3. February 9 marked 44
years since the founding
of the United Black
Association for
Development (UBAD)
UBAD contributor
(deceased)
4. The UBAD movement made a small but important contribution to Garifuna
culture in Belize by reviving in 1969 the basic black nationalism which
had swept across British Honduras fifty years before in the form of Marcus
Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).
(Garifuna icon, Thomas Vincent Ramos, who founded Garifuna Settlement
Day in 1941, was a UNIA member.)
BLACK
NATIONALISM:
Creoles and Garinagu
5. Six months its creation, UBAD raised the
money to buy a Gestetner machine to
establish a newspaper.
That newspaper was called AMANDALA –
the nation‟s leading newspaper, birthed on
August 13, 1969.
Even after UBAD was divided, and later
dissolved in 1974, AMANDALA remained.
6. Lionel Clarke was the first president
of UBAD. After he migrated to the
US, Amandala publisher, Evan X
Hyde, became the second president
of UBAD in March 1969.
He was 21 years old.
Hyde later became president of
the UBAD Party for Freedom,
Justice and Equality.
7. EXTANT
UBAD-ERSEvan X Hyde Ismail Shabazz
Hyde and
Shabazz were
jailed for sedition
in February 1970.
They were tried in
July 1970 and
acquitted.
Charles X Eagan, also known as “Justice” and later known as Ibrahim Abdullah,
was also one of 10 UBAD founders.
8. The AMANDALA of February 20, 1970, ran a
critical article of an election petition heard and
dismissed in the Supreme Court after General
Elections on December 5, 1969 – won by the
PUP.
See page 62 and 63 of the book,
X Communications
"GAMES OLD PEOPLE PLAY"
The article which got Hyde and Shabbaz
in trouble was over the 1969 general
elections.
9. 21st February, 1970
Mr. Albert Staines, Esq.,
Director of Public Prosecution,
Regent Street,
Belize City.
Dear Director,
Long and many are the violations of our laws by almost every
newspaper in the country. Each infraction of the law that has gone
unnoticed has encouraged bolder and bolder steps until what is a very
serious breach of our Criminal Code now emerges on the front page of
Amandala No. 17 of the 20th February, 1970, entitled “Games Old
People Play.” (Copy enclosed.)
In respect of this article I would wish to draw your attention to the
offence of Seditious Libel, section 244 of the Code and Seditious
Conspiracy, section 245 and the definitions relating thereto.
I feel that as officers of the Court we would be guilty of grave neglect of
our duty for its protection and preservation, if we allow so important an
institution to come to disrepute at the hands of any publisher.
Yours faithfully,
(V. H. COURTENAY)
Attorney General
10. What were some of the things
that UBAD advocated for?
CAUSES
16. • Organized for needy children.
• Food was transported to UBAD headquarters near Hyde's Lane.
• A bakery called UBAFU (Garifuna word meaning „power‟) was also
established.
• Its demise was said to be due to lack of financing.
BREAKFAST
PROGRAM
18. In October 1969, UBAD and the People‟s Action
Committee (PAC) merged to form the Revolitical
Action Movement (RAM) at Rockville on the Western
Highway.
This was reflected in the newspaper‟s masthead, as
AMANDALA became “Amandala with Fire”
UBAD AND POLITICS
19. Around September/October of 1971, Goldson‟s National
Independence Party (NIP) approached the UBAD Party with a
coalition offer for the December 1971 Belize City Council
election. In this election, the NIP offered six candidates and the
UBAD Party, three.
-- Evan X Hyde, AMANDALA, June 7, 2013
UBAD AND POLITICS
20. After UBAD split in two in 1975, and half of its leadership helped
spark the new United Democratic Party‟s rise to political strength in
1974, Mr. Price reached out to the other half of UBAD, the faction
which had remained independent. This was the faction led by Evan
X Hyde, publisher/editor of AMANDALA, who had run as the only
UBAD candidate in the Collet constituency in the October 1974
general elections.
UBAD AND POLITICS
21. The history shows that, of the four political parties which began the
process of unification, the UBAD Party ended up with the least. In fact,
I would say personally that the UBAD ended up with nothing, nothing
except division and destruction.
-- Evan X Hyde, AMANDALA, 28 June 2013
UBAD AND POLITICS
22. THE REBELLION
OF MAY 1972
Conditions of oppression were such in 1972 that a faction of the UBAD
movement became violent and nihilistic on the night of May 29, 1972.
That violent faction of UBAD clearly did not know where they were going with the
spontaneous uprising, only that the politico-socio-economic conditions were such
that those conditions had to be rejected, by any means necessary.
-- Evan X Hyde, AMANDALA, 28 June 2013
23. The important thing to understand about May 29
of 1972 is that the young people of the
population center were at a higher level of
political education than they had ever been.
Although the voting age was still at 21 in 1972
(it would be reduced to 18 in 1978), one
of the three UBAD Party candidates had topped
the nine candidate NIP/UBAD coalition slate in
December of 1971. UBAD was a
unique political party, because there were no
party financiers.
- Evan X Hyde, AMANDALA, 27 May 2010
24. On May 29, 1972, a demonstration in Belize City organized
by UBAD became violent in the night. The violence began
with the stoning of the Guatemalan Consulate, which was
on Albert Street (between Church and Bishop Streets) at
the time. The evidence in Supreme Court five months later
indicated that a UBAD officer and two UBAD members had
taken matters further than Albert and Regent Streets,
where mass violence against stores and commercial
establishments had taken place. Norman Fairweather,
Edwardo Burns and Michael Hyde (deceased) were
acquitted by jury of attempted arson and damage to public
property in the October 1972 session of the Supreme
Court. The Crown prosecution charged, among other
things, that the UBAD trio had attacked and battered Radio
Belize transmitting equipment on Princess Margaret Drive.
-- Evan X Hyde, ibid
25. UBAD dissolved…
Hyde wrote in AMANDALA column dated
November 8, 1974, an article entitled
"Farewell to Arms".
29. KREM + AMANDALA
(KREM was to be Amandala radio…)
THE RISE OF
KREMANDALA
A professional media organization, was built on the foundation provided by
a black-conscious, revolutionary organization called UBAD
30. The idea for the KREM Radio station originated in
early 1979 while Rufus X and I were visiting New
Orleans…. Campaigning to get back into power in
1989, the PUP decided they would now support the
so-called Radio Amandala concept. The PUP won in
September of 1989, and KREM began broadcasting
on November 17, 1989.
- See more at: http://www.krembz.com/about-krem/#sthash.dKRFNghf.dpuf
RADIO
AMANDALA
CONCEPT
10 years from
conception to birth
31. United Black Association for Development
Educational Foundation (UEF) was formed on
the shoulders of UBAD, on Sunday, March 10,
1996, in Belize City, Belize, Central America, and
is currently housed at the Library of African and Indian
Studies at 3304 Partridge Street, in Belize City.
STILL
RISING…
32. In September of 2003, the UBAD
Educational Foundation (UEF) and Dr.
Ted Aranda‟s World Garifuna
Organization (WGO) organized a
Belize Black Summit, the first of
its kind here…
STILL
RISING…
