Belize Series Part 1: Belizean Independence Day Edition: Belize

Ah! The wonderful land of Belize! A tropical paradise lined with beautiful, sandy beaches and a remain of the British Empire - somewhat.

Belize, along with its neighbour Guatemala, is one of the only countries in Central America that is entirely part of the Maya Region, which is a region in Mesoamerica ( parts of North America and Central America ) that hosted the great Mayan civilisation that was situated primarily in Yucatan, the region of the earth that was hit by a colossal asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs. The absence of dinosaurs allowed for many different types of mammals to thrive. Some of these mammals, called primates evolved into humans over millions of years. The first humans lived in modern-day Ethiopia, but over thousands of years, they migrated to Asia and Europe, forming hundreds of tribes, ethnicities, cultures, races, languages and civilisations. An ethnic group living in Siberia, called the Kets, migrated to the Americas, and became known as the Paleo - Indians. The modern - day descendants of the Paleo - Indians are referred to as Native Americans worldwide, Métis in Canada and Red Indians in the USA.

Native Americans make up about 1% of the total population of the Americas and a ten thousandth of the world's population. If all the Native Americans in the world were to join together and form a single nation, the population of that nation would be almost identical with that of Togo, a country in West Africa that was once a German colony.

Some of these Native Americans are Mayans. Mayans are the people who inhabited Belize and Yucatan, among other lands, before the Spanish conquistadors, including the infamous Hernan Cortes, who conquered majority of Central America in the name of the Spanish Crown, which, with the help of a parliament, rules Spain to this day. Belizean Mayan languages include: Qʼeqchiʼ, Itzaj, Mopan, Yucatec, Chʼoltiʼ.

However, the only part of Central America that the British colonised instead, was Belize, which was originally known as British Honduras. Although about half of Belizeans are Mestizos of Spanish and Mayan descent, the UK has had a profound impact on Belize, which was known as British Honduras until 1973. 9 years later, the British colony of Belize gained independence from the UK on 21 September, which is 4 days away. However, unlike most other former British colonies, Belize became a commonwealth realm after gaining independence from the UK. Belize remains a commonwealth realm to this day and its official language is English. A commonwealth realm is a nation that is independent from the UK but has the British monarch as its head of state. There are a total of 14 commonwealth realms today, excluding the UK, which began the commonwealth realm system.

Now that we have covered the history of Belize, let us move on to the culture and languages of Belize.

Languages: Mayans speak a multitude of languages, but only about 5 of them survive in Belize. The language mainly spoken by Belizeans is the Belizean Creole, which is a combination of English and West African languages. The Belizean Creole is generally understandable for English speakers like me. The Belizean Creole, just like its major influencer, uses the English alphabet that is used extensively worldwide.

Culture: Belize is a melting pot of cultures. The main culture in Belize is the Mestizo culture, as I mentioned earlier. Belize's Mestizo culture is not very different form that of the USA or Latin America, but it has profound British influence, resulting in the formation of the Belizean Creole. The second main ethnic group in Belize is the Kriol. Kriols are members of the Kriol ethnic group, as their name suggests, and they are of both West African and British ancestry. They make up about a quarter of Belize's population.

Food: Belizean cuisine is one of the most diverse cuisines in the world, with a different subcuisine for each ethnic group. The main subcuisine is the Belizean Mestizo subcuisine, which is considered to be pan-Belizean, is very similar to the Mestizo cuisine of the rest of Latin America., particularly Mexican Mestizo cuisine. After all, Belize does share a direct land border with ( southern ) Mexico.

The other major subcuisines of Belize are the Kriol and Garifuna subcuisines. The Belizean Kriol subcuisine is similar to the Belizean Garifuna subcuisine. Both subcuisines are inspired by West African cuisine, but the former has more European influences, involving desserts such as cakes and pies.

A major Belizean Garifuna dish is ereba or cassava bread. Ereba is typically eaten with cooked bananas and fish, or simply gravy. Banana gravy, almond pastry and sticky rice are also common in Belizean Garifuna cuisine.

Untied knot 1 tied: What happened to the Kets? Did all of them migrate to the Americas? No. Some of them still live in Russia today, with a minor population in Ukraine. It is estimated that there are about a thousand Kets living right now. Most Kets now live in Krasnoyarsk Krai, a subdivision of Siberia within the Russian Federation.

Untied knot 2 tied: Who're the Garifunas? Garifunas are the descendants of free Africans and indigenous Caribbeans who settled in Saint Vincent and formed the Garifuna ethnic group as we know it today. Having originated from Saint Vincent, many Garifunas speak the Vincentian Creole, a creole combining Iberian languages along with Antillean Creole, a French - based creole combining French, indigenous northern South American languages, English and some unknown African languages. Many Garifunas also speak the Garifuna language, which is an indigenous Caribbean language. These Garifunas migrated to other parts of the Americas, creating the Garifuna diaspora of about 398,000 people. About 4% of these Garifunas reside in Belize. Belizean Garifunas make up about 3 fiftieths of Belize's total population and have formed a major Belizean subcuisine over the years, called the Belizean Garifuna subcuisine.

Garifunas are mostly Roman Catholics, though some of practise a unique sect of Christianity called Rastafarianism, which is a diverse ideology that combines pan - Africanism with a unique interpretation of the Bible. There are about a million Rastas ( followers of Rastafarianism ) in the world today.

