People of Belize (America Done Right)

Belizeans are people associated with the country of Belize through citizenship or descent. Belize is a multiethnic country with residents of African, Amerindian, European and Asian descent or any combination of those groups.

Colonisation, slavery, and immigration have played major roles in affecting the ethnic composition of the population and as a result, Belize is a country with numerous cultures, languages, and ethnic groups.

Maya
The Maya are thought to have been in Belize and the Yucatán region since the second millennium BC; however, much of Belize's original Maya population was wiped out by disease and conflicts between tribes and with Europeans. The Belizean Maya consists of three Maya groups now inhabit the country:
 * the Yucatec (who came from Yucatán, Mexico to escape the Caste War of the 1840s) mostly living in Corozal, Orange Walk and Cayo District;
 * the Mopan (indigenous to Belize but were forced out by the British; they returned from Guatemala to evade slavery in the 19th century) mostly live in Toledo, and;
 * the Kek'chi (also fled from slavery in Guatemala in the 19th century). The later groups are chiefly found in the Toledo District.

Africans
Kriols make up roughly 21% of the Belizean population and about 75% of the diaspora. They are descendants of the Baymen slave owners, and slaves brought to Belize for the purpose of the logging industry. These slaves were mostly Black (many also of Miskito ancestry) from Nicaragua and born Africans who had spent very brief periods in Jamaica and Bermuda. Bay Islanders and more Jamaicans came in the late 19th century, further adding to these already varied peoples, creating this ethnic group.

For all intents and purposes, Kriol is an ethnic and linguistic denomination. Some natives, even those blonde and blue-eyed, may call themselves Kriols. The designation is more cultural than racial, and is not limited to some certain physical appearance.

The Kriol language was invented in slavery, and historically only spoken by them. However, this ethnicity has become synonymous with the Belizean national identity, and as a result it is now spoken by about 75% of Belizeans. Kriols are found all over Belize, but predominantly in urban areas such as Belize City, coastal towns and villages, and in the Belize River Valley.

Belize Kriol, also written as Belize Creole, is derived mainly from English. Its substrate languages are the Native American language Miskito, and the various West African and Bantu languages which were brought into the country by slaves. These include Akan, Efik, Ewe, Fula, Ga, Hausa, Igbo, Kikongo and Wolof.

Garinagu
The Garinagu (singular Garifuna) are a mix of West/Central African, Arawak, and Carib ancestry. Though they were captives removed from their homelands, they were never documented as slaves. The two prevailing theories are that in 1635, they were either the survivors of two recorded shipwrecks, or somehow took over the ship they came with.

Throughout history they have been incorrectly labelled as Black Caribs. When the British took over Saint Vincent and the Grenadines after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, they were opposed by French settlers and their Garinagu allies. The Garinagu eventually surrendered to the British in 1796. The British separated the more African-looking Garifunas from the more indigenous-looking ones.

5,000 Garinagu were exiled from the Grenadine island of Baliceaux. However, only about 2,500 of them survived the voyage to Roatán, an island off the coast of Honduras. The Garifuna language belongs to the Arawakan language family, but has a large number of loanwords from Carib languages and from English.

British
The British Belizeans (colloquially referred to as Baymen) were the earliest European settlers along the Bay of Honduras in what eventually became the colony of British Honduras (modern-day Belize). Most of them came from Northern and Southern England and Scotland.

German Mennonites
Mennonites in Belize form different religious bodies and come from different ethnic backgrounds. There are groups of Mennonites living in Belize who are quite traditional and conservative (e. g. in Shipyard and Upper Barton Creek), while others have modernized to various degrees (e. g. in Spanish Lookout and Blue Creek).

There were 4,961 members as of 2014, but the total number including children and young unbaptized adults was around 12,000. Of these some 10,000 were ethnic Mennonites, most of them Russian Mennonites, who speak Plautdietsch, a Low German dialect. There are also some hundreds of Pennsylvania German speaking Old Order Mennonites in Belize. In addition to this, there were another 2,000 mostly Kriol and Mestizo Belizeans who had converted to Mennonitism.

Maltese
Maltese Belizeans refer to Belizeans of Maltese ancestry. Many of them are descendants of 18th-century enslaved Maltese from British Malta (mostly from the island of Gozo and the district of Malta Xlokk). As of 2020 there are 30,000 Belizeans of Maltese descent.