There was a time when my personal story was important, because when bad things happened to me, enemies of our people would use this as evidence that the black consciousness struggle was foolhardy, or doomed. This column began in the darkest of times, the days following the October 1974 general elections, when UBAD had come to an end and it seemed, to use the Mexican proverb, that all my friends were false and my enemies were real.
I believed then, and I believe now, that the people to whom I belong, are a people who are being pressured by white supremacists, both at home and abroad. Life is a struggle for survival, and often that struggle involves conflict with other people. In the case of those of us who have African ancestors, the people who came before us went through the hell of enslavement and the torture of colonialism in this territory called Belize, previously known as British Honduras.
There were a few of us who were chosen by the white supremacists to be given academic opportunity. It was understood, though we did not know it, that if we succeeded in our studies, our allegiance would be to the white supremacists instead of to our own people.
All over the colonized world, however, there were individuals who chose to help their people fight for progress and improvement, instead of concentrating on their own self-aggrandizement. The white supremacists brought great pressure against such individuals, because the purpose for which they were educated was to show how kind and benevolent the white rulers were. Such individuals were not educated in order to lead a rebellion of their people.
I have read Professor Joseph Iyo’s interviews with various leaders and associates of the UBAD movement, and it makes me appreciate what different individuals brought to the table, and what were their expectations and their disappointments. Over the years you have read only my personal version of the UBAD experience. My version is important, because I am the only one who was there at the beginning in January of 1969, who was there at the end, in November of 1974. But the perspectives of the other UBAD leaders and associates are also important, because UBAD was not a one-man show.
Today we are mourning the death in Los Angeles of a brother who was one of the leaders in the first phase of UBAD – from February of 1969 to September that same year. There was no brother, or sister for that matter, who was more sincere than the late Edgar X Richardson, and there was no one who was as deeply loved within and outside the organization. This was a special man, who never had an unkind word for anyone except for the white supremacists.
Our people experienced defeat and subjugation at some point in our past, and what we are doing today is essentially trying to climb out of an abyss. In the last few days we have seen that it is repeatedly our young teenagers, “minors” in the eyes of the law, who are murdering each other in the old capital. These are terrible times for our people, and the days of UBAD now seem like good times that we have lost. If we thought things were bad then, then what are we to say of the days of April 2007?
We older brothers and sisters know that our time on the stage is over, but we feel frustrated that we have not seen our organized replacements. We know what the problem is. The problem is that the business of narcotics has divided our young men, the warrior class, into various neighbourhoods which control drug turf. It is the business of narcotics which has led to the establishment of gangs. It is the business of narcotics, at the end of the day, which is causing our young black teenagers to be murdering each other and committing other heinous crimes. There can be no unity of purpose within the black warrior class, because the war for drug turf and drug revenues has taken precedence over everything else.
The conclusion is inescapable that our community is now in serious crisis, but in 1969, 38 years ago, we UBAD thought that our community was in crisis. This is worse. Prayers are an important form of self-consolation and self-healing, but more proactive stuff has to take place. How does that take place, however, when the people who control the politicians are the same ones who “godfather” the drugs. Think about it.