African Roots and Resilience

The British came to Belize for one main reason: to build their wealth. To address this, they imported and enslaved Africans to satisfy the labor demands of extracting logwood and, later, mahogany timber. Many enslaved Africans came primarily from West Africa. They were forcibly taken from their homelands and brought to the Caribbean and, consequently, Belize.

Historian Nigel Bolland argues that some of the enslaved “may have been seasoned in the West Indies and some were born there, yet others must have been brought from Africa via the Jamaica slave markets.” Similarly, Historian Assad Shoman cites a report which states that Africans were imported from the Bermudan enslavement markets.

Enslaved Africans underwent grueling conditions in the transatlantic enslavement trade, chiefly operated by the British. An estimated total of around 13 million Africans were packed into ships under cruel conditions, facing diseases, malnutrition, and abuse. Once Africans arrived in Belize, many of them worked in camps extracting forest products. They endured dangerous and harsh living conditions.