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The third iteration of A History of Belize in 13 Chapters was launched this morning at the Angelus Press. The Sapphire Edition includes a new introduction written by the author, Assad Shoman, along with four other sections written, respectively, by an attorney, an economist, a senator, and a human rights activist.

At the launch, Shoman told us more about the added sections:

Assad Shoman, Author
"We just put things on top of the book. The main thing is something I wrote as sort of an introduction called 'How to Read 13 Chapters,' and then we have four other sections which are updating on four other issues that are very important to Belize and that have seen a lot of movement in Belize since 2011, which was the last edition. And I got a lot of help in writing those-in fact, two of those are written completely by... the first one on the environment by Janelle Chanona, the second one on the economy by Victor Bulmer-Thomas, who authored a book called The Economic History of Belize, which you're probably familiar with. And another one which is on human rights, I got help from Leslie Mendez, especially on the issue of Maya Land Rights, and from Ardelle Sabido, specifically on the Equal Opportunities Bill. And the other updated section is on the Guatemalan claim to Belize."

In the 32 years since it was first published, 13 Chapters has become a cornerstone of history syllabuses and a mainstay in the education system. His co-authors and publishers described it as an honor to be part of the seminal, now widely adopted and read publication:

Ardelle Sabido, Attorney / Human Rights Activist
"An extreme honor for me, but to commemorate in our history a lot of the work that has gone on since the turn of the millennium, since 2000. It talks about the evolution of our constitutional development in terms of actually giving Belizeans the rights we were promised at independence in our Constitution that was enshrined therein."

"The most interesting thing is that he didn't actually tell me, 'Write this thing for this book.' He said, 'I'm revising it, and write something about human rights, about the work that you do, and how you see it.' And I thought it was just going to be for his reference, so I was a bit shocked and surprised. Of course, I feel terribly privileged to be a part of it."

Leslie Mendez, Attorney
"The work down south never stops, and I will tell you, living there, primarily based living there for four years, and we didn't really have the time to do what you mentioned-translate things into writing in a way that crystallizes it, and this was really my opportunity to do it."

Janelle Chanona, NGO Senator / Vice President, Oceana Belize
"When I say thank you to Ambassador Shoman for this opportunity, I also embrace the opportunity as a woman, because so often stories are told by men. But I have, in my time as an advocate for the last 12 years and a journalist before, come to realize that women do bring a unique perspective when we're talking about the environment."

Jermaine Sanchez, Head of Operations, Angelus Press
"It's very significant, as I mentioned in our presentation-32 years of working along with Mr. Assad Shoman to bring this book to life. And now with this Sapphire Edition, it's a very tremendous and momentous time for us, because as part of the Santiago Castillo Group celebrating 100 years of serving Belize, and knowing that Mr. Shoman has the faith for our printers to produce this book, has been a good move for us."

And as Shoman outlined, this new edition comes with a guide on how to read and interpret the rest of the book. He explained why he believed that was necessary:

Assad Shoman, Author
"I felt over the years, and listening to people and so on, that they were missing the overarching points that I tried to make and I didn't try to ram down people's throats because I thought they would get it just from the narrative, from the facts, but apparently did not. Such as, for example, what is colonialism. And so I spent a lot of time in this new introduction explaining what colonialism was, what colonialism did. And part of the reason for that is because when we came to independence, it seemed as if the British were our friends, right? They even have a Lord Laro song that said, 'The British soldier is our friend.' Well, the British soldier is the one that came and enforced slavery, enforced repression all over the years, and came to put down uprisings like the 1919 uprising and so on. But we forgot that we were fighting colonialism, and therefore we were fighting against the British to win independence because of this Guatemalan claim that stepped in between. And the reason we had that problem with the Guatemalan claim was because the British were responsible for that and were trying to get us to pay for their mistakes or their problems. So it was always a British problem that was oppressing us and keeping us from being free, but we lost that concept along the way, and when it came to independence, we thought colonialism was a good thing."

"The reason for it is to highlight the fact that this is what is colonialism, right? So as I said, we seem to have forgotten that the enemy of Belize was colonialism. People seem to think of independence as something that happened, but why? What were we fighting against? So putting this on the cover is a way of confronting colonialism head-on. Let me say this: that's number one. But number two is to show that colonialism continues, because if you look at the flag today, it's the same thing almost. They changed a few things, they paint things differently, they take out one or two things-the Union Jack is not there, but the ship is there, the two men, I mean to represent slavery, the ship that represents slavery brought in the oppressors and that took out our natural resources. So it's a cover that says this is the past, but it's also the present."

The book is available at Angelus Press branches in Belize City and Belmopan for $28.