by Nuri Muhammad

(Part Two of a presentation given at the
International Symposium on the History and Legacy of Muslims in the Caribbean, September 4th, 2023, in Georgetown, Guyana.)

MUSLIMS IN BELIZE AND THE CARIBBEAN

“In reality, the history of Islam and Muslim peoples in the Caribbean goes back to over one thousand years, predating European contact by over six centuries. Muslims have had a long and intimate relationship with this region and at present represents a potentially decisive factor in the future,” says Dr. Abdullah Quick in his book, Deeper Roots.

Nigerian attorney and social commentator, Kawu Bala, who spent years in Belize and the Caribbean, in his unpublished essays on Islam in the Caribbean, wrote:

“The people of the Caribbean had rich religious traditions of ancient and deeply held beliefs and practices. These did not vanish from the minds and hearts of the enslaved.”

In his paper, “The Moghul Islamic Diaspora: The Institutionalization of Islam in Jamaica”, Sultana Afrozi revealed Reverend Bridges’ “anguish over the strong conviction of the Islamic faith of many of the slaves in Jamaica, who had been baptized by him, and despite being pressured to ditch their age-old practices and faith, kept unbending and connected to the Islamic religion.”

Robert Madden, an official from the British government, discovered in Jamaica that despite being forced to adopt Christian names, a large number of slaves had remained faithful to Islam and were still communicating in Arabic in the year 1833.

Governor John Burton in his 1838 Honduras Almanac states: “It is not rare to meet with the black persons who possess an utter aversion to spirituous liquors, and can by no means be prevailed upon to taste a beverage in which they know anything or the sort to be a component part …. (they) in rejecting it, act not so much from a correct principle as from national usage, or original intercourse with Mahometan connexions.”

This again is clear evidence that there were Muslims among our enslaved ancestors early in Belize. In fact, these were people expressing their religious discretion even before the Church entered the Settlement. So, Islam was in Belize from the beginning, long before Christianity.

When our ancestors made Salah (Muslim Prayer) it was that same Salah that Muhammad had established 1400 years ago. So, when an African Belizean Muslim makes Salah today, they are holding on to a daily ritual that their Muslim African enslaved ancestors did and that was established long before them.

Salah is the personal and collective retention of the spirit of our ancestors who did the same preparation for the prayer, then found the direction of the Quibla, then began their prayer with: Bismillah. If that’s not retention, what is?

One of the distinct ethnic groups in Belize are the Garifuna, also known as the Black Caribs, who are found in the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and throughout Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, but are very predominant in Belize

Are the Garifuna in Belize offsprings of African Muslim-Amerindians’ intermarriage?

To be continued