Black Diaspora Summit in Honduras welcomes Belize

Emerson Guild

The trans-Atlantic slave trade cost millions of lives and disrupted and forever changed the future of Africa. But once transplanted in the Caribbean and Central America, the descendants of Africans mingled with the native people of the so-called New World and forged thriving cultures and traditions. According to Emerson Guild, several Belizeans are headed to Honduras to participate in a regional conference on the first years of the Diaspora.

Emerson Guild, Attending Black Diaspora Conference

“I’m heading to Honduras, La Cieba, the University of Honduras exactly where there will be the first ever summit representing the year of the diaspora conference. The theme is: “People of African Ancestry.”

Jose Sanchez

“What do you expect to do there? What will your participation bring?”

Emerson Guild

“It’s a conversation—we’re going to be discussing several major conferences that has happened between 1997 and right now—you have the Durban action plan, you have other accords that were signed after that on a continuous basis. We are going to discuss what happens next for the people of African ancestry.”

Jose Sanchez

“And what do you think the future holds for the region when it comes to being a part of the Diaspora?”

Emerson Guild

“To tell you the truth, words have meanings and I believe that here in Belize we have not been able to actualize what these meanings truly are. We say these words, but then we don’t understand sovereignty; we don’t understand citizen; we don’t understand rights and responsibilities. So we are going to be deliberating all of that and bringing it to a more—I wouldn’t want to say lowering a level—but we must make the community who are not properly informed be able to understand what we are speaking about. I believe the Belizean people on a whole especially the people of African ancestry needs to wake up and understand truly what it is to be responsible for how they think, how they feel and how they must behave to represent themselves in a democracy.”