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The students and teachers invited the press for the official unveiling of the research project which morphed into a book which was launched today. 7News was there, and here's what the history teacher told us about how his students embraced the topic:

Delmar Tzib - History Teacher, SJC
"The focus of the African and Maya History program is basically to talk about resistance and oppression in the settlement of British Honduras, back then, and now Belize. We explore a series of topics that have to deal with how the colonial project was oppressing the people, and how the people reacted to it, basically to give a story of look, the people didn't just receive colonialism. They were also resisting these labour and land policies that were oppressing them. So, this particular story comes across from a series of other stories as well. Justice like the 1919 riot, the Black Cross nurses were also a moving that was trying to uplift people. Although it was not a way a protest or a riot, it was a substitute way of provoking racial upliftment in the settlement."

"This book basically provides an overview of what is Garveyism. It's in a very basic language, broken down in the high school language. This is basically what we presented to the Students. Marcus Garvey started a movement, and his movement was about black empowerment. He dreamed about taking blacks back to Africa, and establishing a black nation, establishing companies owned by blocks, having leaders who were blacks. One his his organizations was the Black Cross movement."

"The Black Cross Movement was something that was throughout the Caribbean region. They came to Belize, and they had 2 basic goals, which was to uplift the hygienic practices in the settlement, and secondly to uplift the black race in the settlement."

Gil Gilharry - Student, SJC
"The Black Cross Nurses were women. This was very important because in this time, there was a patriarchal society, where women were only seen as domestic workers, being in the house, cooking, cleaning, washing and taking care of children. But, the community which was mostly blacks, needed some upliftment. There was no one who could do it because the men were at work in the camps, cutting logwood, and doing other job. So, only the women were left, and these women worked in their community as nurses to promote better hygiene, teach personal care, and create a cleaner environment for the community."

Delmar Tzib
"The book is basically a project that entails a bigger vision of decolonizing education. It's about - we used concepts of Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the oppressed as well. And what is done in this book is basically, some of the content was given to the students. They students came up with poems, and then we chose one poem from a student called Chris Garbutt."

"His poem was then brought back to the class, just like any other poem would be brought back for analysis in the classroom. The students analyzed it. They looked at it. They tried to see what Chris was trying to tell through his notes in the poem. They wrote an analysis of it, and the second part of it was that they wrote what they imaged from it. So, what they internalized is what they drew to illustrate Chris' poem as well."

Reporter
"You've put together all of this work. Is there any intention to share it beyond the walls of SJC?"

Delmar Tzib
"Well, the intention is that precisely because as one of the students mentioned, Gil Gilharry. He was mentioned that look, we already know about this topic this topic is not wildly. So, this book is an avenue through which we can reach to everybody."

"It's going for a very cheap cost we could say, $10, but the real hope is the inspire others to do the same."

The book is available online for free at BelizehistorySJC.com. It can be downloaded for free, as well.