Point and Counterpoint (52) Help Them to Help Themselves: The East Indian Councils of Belize

The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Breaking Belize News.

By Dorian A. Barrow, Ph.D., Florida State University: People of East Indian descent (Indians or Coolie) in the Caribbean number about one and a half million in the English-speaking Caribbean (Mahabir, 2019).  They constitute about half the population of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Guyana and Suriname, form the largest minority group in Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada.  According to the last census, there are about 15,000 East Indians (Coolies) living in Belize mostly in three clusters in the South (Toledo and Stann Creek), in Belize City ( Faber’s Road/Port Loyola area) and in the North (mostly Corozal but Orange Walk District also).  Recently, Professor Kumar Mahabir from the University of T&T published some findings from a piece of his on-going research in which  he found that “the East Indians and their indentured forebears have been [significantly] excluded in the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) CSEC and CAPE History and Literature syllabi”, very much like how East Indians of Belize have been “significantly excluded” as a minority ethnic group from the cultural life of Belize.  Today in Belize the only East Indian tradition that seems to have survived is their cuisine “The Kuhune Cabbage”, and even then, the wider population only seem to have access to that If they are privileged to attend an East Indian wedding, wake or repass.  East Indian culture in Belize is dying or in intensive just barely hanging on to a very weak or non-existent life support system.  The three East Indian Councils of Belize desperately need the Nation’s help and support to carry out their work of preserving their culture and identity as a vibrant minority group in Belize.  If not they will become extinct like the Arawak’s did!

Belize prides itself as a ‘cultural mosaic’.  According to Anthropologist Dr Joe Palacio, a cultural mosaic is “a mix of ethnic groups, languages, and cultures that coexist within society”.  The idea of a cultural mosaic is intended to suggest a form of multiculturalism, different from other systems such as a melting pot, which is often used to describe nations like the United States’ assimilation. That is not to say that in cultural mosaics assimilation do not also occur.  Assimilation is when the larger cultural group in the mosaic integrates the smaller ethnic group into itself to the point where eventually the smaller ethnic group disappears, i.e. no longer exist as an independent, separate ethnic group.  East Indians in Belize has continuously been assimilated into the Creole and Mestizo ethnic groups.  The first generation children of these unions adopts the cultural characteristic of the larger more powerful ethnic groups.  For example, they acquire the language, food and dispositions of the larger ethnic group.  So East Indians who marry Creole give up their Kuhune Cabbage for rice and beans and those unions with Mestizos start speaking Spanish and eat escabeche with corn tortillas.  Eventually they completely lose their cultural identity.  The situation is so disparate today that it is difficult to find East Indian couples married or living together in a family unit as head of house-holds.  Recently I asked an adult East Indian Woman if she even had an East Indian partner in her entire adult life and she said “no!”. As asked her why and she said “I was scared that I would be dating or marring a cousin or even a brother that I didn’t know about..  We are such a small ethnic group that we are all related by blood in some way!”  I asked an elder East Indian man the same question  who was from the South by had moved to Cayo.  He said that East Indian women were too ‘dark-skin’ for him and he always wanted to ‘lightenen-up’ the skill color of his children.  So he married a mestizo by choice.

Part of the problem East Indians have is Belize the lack of a salient presence as an ethnic group in the minds and hearts of the Belizean cultural consciousness.  I grew up in Belize City in the 1960s, 70s and 80sand we know of  the East Indians of Belize City.  They lived mostly in the Yabra  in the Southside of Belize City and along the George Price highway up to about mile 8 or 9.  The were mostly formers, fishermen, hunters,  and worked at the port as stevedores and some in the transportation industry with their ‘mule and carts’.  Some worked for City council as maintenance works, with the Ministry of works as drivers and mechanics and many at the lands and survey department as field workers.  Many of those who went to high school joined the public service, and others went on to pursue careers in law and medicine.  The first Belizean Chief Justice, Sir George Singh, was an East Indian from Belize City.  Despite this, they have never been embedded in the Belizean cultural landscape in any serious way like how the Mayas or Garifuna ethnic peoples of Belize have.  Their history and literary is not a significant part of our national curriculum.  No wonder CXC feels like it ok to exclude their History and literature from their regional syllabi.  This is despite the major contributions they have made to the Belize’s and the regions economic development.

The first shipload of East Indians came to Belize from Jamaica in 1859 as indentured workers.  The 1000 of them had been indentured to Belize to augment the labor force in agriculture and forestry as wood cutters.  When they arrived some were sent to the wood works in the South, to the agricultural fields and woodworks in the North, and the third group to be domestiques, and service workers in Belize City.  From 1859 to 1917 when indentureship came to an end the East Indians of Belize was a vital part of the labor force and agricultural sector that kept the Belize economy going over that period.  After indentureship many became entrepreneurs and invested in light industries like tailoring, in grocery shops, in mechanic shops, in transportation and in agriculture and some later joined the public service and other professional careers, including teaching where they continue to excel to this day.  What  they need now is more substantive support from the Ministry of Culture via NICH to their East Indian Councils, one of which, the Belize City one, is bearly functioning.  Their histure, literature and culture needs to infused in a significant way in our national curriculum, and the business sector, including the Chamber of Commerce, need to not only give these East Indian Councils more financial support, but also need to help them so that  their voices become a part of the National Conversation.  But most importantly our higher education institutions need to begin to play a much greater role in this fight.  In that regard an International Conference on the East Indians in Diaspora in Belize and the Anglophone Caribbean need to be commissioned.  The last time such a conference was held in Belize was 10 years ago.  It generated considerable interest and research on  the phenomenon of the East Indians of Belize.  Another one cosponsored by the Three East Indian Councils of Belize is past do.  We need to help them to help themselves in securing their culture and ethnic identity as East Indians.

Please feel free to challenge any or all of the issues raised in the piece above and let’s get the discussion on the East Indians of Belize going again.   

 Dr. Dоrіаn Ваrrоw іѕ сurrеntlу wоrkіng аt Gаlеn Unіvеrѕіtу аѕ thе Dеаn оf thе Dераrtmеnt оf Еduсаtіоn. Не hаѕ а lоng hіѕtоrу оf іnvоlvеmеnt іn еduсаtіоn іn Веlіzе, hаvіng ѕеrvеd аѕ а Lесturеr аt thе Unіvеrѕіtу оf Веlіzе, аnd аѕ Сhіеf Ехесutіvе Оffісеr іn thе Міnіѕtrу оf Еduсаtіоn. Dr. Ваrrоw іѕ аn еmіnеnt рrоfеѕѕіоnаl whо іѕ wеll rеѕресtеd bоth lосаllу аnd аbrоаd. Не іѕ ѕеrvіng аѕ аn еdіtоrіаl mеmbеr аnd rеvіеwеr оf ѕеvеrаl іntеrnаtіоnаl rерutеd јоurnаlѕ аnd hаѕ аuthоrеd mаnу rеѕеаrсh аrtісlеѕ/bооkѕ rеlаtеd tо еduсаtіоn. Араrt frоm еduсаtіоn, hе іѕ аlѕо а ѕроrtѕ еnthuѕіаѕt.

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