christian faiths.     

    Today, I want to tell you about a part of our history in this settlement of Belize/ colony of British Honduras—that there was once a black family here which owned a newspaper, printing presses, and wrote books on matters as critical as the 1931 and 1961 hurricanes.

    The Cain family was at the height of its prestige and power during the Garveyite era in the first part of the twentieth century. They were led by two brothers, if my information is accurate, who were Herbert and Ernest Cain.

    When the United Black Association for Development (UBAD) was founded in February of 1969, we opened an office at no. 45 Hyde’s Lane, in a warehouse-type building. Our landlord was a Chinese Belizean, I believe, and that landlord was quickly pressured by the ruling People’s United Party (PUP) and gave UBAD notice to move from his building.

    I remember distinctly that Mr. Ernest Cain, who had written the books about the two hurricanes, came to us and gave us an emergency home on Racecourse Street, next to the bridge across the canal, which I think was known as Brooklyn Bridge. Mr. Cain was a fine and upstanding gentleman, a man of dignity.  

    One of his sons (or nephews, I’m not sure) owned a printing business on New Road. I never met Mr. Herbert Cain, Mr. Ernest Cain’s brother who had been a major player in the Cain newspaper, which was called THE BELIZE INDEPENDENT.

    In the Garveyite era in the first part of the twentieth century, the population of British Honduras, especially Belize Town, the capital, was overwhelmingly black, as we can see from an examination of the 1919 uprising in Belize Town.

    It was still challenging to be a “Spanish” (Mestizo) in Belize Town when I was growing up in Belize City in the 1950s. Boxing was one avenue through which Mestizos, such as the late Hipolito Bautista, Sr., would show their courage and mettle, and gain respect. 

    I can’t understand how the story of the Cain family has just disappeared from the annals of Belize’s history. I suppose it was my personal responsibility to record the Cain story, but Paul Cain, a star of the family, whom I got to know through Stretch Lightburn, was living and working in Los Angeles at the time. So, that’s my excuse.

    I’ve been in public life here since 1969, and none of the big boys ever asks my opinion of this self-inflicted genocide which is taking place amongst our black youth. I’m not begging for attention: what I’m doing is pointing out that there is a racist power structure in place here which Belizeans pretend they cannot see. That power structure branded me a pariah from 1969, but it will take them a little while to “disappear” me from Belize’s history. There is stuff down in black and white. They will have to resurrect Diego de Landa. I’m just saying.