UEF October 2026 Community Actions

By Sistah YaYa Marin Coleman

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Nov. 5, 2026

   Here are UBAD Educational Foundation (UEF) October 2026 Community Actions!

   The UBAD Educational Foundation (UEF) partnered with Belizeans in the United States diaspora for a Zoom Saturday morning community reasoning on October 17, 2026, which was broadcasted on XTV (local channel), and live-streamed on the XTV Belize FB and YouTube platforms. Belizeans in the Diaspora led the awareness campaign to hold Assad Shoman, PhD, accountable for using the painted blackface caricature of our Afrikan ancestors of the original royal warrant of 1907 on the book cover of his A History of Belize in Thirteen Chapters—the Sapphire Edition. The final 1907 royal warrant for British Honduras did not dehumanize our Afrikan ancestors. The National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) supported this edition of Assad’s book!

   Two of the four historical correspondences between the Colonial Office, Lee, Lucas, and H.W. Just stated: “enclosing the final royal warrant and returning the drawing and photographs”; and further stated:  “I am however, to observe that the lips of the negroes who form the Supporters should not be red but if possible of a somewhat darker and clearer brown than their bodies and I am to request that this slight modification may be carried out. I am also to ask that you will be good enough to furnish two certified copies of the Warrant and drawing, one for transmission to British Honduras, and the other for the record in this department”. Letter from H.W. Just (Colonial Office official of unspecified title) to Lee, 8 March 1907 (fol. 255r), returning the Royal Warrant, signed by the King and countersigned by the Colonial Secretary.

   The four panelists were: Dr. Jerome Straughn, Aria Lightfoot, YaYa Marin Coleman and Rhenae Nunez.

   UEF will host the 2nd monthly Belizean Diaspora Zoom Community Reasoning on Saturday, November 21, 2026, to reason about September 10th and the meaning of that date historically to Afrikan descendants racialized as Black Belizean Kriol people. The four panelists are Cynthia Pitts, Dr. Jerome Straughn, Bilal Morris, and YaYa Marin Coleman.