As we've reported, Monday was Belize's third observance of Emancipation Day. But the long weeks preceding it were rife with gang violence, particularly in Southside Belize City. Yesterday during his press briefing, the leader of the opposition, Shyne Barrow, pointed out that this is a result of generational trauma that stems from slavery itself. He explained that hundreds of years later, residents of the blackest communities are still victims of mental slavery.
Here's how he put it.
Shyne Barrow, Opposition Leader
"And as we talk the leadership intervention unit and the gang warfare on the southside which is Ebo Town. That is the name of it. That is where they kept the Africans and the creoles, because they try to divide the people and they gave them a status as you are creole. You are more British, that's why they called it the royal kruffy, you're not like them, they are Africans, they're slaves. You have British royal lineage."
"And so when you see all that is still happening on the southside, that is a direct result, continuing result consequence of slavery in this nation, of the failures of true emancipation. Yes, there was an August 1st, 1833 legislation passed in the house of commons and then implemented in 1834. But what happened, the people of Belize did not get any farm land, they did not get any cattle, they did not get a few pounds - not even a shilling. All they got was the opportunity and lack thereof to work for the same slave masters at minimum wages that kept them indentured in slave in essence, economic slavery, still mental slavery, because our education system was not invested in enough so that we can reverse the irreparable damage that slavery has done."
"So when you see what is happening on the southside, those young men come from generations of people that learnt their murderous ways of the slave master. The abhorrent ways, the heartless ways, the immoral ways, the ways that had no value for human life. While you say oh that's a 189 years ago. Its generations of that trauma, generations of that genetic experience where nothing has been done. Where are all the reparations? all of our timber, all of our mahogany was extracted. The British boomed. What has Belize ever gotten?"
