August 1st Is Celebrated As Emancipation Day In Belize

July 31, 2022
by Larry Waight +

The usual hustle and bustle associated with the daily movement of locals in Belize will be slowing down to a trickle on August 1st, 2022, as Belizeans across the length and breadth of the country will be joining a long list of other Caribbean countries to celebrate the end of slavery in Belize as well as the Caribbean.

This will mark the second year that Belizeans will be observing Emancipation Day which was officially introduced as a public and bank holiday last year by the Belize Government. The solemn celebration is considered a time for self-reflection for locals to appreciate our origins, and the deep history, struggle, and survival that our African ancestors once faced. The holiday is an occasion to rekindle that sense of pride and forge on as a resilient, strong, courageous, and unified nation that despite unforeseen challenges has managed to maintain cultural survival across generations.

Apart from its unmatched and raw beauty that continues to be a magnet to travelers, Belize’s cultural makeup has been known as an added attraction to the country, however, while its people have stood strong for many years, they too have been part of one of the darkest, brutal and exploitative histories known to humankind. In fact, Belize was only able to free itself from bondage, on August 1st,1838 when slavery was officially abolished in Belize.

This was following a major uprising from the enslaved blacks which resulted in the burning of plantations, abandonment of duties, and uprising against their masters. This forced the British parliament to enact the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 which ended slavery in most of the British Empire. This however was only applicable to children 6 years and younger who were freed while ages 7 to adults were categorized as ‘’apprentices’’ and were forced to work 40 hours per week without pay from 1833 to 1838. This was done as a part of the compensation payment for slave masters who are said to have experienced significant losses due to the abolishment of slavery and free labor.

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Even after being freed, and left without any land, business, or means of survival, slaves had to return to their masters and request work for meager wages. This according to history persisted through the colonial period and was only able to be eradicated in Belize through self-government in 1964 and then Independence in 1981.

Belize’s current Minister of Education, Culture, Science, and Technology Francis Fonseca has classified slavery as one of the ‘’most evil chapters in all human history.’’ At the launch of the holiday last year Fonseca reflected on the estimated 20 million African men, women, and children who were brutally and inhumanely forced from their homelands and brought to the Americas and the Caribbean to work on agricultural estates. In Belize, according to Fonseca, the first record of slaves arriving in the country was in 1724. They were bought from slave markets in Jamaica and Bermuda and brought to Belize under inhuman conditions to provide free labor for the logwood and mahogany trade.

‘’Today as we celebrate Emancipation Day, let us as a nation renew our commitment to correcting this injustice and addressing these inequities. We must do so by creating greater opportunities for education, employment, land, and housing ownership. We must also celebrate the proud history of resistance and resilience embodied in our African ancestors,” said Fonseca.