By Omar Silva | Editor/Publisher

National Perspective Belize I Digital 2025

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: Thursday 31st July 2025

Special Feature Article

Tomorrow, August 1st, Belize observes Emancipation Day — a day meant to honor the liberation of enslaved Africans and their descendants across the former British Empire. It should be a solemn moment of reflection and pride, a time to acknowledge that Belizeans, as part of that legacy, have inherited the dignity of freedom.

But here is the uncomfortable truth: Belize is not truly emancipated.

For 343 years, from the first British settlement in 1638 to the moment we raised our own flag in 1981, this land was ruled under foreign dominion. And for the last 44 years of “independence,” we have traded one form of colonial subjugation for another — not under the Union Jack, but under the invisible chains of dependency.

A HOLIDAY WITHOUT MEANING

For many Belizeans, Emancipation Day has been reduced to just another holiday — a long weekend to drink, dance, and be merry. But what are we celebrating? What are we free from?

Are we free when our governments — both the People’s United Party (PUP) and the United Democratic Party (UDP) — have failed to break the colonial template of governance handed to them in 1981?

Are we free when we remain economically shackled, dependent on foreign aid, grants, and soft loans that come with strings attached — policy changes dictated not by Belizeans, but by those who sign the cheques?

THE CONTINUED COLONIAL MINDSET

Belize’s tragedy is not simply that we were once a colony. It’s that we have kept the mindset of a colony.

For decades, successive governments have clung to a system designed by and for a colonial power, one that was never meant to create an independent, self-sustaining nation. They have failed — or refused — to transform it.

• No real focus on industrialization.
• No serious push for manufacturing and export capacity.
• No national vision for economic sovereignty.

Instead, they have kept Belize a dependent state, a country that waits for the next handout, the next “grant signing ceremony,” the next loan announcement that we will quietly repay with interest — not just in dollars, but in national policy concessions.

A FUTURE BEYOND DEPENDENCY

If we are to truly honour the meaning of Emancipation, we must do more than celebrate a date.

We must rebuild Belize from scratch — mentally, structurally, and economically.

That means creating a new national mindset:

• One where Belizeans believe we can feed ourselves, build for ourselves, and prosper for ourselves.
• One where we cooperate and collaborate with external powers but never subjugate our sovereignty in exchange for foreign aid.
• One where the focus is on teaching our people skills and trades, and promoting the renaissance of industry and manufacturing to transform our economy into one that produces and exports — rather than imports and begs.

THE CALL TO ACTION

Emancipation is not just about the past. It is about what we demand of the present — and what we build for the future.

We must cultivate a generation that will no longer be satisfied with ceremonial freedom, but will insist on real freedom — economic freedom, political independence of thought, and a governance system designed for Belize, not inherited from colonial masters.

Because only when we shed the colonial and dependent mindset can we say, truthfully and proudly:

Belize is free.