“The pre-devaluation history of modern Belize is the history of the development and dominance of a Creole society. While other ethnic groups may have inhabited the land area of the country and figured in the census rolls, they were, in the words of Dr. Grant, ‘… in the colonial society but not of it.’ For all practical purposes, until the political awakening of December 1949 the local politics and economics of the colony were made and manipulated in the capital, and the capital was Creole and Elitist. The values and attitudes of the Creole “ARISTOCRATIC” families with whom the Colonial Government shared power were the forces which dictated not only the Colony’s Constitutional and economic progress, but also the Colony’s vision of its own history. That vision, understandably, was one which equated the history of the Colony with the history of the development of the Creole majority and particularly with the history of the privileged class within that group. It was a society which venerated the European genes in its composition.”
– from pg. 142, “Readings in Belizean History,” Second Edition, by Peter Ashdown.
Brother Colin bh, thanks for remembering me in your sub-article entitled “Melting Pot” published in the Amandala on Wednesday, January 14, 2009. I enjoy your sense of humor. Sometime in the beginning of the 1960s I lived for several months in Belize City.
I remember the Belize City native girls used to go around the white British soldiers just to get pregnant, to have a white man’s baby, just that I could have never understood why. Is this still a practice? Something similar used to happen here in Corozal. The so-called “Spanish” elite girls used to wait for their Blue-Prince. Many of them got old and others died single and let the worms delight themselves.
I know that there are a group of you who are trying to make some kind of concept of the word “Kriol.” Just that such word (Kriol) is not recognized internationally by the corresponding authorities as an ethnic group, nor a language. If I’m wrong, please correct me with evidence, not suppositions. The pronunciation is the same as that as “Creole,” which means in my old Webster’s dictionary the following: “1. A person of European ancestry born in Spanish America or the West Indies. 2. A – One descended from the original French settlers of S. US b. The French dialect of these people. 3. A person of mixed Negro and European ancestry.”
The word “Negro” is spelled the same in English and in Spanish, with different meanings. In Spanish, the word “Negro” means Black. In this 21st century in your British English it means, well, I think you know, there are hundreds of years of history behind that.
“The mother country was the master of the world and the Creole, of all the disparate groups of the Colony, was the one most closely linked with the master race. The Elitist sons of the race came from the mother country to administer the empire’s only Central American colony and the Creole Aristocracy was on hand to aid them in so doing. Colonial Administrator and Creole Aristocrat fed off each other in a community of interest. The one sought to divide and rule by being a separate, privileged class over the inarticulate labour force; the other sought to imitate the overlord’s culture and to retain its stranglehold over the colony’s economy and labour by a show of deference to the Imperial power. In such a way both the loyalty of the colony in the empire was retained, and the Creole elite’s capture of the Colony’s wealth and institutions were preserved and entrenched.”
– pg. 142, Peter Ashdown – “Readings in Belizean History.”
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– The Creole Elites are still in power, Brother Colin. They have become the Royal Family of Belize, dominating the two major political parties. And they have left the darker skin Creole aside, the same as the Maya and Mestizos and Maya/Mestizos in a “greasy post” system to see who can reach first. The Mestizos, those who are not of the Royal Family of Belize, are not to be blamed, Brother Colin. You are not understanding my writings. I suggest to you to read in between the lines.
– You said that, “In our National Anthem Belizeans sing ‘Our Fathers, The Baymen,’ …and some think of Chatoyer… and some think of Columbus. Some think of the gods that can be found in the Popul Vu. And some think of Mother Africa, Mother Germany, Mother Taiwan.”
– First of all I don’t think you have interviewed all those people. If you did and it is the way you are assuming it, then I would only say, “Shame on my people of the Popul Vu. The rest of them, that’s understandable. But for my people, the Yucatec Maya and descendants, you and those like you can take your “Fathers the Baymen” back to where they came from. In our “Chilam Balam,” it says that this war has not ended here because this land shall be born again.
– Brother Colin, let me put something to your attention. Have you heard the Mestizos saying anything about the Belize/Guatemala issue? Or anything about the Caribbean passport? Ask yourself why, and if you have an answer share it with us.
23rd. January, 2009
Finca Solana
Corozal Town