Yesterday, Emancipation Day was observed for the third time in Belize. The official ceremony was held at the House of Culture and the keynote speaker was the Acting Prime Minister Cordel Hyde.
In poignant remarks he reflected on the long arc of history, from slavery to emancipation and back to a postcolonial brand of oppression:
Cordel Hyde, Acting Prime Minister
"I wondered early this morning as it rained what would have been going through the minds of our ancestors on that blessed August 1st morning 190 years ago. They must have been lated over joy, freedom at long last."
"They could not have known that it would have taken us a full 187 years for us to mark an end to the brutal horrors that they had to endure, to mark the beginning of what was supposed to be true emancipation from white supremacy."
"They could not have known that the lingering haunting effects of slavery would stay with us to this day almost 200 years later. They could not have imagined that today our black sons would be killing our black sons wantonly, mercilessly like almost every few days."
"They could not have imagined that freedom would prove so elusive, so fleeting, so distorted, so deformed and that is why this cannot be a moment, this has to be a movement. We can't just feel good today we have to educate every day."
"I submit that we are not free until we no longer see others as superior to us. We are not free until we believe we are capable of leading and developing ourselves. We are not free until our children can have the same dreams and aspirations as any child on planet earth."
"Our education has to be provocative, more visceral, more probing, more thinking critical. We often know from whence we came so we can understand what we must do in the present and in the future. I don't have all the answers, but I can tell you we cannot do it alone."
"We need each other and we cannot continue how we've been. We cannot do it drinking and smoking the pain away and we cannot do it on social media. We have to do it in our homes. We have to do it in our schools."
"We have to embrace the struggle and not try to escape the pain."
And, in his wrap up Hyde seems to throw shade at his own government for the SOE's they have been implementing. He said it is a sign of failure:
Cordel Hyde, Acting Prime Minister
"Let's leave behind a country better than the one we received. That's our great challenge. That's our call to arms. We failed thus far. Every time we call an SOE to order, we falter."
