One of the things that Odinga Lumumba, may he rest in peace, taught me was always to look for the British. It’s not as easy as you may think, because the British are so diplomatic in their approach and almost always understated in their execution. By contrast, the Americans, who are the other major players in Belize, tend to be showy, even flamboyant.

Lumumba, as compared to me, had a specific knowledge of the British because he had been sent to London, England just months before Hurricane Hattie in 1961. Lumumba spent eight years in London before he visited Belize shortly after the UBAD movement had begun in early 1969. During that time in London, to which he returned in September of 1969, Odinga had been active with the British version of the Black Panthers.

During the 1970s, Odinga converted to Islam and took up residence in West Africa, Ghana and Mali to be specific, and this is an area where the British are active and involved. So that, the adult Lumumba saw how the British operated in their former colonial territories.

My personal story was quite different from Lumumba’s. The U.S. State Department gave me a university scholarship in 1965. I was eager to travel to the United States, and had no interest whatsoever in Britain. My post-World War II generation had grown up in the 1950s in Belize hearing a lot about Manhattan, Brooklyn, and America, and our fascination became an obsession after Belizeans who had relatives in the U.S. were allowed to migrate there as refugees after Hattie. It was as if America threw open its doors to Belizeans after Hattie.

So, I’ve never been to Britain. In fact, I’ve never even been to the British Caribbean, and the chances are, because of my plane phobia, I never will. I know very little about the British, and always have to remind myself to look for them, to remember, in other words, the advice of the late, great Odinga.

For me, one of the most intriguing aspects of British colonial rule here is how immigrants were processed. Remember, all during colonial days the British had absolute control over our immigration, so much so that they actually contemplated having British Honduras become the site for the Jewish state. (Uganda was also considered, before the present territory was chosen for the Israeli state and established in 1948.)

Consider this, that the British had this worldwide empire, “on which the sun never set.” They would move individuals and families, for different reasons, from halfway around the world, or further, and settle them, get them started in British Honduras. If you got into trouble serving British interests in Hong Kong, say, the British could decide to get you out of harm’s way and give you a new home – Belize.

As the years go by, all the various records and documents are being declassified. As Dr. Sir Hilary Beckles pointed out when he lectured at the Bliss a couple years ago, the colonialists kept meticulous records. If you search hard enough, you can find out most things. The thing is, research costs money, and the people who generally fund specific academic research belong to the same power structure which is in place. They don’t rush to fund research which will expose themselves.

In any case, as our community went through its terribly traumatic convulsions over the last weekend, I tried to find an overview. The players in this game who are on the ground may be seen as pawns, because they are activated by motives which are controlled by the “big boys”. So, this is a definition of powerlessness, the reality of only being allowed to do that which somebody else decides.

Our present situation in Belize City is truly alarming. Most of us have no choice but to go about our daily business as best we can. But, we citizens are deeply disturbed. Can you imagine the effect on our children and grandchildren? Children find excitement in things which give us older folk blood pressure, but if you focus on the children who have to live in the city’s war zones, and actually look at the children who are being orphaned and are losing other loved ones who were very important parts of their lives, the tragedy we are experiencing becomes more striking.

As Belizeans, we sought political independence, there’s no denying that. We thought it would be easier to administrate ourselves than it has actually proven to be. We didn’t properly appreciate the fact that, because they were foreigners, the British were essentially impartial, at least where “natives” were concerned. It was possible to conceive justice as the symbolic blind lady in colonial days. Today, it appears that we are unable to impose real discipline upon ourselves. That is a serious part of our problem.

Power to the people.