From Colonial Domination to the Making of the Nation: Ethno-Racial Categories in Censuses and Reports and their Political Uses in Belize, 19th-20th Centuries

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the processes of classification and racial-ethnic categorization of Belize's population during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, based on population censuses and government reports. We are not too interested in figures as such but in the categories of counting and their evolution, as indicators of the political logic of building a colonial and later a national society. While the censuses for the XIX century relate to different forms of population management (transition from slavery to freedom, affirmation or denial of ethnic and racial diversity), the administrative reports paint a static and stereotyped demographic-territorial model as a tool of the political project. For the twentieth century, we analyze the difficult road to independence and the changes introduced by the new Belizean state (categories, methods, actors) in the process of creating a "national identity".

Bibliographie

“…Tableau 1 : Typologie des producteurs agricoles proposée par l'étude Land in British Honduras (Wright et al, 1959 : 38-39) 1-Kekchi Maya Indians : milpa, diversifié (Cunin et Hoffmann, 2013). Hooker note un phénomène similaire au Nicaragua, où la répartition inégale des populations dans l'espace national -majoritairement indiennes et noires sur la côte atlantique, métisse à l'ouest -alimente un imaginaire qui naturalise la différence et l'associe à une hiérarchisation politique 6 : « La racialisation de la côte atlantique […] a servi à justifier le point de vue selon lequel seuls les descendants des élites créoles espagnoles, qui résidaient dans les régions ouest du pays, étaient aptes à exercer le pouvoir politique.…”

“…Ils conservent, pour certains, leur langue (bas-allemand) et leurs traditions anti-modernistes (vêtements caractéristiques, refus de l'électricité) (Roessing, 2007). Si ces différentes catégories ne doivent pas être comprises comme des collectifs identitaires aux frontières bien définies (Cunin et Hoffmann, 2013), il n'en reste pas moins qu'elles structurent l'imaginaire national autour d'une vision culturellement compartimentée et racialisée de la société (Johnson, 2018). Héritiers de valeureux pirates et colons installés sur ces terres envers et contre tous (Toussaint, 1993) ou descendants d'esclavagistes qui pillèrent les forêts durant des siècles (Bolland, 1998), les actuels Béliziens sont surtout, aujourd'hui, les habitants d'un pays pauvre 4 , marginalisé au sein de l'ensemble régional et ignoré des scènes internationales.…”

Exploring ethno-racial policy for the Garinagu in Central America: making the case for Black Indigeneity

“…The uniquely Belizean identity that might have been developed over time is now marked by several phenotypes, languages, and cultural groups because of considerable emigration to the country (Woods et al, 1997). In addition, the relative “age” of the country (Belize gained independence in 1981) means that the process of developing the national identity has been partially hindered (Bolland, 1986; Cunin & Hoffmann, 2013). Languages spoken in Belize include, but are not limited to, the lingua franca English Creole, Spanish, and garifuna.…”

“…Languages spoken in Belize include, but are not limited to, the lingua franca English Creole, Spanish, and garifuna. Among the ethno-racial groups represented in the country are the Maya-Q’eqchi’ (or “Kekchi”; Bolland, 1986; Cunin & Hoffmann, 2013, p. 47), Afro-Belizean/Creole, and the Garinagu people (Bonner, 2001; Greene, 2002; Grizzle Huling, 2004; Lopez, 2014; Palacio, 1998; Woods et al, 1997). The result is a citizenry that is more mixed than blended and is becoming increasingly Spanish-speaking and Latin American in nature (Bolland, 1986; Bonner, 2001).…”

“…For example, during the implementation of the Alcalde system from 1858 to 1969, Garinagu had equal political power to the Mayan groups but were a social step above most other Afro-descendant people, the cause noted as being both ethnic and racial (Anderson, 1997, Moberg, 1992). Ethnic difference is apparent in discussions about everything from the garifuna language and culture being sub-par to English Creole and Spanish (Bonner, 2001) to the class differences developed in the hierarchy that positioned and repositioned the Garinagu, Creole, Indigenous, and “Spanish” populations of the country over centuries (Cunin & Hoffmann, 2013).…”