Last night you saw the crowd from the UBAD Educational Foundation and the Image Factory lead a procession through the city streets - commemorating the centenary of the ex-servicemen's riot - which happened in Belize Town on July 22 and 23rd, 1919.
So, while the ex-servicemen and thousands more rioted for two days, the UEF and IF crew honoree that spirit by agitating for social change for the past two days.
Yesterday, it was demanding recognition for the historical importance of the ex-servicemen's riot, and, today, it was declaring that the new building planned for the foot of the Swing Bridge CANNOT be named after former slaveowner Thomas Paslow.
It's the location called "Ground Zero" - and the building that used to be there - until it burned down in 2002 - was the Paslow building, honoring Paslow as a prominent figure of the colonial era.
But, like we said, also a slave owner, and, a particularly brutal one at that. Today, the UEF's Yaya Marin raged against his legacy:..
Yaya Marin Coleman, Activist and Agitator
"We have a mind-set that wants to create a colonial architecture and then have Paslow Building. Thomas Paslow was a white man who owned and enslaved African people and then killed them. As a matter of fact, his woman was named Clarissa. You have a place in Cayo name Clarissa Falls. When you don't know your history you repeatedly say the name of people who killed your ancestors. I know they just killed your best friend Allyson Major, now you think you would ever name one of your children after the person who killed your cousin? Never you would do that, brother. That is what we are doing. We want to name building after the man who killed our black ancestors, Thomas Paslow. This from the archives, these are the African people who the man owned. See their names here."
"Anyways, the point I am making is when people don't know their story, they are bound to repeat the atrocities of the past. today we will launch a petition and that petition will be online and we are going throughout the whole county and talk about their stories and we will ask for people to sign if you agree that this place should not be called Paslow Plaza. It wasn't us that came up with the name 1919, in having the conversation on Facebook, somebody recommended that they called it 1919 Plaza."
But Yaya's rage wasn't only for Paslow, it was also for us, the media. She says we downplayed ignored her in our coverage of yesterday's event:
Yaya Marin Coleman, Activist and Agitator
"I come out from Amandala, Kremandala, behind the zinc fence. I am the chairperson of the UBAD Educational Foundation. UBAD is an original home-grown African black consciousness organization. Now, I believe I put in the work and I come on the shoulders of people ahead of me. So we have a black people story."
"Only one black organizer is out here and it's me and I am a woman. It's not me you all came for; you all came for Yasser Musa. You all don't come for Delmar Tzib, the Mayan brother. You all came for Yasser Musa. So you all have to look at the attitude and the consciousness and you know how I go. I don't pull no punches, because I will keep it real - From KREM TV. If I am a true teller, I must be a true teller. It's our attitude of our people. It the mind-set of our people. I have to call you all out."
Going back to the Paslow building, a new building will be rented at the site under the Taiwanese funded Belize City House of Culture and Downtown Rejuvenation Project. A release has only said, quote, "a new ferroconcrete building…will be constructed at the site once occupied by the Paslow Building." End quote.
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