Brukdown, Jump-up, and hurricane

A compelling gathering-place in Belize City for a generation, the nightclub bar, and grill on Handyside Street served all and sundry, including a diverse herd of motley politicians. Yet the building itself did not project its strangely attractive facade, it was the people within who made it so fascinatingly endearing. Beginning with its owner Lester Young, who had constructed MoonRocket Bar from scratch, later known as Fenders, and then Nu-Fenders, it burned to the ground twice and was gutted by fire a third time. Each time rebuilding stronger and better, except for the last time, when rebuilding was delayed by new owners, who inherited it from their father, after Lester's passing. The original structure was made of wood shingles, but after the initial burning, he deferred its construction to concrete, a much more durable material. But not even that secured it from further burning. As the eves, ceilings, and floorings remained of wooden construction, and susceptible to the ravages of fire. On each firey occasion, we patrons would come running to salvage the alcoholic stock, not to save it from the burning, but to acquire it for free consumption, much to Lester's chagrin. Thinking selfishly that his insurance would foot the bill. Lester was a taciturn, not-so-elderly, less-than-gentle man, who brooked no frivolity among his staff and patrons. Not even on occasions when the home-grown band of amateur, misfit musicians, known as "The Melodious Boom-and-Chime Band From The Moon" performed for the entertainment of all comers. Lester himself played the accordion, while Gary, a bartender, mouthed a harmonica, and various patrons played sundry instruments in more-or-less harmonious good-humor, depending on the level of their imbibing before and during their performance. Nevada played the tum-tum drums, and Capt Usher strummed his 'banja', while various invited performers took turns on guitar, and at singing lustily. And a bacchanalian good time was generally had by all, from Sunday mornings through to the day's waning. Capt Usher, when he was not performing, owned and captained a sand lighter, a large, single-masted, sailing vessel used for transporting sand from various locations to reclaim low-lying properties in and around the city, and for construction.

Lester's family name, 'Young' is the five-hundred-and-ninetieth most common surname in the world, according to surname distribution data found in 'Forebears', and is found in the greatest numbers in the United States. It is most prevalent, based on a percentage of the population, however, in the Pitcairn Islands, where it ranks third. and is borne by every one in ten residents. 'Young' also ranks highly in Belize, where it is fourth in prevalence. Eleventh in New Zealand, the twenty-second in Australia and Scotland, the twenty-third in Canada, forty-ninth in England, and fifty-eighth in Wales. 'WorldNames PublicProfiler' identifies the 'Young' surname as being most common in Australia and New Zealand, followed by the United Kingdom, the United States, and then Canada. The world regions with the largest populations of 'Young's are Newfoundland and Labrador, followed by the Clutha District in New Zealand, and then Scotland. The title most likely found its way to Belize borne by British pirates, slave-traders, privateers, and adventurers drawn by the country's bountiful, sheltered waters, as most of them closely followed mariners' trades like seafaring, boatbuilding, and fishing. The bartender Gary's surname was 'Eiley', a name closely associated with boatbuilding and maritime activity. Historically, family names evolved as a means of grouping people; by occupation, by place of birth, and clan affiliations, parentage, and even physical characteristics, like red hair or freckles. Many modern surnames in Belize can trace their roots back to Britain, Scotland, and Ireland. And through the pre-colonial experience, back also to Spain and Portugal. The Eiley family name was first established in Belize in Placencia by their ancestor John Eiley, who accompanied his family member, Abner Westby, when he traveled to the Placencia Peninsula in eighteen ninety-four. And whose family originated in Scotland and came to Belize to purchase land in Placencia from the Garbutt family, who were first to settle that region.

