US Embassy hosts Black History exhibit in Belmopan

Black History month is celebrated annually in February. The month was set aside since 1926 and is traced back to Doctor Carter G. Woodson of Kentucky, the son of slaves, who did a study of black history and found that U.S. history books ignored Black Americans. In Belmopan, the U.S. Embassy today opened a poster exhibition in celebration of the month.  Marion Ali was there when US Ambassador, Vinai Thummalapally addressed students of the Belize Christian Academy and summarized the significance of the event in the context of his country’s first black president in the person of Barack Obama.

Vinai Thummalapally, US Ambassador

“Black history month is sort of stepping back, looking at what the accomplishments have been, what the struggle entailed.”

There is no denying that Barack Obama had many black people who helped to pave the way for him and US Ambassador to Belize, Vinai Thummalapally says the president spares no chance to acknowledge those individuals.  Some of those faces are being featured at the George Price Centre in Belmopan for the next two weeks.  For those in attendance, the message and the display merge handsomely with not only their history class but also their personal lives and surroundings.

Aisassa Carter

Aisassa Carter, Student, Belize Christian Academy

“Eighty years ago black people didn’t have much and to get a good education was like a really big deal for everyone, was like a big deal for everybody. Now that I’m able to get a good education with no problem at all and to express myself in a way that back then they didn’t have a way to express themselves, and being a black female there weren’t a lot of rights. So to know that I have way more rights because of people from the past like Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, is like—it’s really inspiring.”

Gabriel Baron, Student, Belize Christian Academy

“We have eleven cultures in our classroom in nine languages so it’s very different than it was eighty years ago.”

Marion Ali

“You just mentioned you have many cultures in your classroom. Do you still observe discrimination among your fellow colleagues?”

Gabriel Baron

Gabriel Baron

“Not at all. Everyone is based completely on the personality and some people get along better with others but it’s nothing to race or background or where they’re from, it’s just who they are.”

There are no black faces from Belize appearing on this US exhibit, but that idea of highlighting our own local gems are not far from thought, according to the curator of the Centre, Elsie Alpuche.

Elsie Alpuche, Curator, George Price Centre

“We would love to put an exhibition like that. We haven’t done so and no other organization has come forward but we welcome all these initiatives. So…”

Marion Ali

“We have so many of them: Philip Goldson, our prime minister Dean Barrow, first governor general Dame Minita Gordon, our current Governor General Colville Young.”

Elsie Alpuche

“We’ll need a bigger room to display all those but it’s definitely something we’d love to put together perhaps for next year when we’re highlighting Black History Month.”

And for students, regardless of racial backgrounds, who are not as blessed to have easy access to an education, the good Ambassador had one universal message.

Vinai Thummalapally

Vinai Thummalapally

“Attend classes, don’t miss it and look for avenues to get funding, figure out a way how to get to class, how to pay for school and so on.”

Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.

The display will continue for the next two weeks.  It is being held at the George Price Centre in Belmopan.