“Although during its brief history the UBAD Party seemed a very loose and undefined organization from the outside, in reality it was a very tight, cohesive and disciplined Party internally.”
– Larry Vernon, in A HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN BELIZE
In the mid-week column (which is repeated in this weekend issue), I referred to a visit by UBAD leaders to the Stafford Youth Center, which was located on Berger Field, corner of Vernon and Sarstoon Streets in Belize City. This would have been sometime in 1971, I believe.
Ismail Shabazz, who would have been the UBAD treasurer in 1971, over a period of time had been calling for us to get “military” training from Kimani Kenyatta. Such was the status of Ismail, who had been one of the UBAD founders in February of 1969 and a Supreme Court co-defendant with myself in July of 1970, that eventually he got his way.
I was opposed to the idea from the get go. I didn’t have a problem with Shabazz’s personal interest in such training. Ismail was insisting, however, that I and others officers accompany him. As I said in my previous column, there was always something that was mysterious, something that wasn’t adding up where the Kimani story was concerned. Shabazz was getting us into a situation where we would be at the mercy of Kimani, so to speak.
I don’t remember if we walked or drove to the Stafford Youth Center. I don’t remember if one of Kimani’s protégés escorted us. It was at night, and the inside of the building was not very well lit. When we entered the building, it meant that we UBAD leaders were becoming Kimani’s protégés. His prestige and credibility, where his students/protégés were concerned, would immediately increase, and in the wider community his mystique and fame would grow as word of his “encounter” with UBAD spread. This was a perfect setup. Only Kimani could win.
Kimani had decided, and this was his turf and it was he who was calling his shots, that there would be individual fights between UBAD leaders and his karate students. It wasn’t the “training” Ismail had envisioned. This was an attempt to make the vaunted UBAD look small. As it turned out that night, UBAD’s reputation was saved, so to speak, by Galento X Neal and Wilfred Nicholas, Sr.
One of the first “fights” was between Galento and a Kimani student by the title of Lawrence. Galento is not tall, but the kid was inches shorter than he. Kimani instructed Galento to hit the youth on his head or slap him, something like that. Galento was reluctant, but, under the circumstances, he complied. Kimani was calling the shots. Exposed in his midsection as he threw the blow, Galento immediately found himself the victim of a barrage of karate kicks in his chest and abdomen.
The joke, as we would say in Creole, “sweet” Kimani. He told Galento to do it again. But Galento this time only feinted as if he would, and when the karate kid started kicking, Galento grabbed one of his legs and started swinging him round and round and round. It was a spontaneously brilliant move by Galento, and it changed the whole dynamics of the night.
In the final fight, Kimani himself tangled with Wilfred Nicholas, Sr., who had been a boxer. I don’t know if Kimani was aware of this, but during the course of the clash, I think he realized that Mr. Nick was formidable, nothing to play with. And so, he called off the fight.
I know you are dying to hear what happened with my personal fight. Kimani sent a young man named Monsanto to fight with me. I turned the fight into a wrestling contest, which neutralized his karate training. I think that ended up a kind of stalemate. But even if you wanted to say I lost, Galento and Brother Nick had frustrated Kimani’s designs.
Oh, one more thing, there was one spell when Kimani set my hair on fire. He explained to those present that we had to learn to experience torture. As I told Shabazz afterwards, this was all because of him. That episode highlighted Ismail Shabazz’s high rank in UBAD: he practically forced the president to take “military” training.
The Stafford episode also showed that while the UBAD leadership was a civilian one, so to speak, it also contained paramilitary potential. The most important function of UBAD was the political education it provided for Belizean young people. Since those days, those who are enemies of the people have succeeded in distracting subsequent generations of Belizean youth away from political education and consciousness. Remember now, political education as a concept is much larger and more important than the PUP and the UDP or such.
One more thing, an aside. In those years of 1971 and 1972, paramilitary officer Charlie Good was in his absolute prime. And, let me tell you, in his prime Charlie was something special. But there was a UBAD follower who wasn’t afraid of him. This was a tailor they called Stumpy. When a people develop a revolutionary consciousness, they begin to shed fear.
The Stafford incident may have increased UBAD’s confidence. The odds had been totally against us, but Galento and Brother Nick performed a rescue operation.
Power to the people. Power in the struggle.