The following is a very special and pleasant memory of a speech that was presented by Clinton Uh Luna at the first WAMI Conference that took place on 9th September, 2011.

PART ONE

Some years after the so-called discovery of this place we call America by Christopher Columbus, he was followed by several Europeans from different kingdoms. Our native tribes were slaughtered; many were extinguished. These Europeans found wealth, but to take it out they needed manpower. And there started a commercial system called the “slave trade”. These two terrible inhumane circumstances that took place in the history of mankind had only served one purpose. And that’s the wealth the Europeans had accumulated through the lives and blood of our ancestors, the Maya and Africans. These two races are the ones that have to do with our Belize. I am thankful to the organizers and all those who collaborated in one way or the other to organize this historical event — first of its kind.

I am not the one who should be here speaking about these topics, because I am not a historian. The maximum academic studies I had acquired is that of Standard Five, and I had scraped through all subjects. The school I had attended and that I am still attending is the “University of Life”. There I have been taught not to believe in anything if there is no tangible proof. So here I am, representing thousands of roots Belizeans, trying to find that tangible proof of this terrible, great Battle of St. George’s Caye that took place on September 10, 1798. And what better place to search than the heart of where it took place, among those who have what we are searching for —TANGIBLE PROOF.

But before anyone may bring forth some kind of tangible device from out of the water from the Bay of Honduras where that battle took place, permit me to continue with the following: Narda Dobson, a Pro-British historian, said in her book, A History of Belize, on page 51, and I quote: “In the nineteenth century a number of Almanacks were published which attempted to give a brief history of the settlement of Honduras. That of 1826 mentions 1650 as the date when England first sought refuge from Spaniards in the Belize area. Those of 1827 and 1839 speak of a Lieutenant Wallace who had been expelled from Tortuga, while the one for 1829 speaks of a party of shipwrecked sailors who settled around the mouth of the Belize River in 1638. It is always possible that these Almanacks were based on records which have been destroyed by fire, hurricanes or tropical pests, but since they were written nearly two hundred years after the event they must be regarded with considerable caution.”

17th February 2020
Finca Solana
Corozal Town To Be continued……..