From the Publisher

   There are two fundamental approaches which conquerors take when they are attempting to subdue and subject different peoples. One approach involves the identifying of the leader(s) of the people who are to be subjected, and the removal of such leader(s), by any means necessary. The other tactic of conquerors is the oft-cited weapon called “divide and conquer.”

   When we were growing up here, we were given the impression by our teachers that when Hernan Cortes conquered Mexico between 1519 and 1521, and Francisco Pizarro overpowered Peru in 1532, the events were similar in that a mere ninety or a hundred Spanish conquistadores, riding horses and armed with guns and swords, killed seventy or eighty thousand native Americans, Aztecs mostly in the case of Mexico, and Incas in the case of Peru.

   The truth of the matter was that, in both Mexico and Peru, there were several different tribes which were always competing with each other. Cortes and Pizarro were able to use some of these tribes to fight along with them against what we would consider their own people. 

   When we look at people from a distance, the Hindu Indians and the Muslim Pakistanis, for example, these people look exactly like each other, and we ask ourselves: why are they so hostile to each other?

   In Grenada in 1983, two men who had been close friends and cooperated with each other to stage and run the Grenada revolution between 1979 and 1983, became divided under pressure, and one used the army to slaughter his former friend and his friend’s allies. It was a very sad thing. This division suited the interests of the regional powerhouse.

   So, what we’re talking about is really the history of the human race. The fact that we Belizeans are divided where ethnicity, religion and so on are concerned, does not mean that we Belizeans are worse than anyone else on planet earth. Where division is not instinctive or intuitive, it is often induced.

We refer to ourselves in Belize as a “melting pot,” because we have several kinds of human beings living here in relative harmony. Our population is made up of Mestizos, Mayas, Creoles, Garinagu, Mennonites, Lebanese, Americans, and more. There is a power structure in place in Belize, and the people at the base of that power pyramid are dark in color — Creoles and Garinagu.

The Creoles and Garinagu have a long history of hostility and resentment, but in the last few decades there has been marked improvement in relations between the two groups, who are mainly of African descent.

It was important for the power structure, from the beginning more than two centuries ago when some Garinagu first came to the settlement of Belize, that the Creoles and the Garinagu be divided, hostile to each other.

We Creoles and Garinagu are not worse than anyone else in the world who fight against each other. The Russians and the Ukrainians are very similar in history and appearance. In the case of Israel and the Palestinains, the Palestians are generally less fair-skinned than the Jews, but the chances are the Palestinians would consider themselves white compared to the Creoles and the Garinagu.

Look, it is so messed up that in Belize, as in other former slave colonies, there would often be division amongst children of the same parents, that division being based on who was lighter-skinned than whom.

   The Garinagu are a people who have experienced genocidal attacks, such as in Balliceaux and Roatan. They ended up dying in droves because they had fought against the British in St. Vincent, and the British, who ruled the planet at that time, exiled them to barren Balliceaux and Roatan.

   The late Clifford Augustine, a Garifuna who had left the Roman Catholic priesthood in order to marry his Creole lover, was a very mild-mannered man, extremely pleasant. It was therefore a bit surprising to me when, a couple years before he died, he remarked critically to me on the fact that, whereas his people had fought against the British, the Creoles, my people, had basically submitted to and collaborated with the said British. He was right, of course.

   Today, as we watch the power structure in the neighbouring republic of Honduras come after the Garinagu there in an aggressive, armed manner, we need to look at the situation seriously. Personally, I have serious respect for the Garifuna people, and I believe that in 2026 it is time for us Creoles to examine our situation in The Jewel and understand that when the oligarchs come for the Garinagu in the morning, they will come for us in the afternoon.