Another ethnic minority group in Belize is the European ethnic group of Belize, which includes the Belizean Mennonite ethnic group. Mennonites are Germans who follow Mennonitism, a sect of Christianity that originated in modern - day Netherlands. They speak a German dialect and make up about 4% of Belize's total population.

The remaining major ethnic minorities are the Sino-Belizeans and Indo-Belizeans who migrated or were brought from China and India respectively.

Flag of Belize

Belizean Coat of Arms

Overall, Belize is very similar to other Mesoamerican countries, but what makes it unique is the Belizean Creole. I've tried learning the Belizean Creole and I remember the following words: waata ( water ), kriol ( creole ), Bileez ( Belize ), betta ( better ), not ( not ), litta ( litter ), yoos ( use ), yu ( you ), craboo ( craboo ) and mi ( me ).

I also tried learning Spanish using Duolingo, and it went rather well. I also wondered to myself about the differences between Belizean Spanish and regular Spanish. Wikipedia gave me a few answers, but the table below shows the only difference that I understood.

Greek / Latin	​Regular Spanish	​Belizean Spanish	English
​atlantico	atlántico	aotlántico	atlantic

Next, I tried learning the Qeqchi language, the most widely spoken Mayan language in Belize.

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Guatemala and Belize have never had the best of relations. The Kingdom of Guatemala had always tried to conquer Belize, but to no avail. Thus, the Republic of Guatemala, as the successor to the Kingdom of Guatemala, had border disputes with Belize, and did not recognise Belize for a decade after its independence form the UK. The border disputes came to a boiling point in 2016, when Belizean border troops killed a Guatemalan near the border. What happened next was a military standoff at the border between Guatemala and Belize, that the Guatemalan who was killed by Belizean troops, had allegedly crossed.

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If the Belize had been a Spanish colonial district like the rest of Central America, it would have been part of the Kingdom of Guatemala until 1821, when the kingdom seceded from the greater Spanish Empire. Belize would've thus followed the path of other Central American nations and would've been part of the First Mexican Empire for about a year. In 1823, Central America seceded from the First Mexican Empire and formed the Republic of Central America. Belize might've chosen to join this republic. However, the republic eventually fragmented into five different nations, and if Belize was part of the Republic of Central America, it might've chosen to join Mexico when the republic fragmented, or it might have chosen to become an independent republic. It might've also chosen to join Guatemala. If Belize became a republic in the abovestated scenario, it would've lacked British protection and would've probably been invaded and annexed by Guatemala.

If Belize joined Mexico, it probably wouldn't have lasted as both Belize and Mexico have very different cultures.

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An integral district of Belize, that has the same capital city as British Honduras ( for its last decade of existence ). The district of Belize is also home to the island of St George's Caye, where the important Battle of St George's Caye took place. The battle was a British victory that secured Belize's status as a British colony, helping to shape the nation's political and cultural landscape.

Another district is Cayo District. Cayo District borders Guatemala and is home to Belize's capital, Belmopan.

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The rest of this blog post is a summary of a proposed chapter of Fishy Story, a story in the works that's being written by Aykan, the owner, manager and major content creator of Aykan's Stub World and his friend and Aykan's Stub World's latest subscriber, Isaac, who is an excellent writer. This particular summary was written by Aykan, though the story was inspired by Isaac's ideas. The settings of the summary are; Mexico, St George's Caye, Guatemala, San Salvador, the Guanahani Archipelago and Miami.

The main character is Fishy, an amphibious guppy with superpowers. His friends are Homework, a so -called '' lizard '' that can teleport, and Sharky, a vegan, puny shark with incredible chomping powers.

Fishy, Homework and Sharky teleported to northern Mexico in the hopes of safety, but they encountered a huge desert snake, resembling the Arizona Coral Snake. The gargantuan beast, almost hugged Fishy's friends to death, but Fishy slapped the snake's head and the snake's head exploded. Then, Fishy and his friends made their way further into Yucatan in search of greener land to escape the heat, but there was a time warp, and they ended up in prehistoric Yucatan, contrary to what was planned. There were dinosaurs and ferns everywhere. Then, almost out of nowhere, an asteroid came at lightning speed towards Yucatan. Fishy and his friends quickly hid in a cave, knowing what would happen next. Then, it happened. 66 seconds to go. 67. 68. 69. The asteroid hit the earth. Yucatan had officially gone insane. Lava was spewing everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of bodies of dinosaurs lay scattered on the floor. The impact was so great that Fishy and his friends were sent back to the present day. Fishy ended up in St George's Caye, Belize, while Homework and Sharky and Homework ended up in Yucatan, the birthplace of Mayan civilisation. For days, Homework and Sharky lost themselves in the Mayan architecture, caves and natural wonders of Guatemala.

There, they came across the colourful Resplendent Quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala. Eventually, they ended up in the city of San Salvador, where they used a complex communication device to communicate with Fishy and find out his whereabouts. Fishy told his friends he was in Nassau. You see, Fishy had had a bit of a misadventure after being discovered by the local fishermen, who saw him as special due to his amphibious qualities. They brought him to a famed lab in Miami. Using a tropical storm to his advantage, Fishy escaped from Miami and swam all the way to Nassau. Eventually, Homework used his teleportation skills to teleport to Nassau, bringing Sharky along with him. The three friends were united once again. After this, Fishy, Homework and Sharky would be involved in many more adventures together.

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The content of this post was finalised on 21 September, Belizean Independence Day.