You may not know the name Rita Mae Hyde as one of Belize’s prominent
poets, but this young artist has been steadily performing locally and at international
poetry festivals. Her first book released last week is named Mahogany Whispers
and she says that’s because Belize’s history is told through those
trees that once towered over Belize’s forests. Those towering trees were
cut down over two centuries of forest exploitation and exportation – but
Rita Mae Hyde says she can still hear them speak.
Rita Mae Hyde, Poet
“The first book had to be born, it was there, it is like my baby.
The name is very significant. You know it was the 1770s that massive importation
of Africans to Belize to work with the mahogany industry, to cut down mahogany
and so the country, this country, a significant part of the history is rooted 
in that history of my ancestors, of people who came and cut mahogany. The anthem
says, ‘the blood of our sires which hollows the sun.’ So this book
is a book of heritage and so it captures, it invokes from the spirit of ancestors
in experiences of our people. I like to phrase it as mahogany whispers is a
verse in the continuous song of the experiences of a country and a people, it
is not only my whisper but it is also your whisper too.”
Jules Vasquez,
“Why a book?”
Rita Mae Hyde,
“I find there is power of speech and words…they say that there
is nothing so powerful than the power of speech and so it is my intention that
these written whispers will make its way in our society. I want everybody to
read it. I want you to read it. If you have children I want your children to
read it and I want my grandparents to read it. I want every man, woman, and
child within the Belizean society to read this book.”
The book is available for $25 at the Angelus Press, Brodies, Image
Factory and in Belmopan at Daker’s and Brodies. It is published by Ramos
Publishing. Hyde teaches who teaches Belizean and Caribbean history at the University
of Belize recently completed her Master’s on Heritage Studies from the
University of the West Indies in Jamaica.
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