Eboe Town; One of the Birth Places of the Belizean Creole
It was the late Leela Vernon who sung the famous lyrics, “Ah wahn noe hu seh Kriol noh ga no kolcha”. In tonight’s Kolcha Tuesday, we take a closer look at the Creole culture through the lens of Eboe Town, a slave community that was established centuries ago in what is now known as downtown Belize City. It existed well into the nineteenth century. Researchers are still studying the history of Eboe Town, but one thing has become clear over the years, Belize’s Creole heritage is closely tied to the community. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a small community known as Eboe Town existed in the heart of what is now Belize City. The town was established as a residential area for enslaved Africans from the Igbo Tribe in Nigeria. At the onset, at least two hundred logging camp laborers lived in what is referred to by historians as “Negro homes”. A map from 1829 suggests that Eboe Town was located within the confines of Albert Street, Berkley Street, East Canal and South Street. Rolando Cocom is the Director at the Institute for Social and Cultural Research.
Rolando Cocom
Rolando Cocom, Director, ISCR
“We are going back 1829, what was Eboe Town? Eboe Town was an area where the document indicates enslaved persons had some of their houses, and I said some of their houses because remember the seasonal work of mahogany cutting meant that a majority of the times they were out in the camps, but when they did come home, we are thinking December, we know that Belizeans make a big fuss about December, making sure you have you have your dan-dan, new linoleum to put in your house, all of those celebration activities in some way or another also took place in these historic times. Eboe Town however was destroyed by fire like so many places in Belize City in 1819, but the name itself still carried on all the way up to the 1850’s where we see people referring to the Eboe Town area.”
The landscape on which Eboe Town was built was practically swamp land. The slaves that resided in the area received the basic necessities for survival. According to Cocom, the slaves of Eboe Town were not permitted to use the amenities along the coast that the slave masters and British settlers utilized, like the cathedral, and the cemetery. From this population, however, came what we know today as the Creole people, descendants of British settlers and African slaves who co-mingled. The Creole culture is strongly influenced by its African heritage. Musa Abdul Shaeed is the founder of Drums Not Guns, an organization established to promote the Creole culture through drumming. He has heard many stories of old about Eboe Town.
Musa Abdul Shaeed
Musa Abdul Shaeed, Promoter of Creole Culture
“Egbo Town, 1700’s late 1600’s is a slave town and our ancestors was the dwellers of this town, how you could call the front page, that would be the water front, all the residential areas, the water and the sea front was where the slave owners and masters would reside and behind that, where we would call like modern day south side, Plues Street, George Street Area, Jump Street, that dah weh we mih stay, Yabra. I believe in my honest opinion, people that suffer a lot it is because they don’t know who they are. So, right now the Eboe Town dwellers, modern Eboe Town dwellers are suffering as much as they suffer then, because they don’t know who they are.”
A lot has changed since the 1800s. Slavery has been abolished for almost two centuries, but majority of the residents remain impoverished. To add to the scourge of poverty, gang warfare and gun violence have taken over the neighborhood. Notwithstanding the socioeconomic challenges, Sharlene Williams, the owner of Belizean Sweets and Treats, is also working to keep the Creole culture alive, through her small business.
Sharlene Williams
Sharlene Williams, Owner, Belizean Sweets and Treats
“We represent the Creole culture, our purpose is to preserve it and promote it through food, drink and dress. We could start out with sea weed, I had it when I was young, we have four flavors, the vanilla, peanuts raisin and cashew. The stews, we have eight stews, pumpkins, papaya, stew craboo, golden plum, mango and the infamous supa. WE almost always have these in stock. When we think about Creole there are three things everybody ask for, kasham, cutup broot and the goat shit. I am sorry, there is no other name. I grew up on that name and I have been doing a lot research trying to change the name, but you can’t call it any name, it is what it is. And one of the reasons it actually looks like it and it is a very tasty treat.”
On July thirty-first, Emancipation Day, the Government of Belize, in collaboration with the National Kriol Council, will be hosting an Eboe Town Festival at the Yabra Green, where handicraft, music and food will be on display. This is an opportunity to further share the history of Eboe Town with the masses.
Rolando Cocom
“In 1888 when a small group of individuals town held a parade and at the start of the parade they had two men with an axe and a paddle, symbolizing what we see now with our quote of arms, and they made a procession throughout the town, and they made a stop at the government house, giving thanks that the ancestors were freed and they made a demand, help us to build a people’s hall and learning space for African descendants to learn about their history and that is important. That is what the Ebo Festival, Emancipation Day as an official public and bank holiday is about.”
Musa Abdul Shaeed
“I will use two tribes as an example in this country that knows who they are and make much use of it, our Garifuna people, they basically honor their ancestry and win, the Maya they honor ancestor and they win, the Mestizo they win. The only two tribes of people mainly that are losing, based on not knowing who they are, they are, they think they winning with lee status and money and car, you don’t know who they are, yo pikni the watch coco-melon, that dah nuh who they are, the Creole people.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.
