When I say the issue of black people losing power in British Honduras/Belize became an issue of party politics, what I refer to is the PUP versus NIP face-off. The NIP leaders accused the PUP of ?Latinizing? the country, and essentially portrayed themselves as defenders of black people. The UDP, which absorbed the NIP in 1973, inherited this mantle as a supposed saviour of black people in Belize, but the issue is not as simple as the PUP being Latin and the NIP/UDP being black. Not at all.

In this essay, I want to consider one of Belize?s leading black families, and how the party politics divided that family in the 1950?s. The older people tell me that when George Price was in trouble in 1957 or 1958 after the Granados incident in London, when Governor Colin Hardwick Thornley accused him of selling out British Honduras to Guatemala ?lock, stock and barrel,? the man who saved his neck was the late Albert Cattouse, Sr., who ?had his back.? (Cattouse was PUP Deputy Leader before Lindy Rogers assumed that position around 1969. He first ran for the PUP/GWU in 1957, when he won the Belize West constituency, defeating Leigh Richardson of the Honduran Independence Party and Lionel Francis of the National Party. That?s the same Francis, incidentally, who had ended up with Isaiah Morter?s estate in 1940. Mr. Cattouse then won the Collet division for the PUP in 1961 and 1965.)

In British Honduras when I was growing up, amongst the men who were our ?role models? money did not mean that much. The people who were our heroes were largely men who excelled in football, cricket, boxing and other sports. Sports was an arena where social status or colour prejudice did not protect you. The men I was allowed to mingle with at Unity Club as a child, referred to the late Albert Cattouse, Sr., as ?Dandy Cat.? He was an esteemed opponent of theirs. Mr. Cattouse was legendary in cricket and football. He had respect. I don?t know if he was grumpy as a young man, but he was grumpy as an old man. That did not matter. Dandy Cat was boss.

Two of Dandy Cat?s children ? the late Gerald and Nadia, who became a famous singer and performer in London, went completely different ways in the 1950?s. Gerald went to Guatemala City and became a businessman who owned hotels. Nadia went to London. She became a leader of the ?No Guatemala? movement. Whenever there was a threat to B.H./Belize from Guatemala, in London Nadia Cattouse used her social clout to lobby influential political and business figures to support Belize. It was said that she and her father had once fought physically, because of their different views on George Price, the post-1956 PUP, the Guatemalan claim, and so on and so forth. Gerald was more low key than Nadia, but it was clear that he was completely integrated into Guatemala high society, and the assumption has to be that he was comfortable with a series of military dictatorships which waged murderous wars against the indigenous ?Indians? of Guatemala and which threatened to invade Belize from time to time. About 10 or 12 years ago, Gerald Cattouse was murdered in Guatemala City. The details were never publicized in Belize.

Because of party politics, the people of Belize have not been properly educated about Guatemala. The most important thing to understand about Guatemala is that the neo-European upper classes which rule Guatemala are among the richest people in the world, and the masses of downtrodden ?Indians? are among the poorest people on planet earth. There are two Guatemalas ? one is as First World as any nation can be, and the other is as Third World as any people can be.

The Guatemalan claim is a political tool used by the Guatemalan upper classes whose main purpose is to protect and increase their wealth and regional business interests. Guatemala is the powerhouse of Central America, but she must always bow to Mexico. If Guatemala were able to ?acquire? Belize, Guatemala would become several times more powerful ? because of Belize?s oil fields, Belize?s Atlantic coast sea ports, and the access to Caribbean markets which Belize would provide. Some of the upper classes of Belize would probably become more wealthy. But the roots people of Belize would disappear.

Roots people of Belize, unite. Power to the people.