The Garbutts were joined in Placencia by the Youngs, Eileys, and the Cabral family, which originated in Portugal, and closed their business in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to sail the Caribbean, and arrived in southern Belize on two schooners: The 'Colibri' and The 'Jane'. Lester's club on Handyside Street was frequented by members of his immediate family, and by his cousins, who brought friends and strangers to congregate in a social atmosphere that generated vibrant conversations and resulted in many a field-trip to the cayes, and to Placencia and southern Belize. Field-trips to the cayes, or to Placencia, were often undertaken on "Big Wal", a thirty-foot power tender that was built and owned by Wallace Young, himself called "Big Wal", he was a cousin of Lester's. Who was so named for his size: No fat and blubber, he was as solid as rock, and well over six feet tall. A quiet man, and slow to anger. He captained his vessel with a sure hand, and when not guiding trips to exotic places, carried cargo and passengers back and forth to visiting ocean liners. The crew of many a ship depended on 'Big Wal' to get them back on board in time for sailing. Night-life in Belize city was not over-arching, even in Fenders, but for a crew that had spent the last few weeks sailing the high seas, it was fascinatingly game-changing. And offered an occasion for relaxation in a serene atmosphere. Once-in-a-while, Fenders would upgrade its performance with a more renowned group like Mr. Peters' Boom and Chime Band ... and on the nineteenth of November, we joined in celebrating Garifuna Settlement Day.

Garifuna Settlement Day is a public holiday in Belize, celebrated each year on the nineteenth. It was created by Garifuna/Belizean civil rights activist Thomas Vincent Ramos in nineteen forty-one, and recognized as a public holiday in the southern districts in nineteen forty-three. Declared a national holiday in nineteen seventy-seven, the holiday celebrates the arrival of the Garifuna people in Belize after their exile from the Grenadines by the British army. The Garifuna represents a part of the African diaspora that has largely been forgotten. Cohabiting with the Indians they were first known as "Black Caribs", and are now more widespread than they have ever been. Occupying parts of the United States including Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and New York. They are also in Toronto, Canada. Like any diaspora, the Garifuna are faced with the burden of maintaining their cultural identity while occupying places significantly different from their homelands. The Garifuna specifically have faced a long history of discrimination from other races. Their existence in Central America, for example, relies only on the fact of their exile from the Grenadines by the British and the French. In Belize, then known as British Honduras, the British referred to them as savages and looked down on them because of their religious practices. After Belize gained its independence, the Garifuna continued to suffer from color segregation and discrimination by their fellow Belizeans of Kriol descent. Today, Garifuna Settlement Day is celebrated in lavish demonstrations in Central America, The United States, and Canada. And with the evolution of technology, their celebrations have been televised and streamed online. Every year, new videos are posted on Youtube and Facebook documenting their festivities. Garifuna in the diaspora has withstood genocide, discrimination, assimilation, disease, and a dying language.

Bob Schulman, a contributor and Travel Editor at WatchBoom.com, recalls that not long ago there were "Boom And Chime" bands all over Belize, If you were lucky enough to get down there before the year twenty-ten, you likely heard the country's top boom band, led by iconic accordionist/singer Wilfred Peters, belting out peppy, booty-swinging tunes at parades, festivals, parties, and in Fenders' bacchanalia. We still hear budding Boom-And-Chimers here and there, but seven years ago, the last of the genre's old-time heavy hitters bit the dust when Peters slipped away at seventy-nine to that big dancehall in the sky. Peters' chief sideman was a drummer who beat one side of his drum with a mallet to make a booming sound. The other side had a metal rim, which the drummer hit with a hollow metal stick to make a chiming sound. Hence "boom and chime". Among the other instruments in these bands were guitars, banjos, bongo and conga drums, maracas, and a donkey's jawbone, the "jawbone-of-an-ass" scrapped rhythmically with a wooden stick, and struck a fist to make its loose teeth rattle. Their songs featured Belize's homegrown, and ever-popular dialectic blending of African, Latin, and Caribbean music called "brukdown", slang for "broken down calypso", so they say. It traces back to the days when Belize was home to escaped slaves, out-of-work pirates doing hard-time off the Spanish Main, Caribe Indians mixed with Africans called "Garifuna" kicked off the Grenadines, Maya refugees from the Caste Wars in Mexico, Garifuna farmers evicted from offshore islands in Honduras, people whose faces adorned "wanted" posters in a half-dozen languages, and others who came to lumber camps in the country's steaming jungles to harvest precious mahogany for the elite of the occident. Accordionist Peters, a drummer, and a beat-up old guitarist got together to form the band first known as "The Mahogany Chips", according to Peters' biography, they raked in an astounding five dollars per performance, plus all the rum-and-coke they could consume while remaining standing. Their creole tunes eventually morphed into "brukdown" --Belize's answer to Jamaican Reggae -- and as more band members came on board, they changed to groups name to its latter form. They became so popular over the years in Belize, and on world tours, that Queen Elizabeth honored Wilfred Peters with an MBE -- Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. He is best remembered for his cheery wake-up song "Good Maanin' Belize", once heard in early mornings on the country's then, only radio station. Among his many other chart-toppers, "Run Fi Yu Life" relates Wilfred Peters fictitious narrow escape from a jealous husband, and blew the crowds away on the band's world tour through Belfast and Barcelona.

