In times past when we commemorated the Battle of St. George’s Caye it was the number one secular celebration in our country, but the occasion of the 226th anniversary of the Battle on Tuesday, September 10 will be but a whimper. In Belize City there will be speeches at the Memorial Park, an inspection of the BDF by the Governor General, and the crowning of the new Queen of the Bay, and from there a miniscule parade will wind its way through the streets of the old capital. There will be ceremonies and parties in all municipalities, all miniscule, and in Belmopan, the capital, no ceremony or festivities are planned for the day.
It is recorded that in early September 1798 an armada from Mexico, under orders from Spain, headed south with the aim of engaging and routing the settlers in the Bay, as they had done on previous occasions, and that the fleet, in the face of resistance, made a 180 degree turn and headed home on September 10, 1798. The Battle did not lead to a change in any treaty between Britain and Spain that pertained to the rights of settlers to extract mahogany from the forest. At the time, Spain’s empire was near collapse, with the countries in our region that were under its rule all on the way to becoming independent nations.
Some historians reported that our enslaved African ancestors stood “shoulder to shoulder” with the white settlers who had enslaved them, to repel the invaders. If there was any reward for their effort, it wasn’t recorded. If there was, it wasn’t substantial. Stories abound of slaves continuing to run away to the north after 1798, to live among the Maya in Mexico.
The first commemoration of the Battle of St. George’s Cay was in 1898, one hundred years after 1798, and it is said by some that the reason for the “Centennial” was insincere. Afro Belizean-leader, Simon Lamb had been thwarted in efforts to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the official end of the slavery system. It was appropriate that Belize commemorated the end of slavery, in 1838. Our African ancestors were a people who were uprooted from their homeland and forced to labor for another’s gain. Those 300 plus years during which people of African ancestry were enslaved and forced to work on sugarcane/cotton plantations and in the forests of the Caribbean and mainland America are without comparison, and left scars so deep that the impact is still felt many generations later. The Centennial, it has been said, was an attempt to show that there was no divide between whites/high browns and browns/blacks, and when it was celebrated, Lamb, a black Kriol was at the fore.
Annually, since 1898, the 10th has been celebrated across our country, and the glory was something to behold, and did not begin to fade until after PUP leader, George Price remarked in the late 1950s that it was a source of division between Afro Belizeans in Belize City and Mestizo Belizeans living in the northern districts. Prior to Price questioning the 10th celebration, the occasion already had a few detractors, and when the PUP started putting all its emphasis on a rival Independence movement (National Day) parade, with an Independence movement (Miss Independence) queen, the celebration of the 1798 Battle began to decline.
Over time the 10th has come to be seen as solely a Belize Kriol thing. Belizeans who came to the country after we became an official colony of Great Britain in 1862—East Indians, Chinese, Lebanese, Palestinians, Mennonites, and others—were among the first to lose interest in the 10th celebrations. The Garinagu and the Maya haven’t been big flag wavers in the 10th parade either. And now, even the Belize Kriol, Afro descendants of the enslaved Africans who inhabited the settlement in 1798, are lukewarm about the celebration.
Over the years, the Amandala has looked at the 10th from angles other than the one in which master and slave are supposed to have fought shoulder to shoulder. The Amandala has said that rather than slaves and masters fighting shoulder to shoulder, “Black people were keeping their options open in September of 1798”.
The Belize Kriol are not a homogenous group, and speaking on why they were united in the celebration of the 10th, the Amandala said “there was more to it than an elite native class celebrating the 1798 military success of British Baymen. Amongst the roots masses of blacks and browns in Belize, there was and is a strong tradition which regards the Tenth as ‘fu we day.’ Remember now, that these masses of Belizean blacks and browns were the same people who were leading the fight against British colonialism during the 1950’s and 1960’s. These were not Uncle Toms. They were the rebels of British Honduras, but they had a tradition which had regarded the Tenth of September as something special.” However, the Amandala noted, “if the black majority had won anything in September of 1798, their socio-economic situation today would be different. The people who won on September 10, 1798, were the European slave owners and a small percentage of free coloreds and free blacks who allied themselves with them.”
But while 1798 didn’t turn life here into a bed of roses for our Afro ancestors, and Belizeans who are black still have hills to climb, there is something, indeed much for them and all Belizeans to be grateful for.
It has been said that the gift of September 10 is that we are an English-speaking country. It should count for something that we escaped the mess that Spain left behind when her empire collapsed. It is only recently that the countries around us – Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador – have come under civilian leadership. Those countries experienced numerous dictatorships, and civil wars, as a European remnant tried to exert their will on the indigenous peoples that were once ruled by Spain. In contrast, the Baymen leaders of the settlement chose to become a colony of Great Britain in 1862, the anti-colonial movement of grassroots citizens demanded and got self-government in 1964, and with the support of the United Nations, Belizeans all gained our independence in 1981.
It could be strongly argued that this Belize we know, this Jewel, this noble spot, isn’t possible without the 10th, “baggage” and all. Our national anthem describes our country as a tranquil haven. This is not a blessing to be spat on. Happy 10th to all Belizeans!
In the Sarstoon, Guatemala is no good neighbor
A casual observer of the recent incident in the Sarstoon between our Territorial Volunteers, under the leadership of the valiant Wil Maheia, and the Guatemalan Armed Forces (GAF), might conclude that the man at the helm of the Guat vessel was incompetent, a landlubber, no capitán. But as XTV’s Krem News noted, in the first instance “it appeared that in approaching the vessel in which BTV leader Wil Maheia was traveling, the GAF came in too fast and as they swerved to turn, the military vessel rammed into the side of the BTV’s vessel. However, it quickly became clear that the move had been intentional, as the GAF then rammed into the BTV vessel two more times before moving off.” Krem News said a commander in the GAF vessel was “heard saying he can shoot out” the engine of the Belizean vessel.
Last week, the president of Guatemala invited our prime minister over to have discussions on mutual economic interests. But in the Sarstoon, the GAF behaved unruly. It seems that Guatemala will never get over the fact that “Belice no es suyos”, that that boat sailed in 1859. In 1981 the United Nations advised those who can’t come to grips with that fact, to get over it.