Creolized Conservation: A Belizean Creole Community Encounters a Wildlife Sanctuary

Abstract

In this article, I analyze the implementation and management of Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary in rural Creole (Afro-Caribbean) Belize as a process of creolization. Encounters between different villagers, Belizean and international conservationists, and government officials in creating and running the sanctuary generated both synthesis and disjuncture in the conservation policy and practice that emerged. Differently positioned actors shifted their claims depending on context, reflecting the ambivalence that characterizes rural Creole culture, to further their interests as they created conservation in Belize. I use the metaphor of creolization to capture the ambivalence of subjects as they adopt varying and, sometimes, contradictory positions in fields of uneven relations of power. The metaphor shows how temporary syntheses emerge out of the encounters between these subjects. My analysis thus reveals how “local” peoples, often imagined as pawns in global processes, can be creative agents in the generation of global forms

Let Them Eat Chaya: Cultural Revitalization through Culinary Offerings in Belize

“…Culinary tourists take pleasure in consuming the Other via their cuisine, whether to become more cosmopolitan themselves or out of a sincere desire to learn about and honor another culture; however, the seemingly simple, universal human act of eating may also obscure the social and political inequalities that are involved in feeding tourists [7,43] Popular wisdom tells us 'you are what you eat,' a point echoed by Fishcler [22] when he writes that "any given human individuals is constructed, biologically, psychologically and socially by the foods he/she choses to incorporate." It is not uncommon for the stigma attached to an ethnic group to be transferred to their cuisine.…”

“…Although consumed by a wide swath of society, chaya occupies an ambiguous place in the local foodscape because it is at least somewhat ethnically marked by its mild association with indigeneity and, though it can be cultivated intentionally, it is also a wild food. Wildness in the Belizean context sometimes carries negative connotations of poverty and backwardness [7,8]. Whereas rice and beans with stew chicken fit squarely with the image of Belizeanness promoted to tourists, chaya is something of a misfit because it is associated more with indigenous groups than the Kriol people and it is a fresh vegetable but not crisp and cold like a locally sourced salad.…”

Creole becoming and the commons: Black freedom in Belize

“…Belize's state is under-resourced and weak; the state has collaborated with non-governmental organizations to oversee its protected areas, but these organizations are also poorly funded (Brechin and Salas, 2018). Rural Belizeans confidently, and sometimes defiantly, make use of these lands as they and their ancestors have before them (see Johnson, 2015Johnson, , 2018.…”

Gender, Race and Ecotourism Assemblages in Rural Creole Belize

“…The Belize state is under‐resourced and weak; the state has collaborated with non‐governmental organisations to oversee its protected areas, but these organisations are also poorly funded (Brechin and Salas, ). Rural Belizeans confidently, and sometimes defiantly, make use of these lands as they and their ancestors have before them (see Johnson, , ).…”

“…In 1984, the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary was created at the urging of some of these naturalists. Crooked Tree residents were consulted about this possibility from the beginning, and the sanctuary's establishment was only agreed to by villagers because of the possibility of revenue from tourism, and an assurance that community members would able to continue their subsistence activities (Johnson, ). Crooked Tree swiftly became a popular stop on international birders' travel routes, and villagers proudly touted their history as a logwood cutting community dating back to the very beginning of the British presence in Belize, as part of the way they marketed tourism.…”