In years past, the greatest threat to low-lying Belize City after the risk of fires was the possibility of hurricanes. But I have perceived in recent times, a diminution of that threat as, with the advent of global warming, the hurricanes seem to be tracking farther north. When I was a teenager, and in young adulthood, Belize was threatened, and/or battered by at least two hurricanes annually. But in this past year, there have been none, and the season of threat is just about over. Global warming due to climate change, it seems, is warming the oceans below the temperate regions, and attracting the storms to track farther north from the Caribbean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean. In the past, just about all the hurricanes seemed to originate off the coast of Africa, crossing the Atlantic, and entering the Caribbean. But in the last season, the greatest threat to Belize originated in the Bay of Honduras, remained off our coast, and tracked into the Gulf of Mexico, making landfall in the southern United States, without ever turning a hair in our neighborhood. "Kriol", or Belize Creole, would say "ah sorry uf you, but ah glad da nuh me", since you, America, are much better suited to absorb that punishment than we are. I'll say a prayer, thanking the Lord for our deliverance, and another, praying that you have the gumption to endure their comeuppance. The twenty-nineteen Atlantic hurricane season has been the fourth consecutive year of above-average seasons, dating back to twenty-sixteen, although many of the storms were weak and short-lived. With eighteen named storms, the season is tied with nineteen sixty-nine for the fourth most named storms since reliable record-keeping began in eighteen fifty-one. Yet not a single storm really threaten Belize this year. The season officially began on June first and will end on November thirtieth.

Traditionally each year, as the hurricane season begins, Belize Creole gets used to having their ears glued to the radio for any news of incoming storms. And as one approaches, a frenzied period of activity begins. Boarding up windows, and stacking furniture. Fenders, like most barrooms in Belize, occupies the ground floor of Lester's building. And is susceptible to severe flooding in the event of a hurricane. So furniture must be stacked, and bar supplies consumed or elevated. The mood may appear frenzied but is in fact quite jovial. Everyone knows that while precautions are necessary, a direct hit is unlikely. And as soon as the threat abates, the rush back to normal will be just as frenzied. Sometimes in the event of an indirect hit, after all the preparations are done, water from the storm-surge may cover the streets for a couple of feet, or so, and though driving is not advisable, walking around town, observing neighborly interaction becomes a party-like distraction, partaken by all and sundry. Though history is not so gentle. Back in ninety sixty-one, Hurricane Hattie damaged seventy percent of the buildings in Belize City, leaving more than ten thousand people homeless, and three hundred and seven dead. Although the death toll was severe, it was nothing compared to nineteen thirty-one, when over two thousand were killed in the city. The death toll from Hattie was diminished, due to advanced warnings.

Howard A. Frankson -- Belize