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By Nuri Muhammad: Rethinking the History Behind Our National Anthem
The phrase “sons of the Baymen’s clan” in Belize’s National Anthem has led some to argue that it glorifies British settlers while ignoring the Maya, Garifuna, Mestizos and other communities. But the history is more complex.
The Baymen were mainly British woodcutters who established the early settlement. Its development, however, depended heavily on enslaved Africans, who cut timber, navigated rivers and endured the hardships of the forest. Europeans controlled the settlement, but Africans provided much of its labor.
The Maya were already here and resisted colonial expansion. The Garifuna arrived in the early nineteenth century, while Mestizos and Yucatec Maya refugees came in larger numbers after the Caste War of Yucatán began in 1847. These communities became essential to Belize, but they did not participate in the original British logging settlement in the same way or at the same time.
This history matters when considering Samuel Alfred Haynes, the anthem’s author. Haynes was a Black Belizean, World War I veteran and critic of colonial discrimination. Connected to the unrest of 1919 and influenced by Marcus Garvey’s message of Black pride and self-reliance, he may not have intended “sons of the Baymen’s clan” to glorify British colonialism.
Perhaps the phrase referred not only to European settlers, but also to the descendants of Africans whose labor built the settlement. Haynes may have been reclaiming a history whose Black contributions had long been minimized.
His original composition, Land of the Gods, later became associated with the nationalist movement led by George Price and the People’s United Party. At independence in 1981, it was adopted as Land of the Free. Its use by the nationalist movement suggests that the song expressed Belizean self-determination rather than loyalty to the British Empire.
We must also remember that the Battle of St. George’s Caye in 1798 did not end slavery. Enslaved Africans may have helped defend the settlement, but they remained enslaved until emancipation was completed in 1838. Victory over Spain was not freedom for them.
Their descendants oopĺĺĺĺlĺl and social development. This gives added meaning to the anthem’s words: “No longer shall we be hewers of wood.” The line speaks to a people determined not to remain defined by their ancestors’ forced labor.
We can recognize the contributions of the Maya, Garifuna, Mes1izos and other communities without erasing the central role of African labor in the early settlement. The British settlement and the Belizean nation are related, but they are not identical historical processes.
The Baymen did not build Belize alone. Africans helped create the settlement, and their descendants have every right to claim that history. When we sing the National Anthem, we should remember not only colonial beginnings, but also our people’s long struggle to transform oppression into freedom.
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