HOW SHABAZZ & BUDDAN TALKED ABOUT IT IN AN 80S TV SHOW IN L.A.!
The classic documented feature, “A Relevant Conversation About Agriculture & Food Security in Belize”, featuring two of Belize’s most respected Belizean legends, the late Ismail Omar Shabazz and David Alexander Buddan, who both passed away in the same year of 2014; comes to us here at “Belizean Legends” with one of the most heartfelt memories of the way they are remembered as two of the most hard working Belizeans in the diaspora in the 1980s.
This struck a very important chord with me who had come to know them both in the best of times. And it also resurrects the memories of the laughter and joy that was shared between them when they crossed each other’s paths, despite their age differences, beliefs and varied opinions either from politics to religion, or from the different directions that they both took in their lives.
The meeting place for this show, “Belize Caye Connection”, between “Brother Shabazz” and “Buddan” that illuminated the set that day so passionately on this Belizean cable television show, comes through the kind courtesy of the legendary Belizean musical artist, producer and pioneer, Patrick Barrow, and his eclectic entertainment brand called, “Belizemusicworld”. It’s a crossroad of decades of documenting audio and video materials by Barrow who since the late 1960s and throughout the 1990s has established himself as one of the most philanthropic Belizeans in the diaspora.
He is a man on a mission that helped to support so many Belizean organizations and entities so that they could support the Belizean community in Los Angeles, California for the better good. And if it was not for Barrow’s steadfastness in keeping relevant his most valuable archive of volumes of Belizean history, this vintage conversation between two Belizean legends that have passed on would not have been possible. And so we here at “Belizean Legends” celebrate Barrow’s vision and tenacity that have become the “Belize Motown” of music and entertainment history today.
When Patrick Barrow surprised me that he had this classic interview with the late Brother Shabazz, he knew that it was a priceless piece of historical real estate that only someone as dedicated as him would possess, and so shared it immediately with me. But he didn’t immediately reveal that the host of the show in the person of the late Belizean broadcaster, David Buddan, was the one that brought out some of the best qualities that defined the personality of Brother Shabazz and his historic work and life that he lived in Belize and as a Belizean immigrant in the Belizean diaspora. The vintage tapes were transferred immediately. This was quality work that Barrow and Buddan had embarked on in creating this entertaining and educational show on the now defunct free access cable television that they called, “Belize Caye Connection”.
It appeared that Barrow, who had once pioneered one of the first Belizean music labels in Los Angeles, California, “Caye Records”, was beginning to establish his brand on everything he created and pioneered in music and entertainment in Los Angeles. It was he who also designed one of the first and most long lasting Belizean cultural and music festivals that also carried his brand name, “Belize Caye Festival”. The “Caye” brand had taken hold as a productive and entertaining one that began recording many Belizean musical artists, like the legendary Anthony Richards and Elihue Flowers among many others.
But we here at “Belizean Legends” were not aware of Barrow’s visual arts collection that he had presented now in the new name, “Belizemusicworld”, that showcases these video and music library treasures for a worldwide audience until we were blessed with the Shabazz:Buddan interview in such a memorable moment when history was being made in the Los Angeles Belizean Community in the 1980s. Not only were Shabazz and Buddan making history in the 1980s as movers and shakers of the Belizean community. But they also became an intricate part of the creation of the “Belize-Caribbean Pulse” radio show on KPFK 90.7 FM.
It was Brother Shabazz, being the founder himself of the “Belize Rural Economic Development of Agriculture through Alliance” (BREDAA), that later attracted the sharp broadcasting intellect of Radio Belize’s “Rockadelic Rocker.” David Buddan not only suggested the name of the radio show in one of BREDAA’s meetings, but also hosted the first ever radio show in 1985 for BREDAA that at first was called, “Belize Music Hour”.
Then the moment of collaboration continued through my public relations work for BREDAA in introducing the dynamic David Buddan to the rest of the class act of brothers and sisters of the grassroots Belizean organization. Prior to that in 1984, Buddan had initially made his acquaintance with the Los Angeles Muslims of Belize (LAMBS), that again was the brainchild of the legendary Brother Shabazz, as a contributing writer to LAMBS’s “Belizean Focus” newspaper. The connection between these two before this feature was aired was made a couple of years before.
We here at “Belizean Legends” will bring to you this most warm and informative conversation between a renowned Belizean historian and activist, Brother Ismail Omar Shabazz, and a renowned Belizean broadcast journalist, David Alexander Buddan. It is most important to remember their good works in dedication to the Belizean people.
COMING SOON ON “BELIZEAN LEGENDS” ON KREM TV!