Kenrick — A Conversation with Kenrick Mark Coleman Features Jeremy Enriquez
The Kenrick Mark Coleman Foundation
Kenrick — A Conversation with Kenrick Mark Coleman Features Jeremy Enriquez
1. Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born in Punta Gorda, the eldest child of seven (five sisters and one brother) in my family. My formative years from childhood through early adulthood was spent in P.G. Not only did I attend primary and high school there but my first job as a teacher was at Little Flower R.C. School with the Pallotine nuns and St. Peter Claver Primary School. Following my graduation from the Belize Teachers’ College in 1981, I moved on to teach at Claver College, now Toledo Community College for four years before I permanently left P.G. to pursue my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Sociology and a minor in music at Minnesota State University in Mankato. I graduated with honors, which felt good for a person who spent all his years in P.G., outshining fellow students from the USA and all over the world. I credit that to the strong educational background I received from my father, who was also a teacher.
Immediately, after returning with my Bachelor’s, I taught at Belmopan Comprehensive School, then worked as the Youth/Media Coordinator for PRIDE/Belize. After this job, I moved on as Trainee diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before pursuing a Master’s in Development Studies at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. I was one of the twelve top students from the Caribbean to be selected for a full fellowship to be a part of this specialized interdisciplinary Master’s degree focusing on Economics, Politics, Sociology, History and Development of the Caribbean region. Shortly after that rigorous training, I became interested in politics and public service but I shifted my attention to focus on my new family (since I had just been married and started a new family).
I have worked a number of years as a Consultant, served as Academic Director of the Vermont-based, School for International Training and now as Country Manager for Ecology Project International (EPI) Belize program. My partnership with EPI comes from my long term vision of having Belizean youths gain direct hands-on field-based science training in marine and terrestrial ecology. These opportunities are usually available only to foreign students and visitors to Belize. In the past, Belizeans have been very alienated from their own resources and our education system has not adequately addressed that. Fortunately, one of my former students who knew of my vision well over a decade ago (since 2016) made the connection for me to meet the Executive Director of EPI to formally establish the Belize program. Thus far, over 800 Belizean youths have participated in our courses. This is an important contribution to Belize’s education system but more importantly towards building more conservation aware citizens. I was also a founding member of TIDE and serve on its Board. I have also served on the Board of BELPO, The Belize Zoo, SPEAR, Global Parish, Rutu Foundation, among others.
2. You are an esteemed Belizean author and writer. What do you believe is important in this your role?
As a writer and author, I see my role as provoking thought and raising awareness on issues that are very important but not normally widely discussed. I believe that over the years through my education and professional experiences as a consultant, educator and social activist, I can bring diverse perspectives to various issues. My own educational background in Psychology, Sociology, Economics, History etc. provides me a wide cognitive perspective from which to view various issues in our country. Whether through my professional writing such as in consultancy reports or academic publications, or through my weekly newspaper column, or my book, I try to provide in depth perspectives from various angles to an issue, yet still leaving room open to invite dialog.
3. Tell us more about your new book ‘To Educate a Nation’ (Little History/Story)? What was the process like writing the book? What are the themes/priorities of the book proper? Why are the themes/priorities important to our community?
This book encapsulates the life story of my paternal grandparents Andres P and Jane V. Enriquez as hand written by themselves in old exercise books that I found shortly after my father passed away. My father had these journals stored in his private collection. Much of it was weathered and some lost. What I retrieved I found fascinating and thought it was important to print. Indeed I had heard about these stories in oral discussions at family dinners. But when I discovered these writings and read them through, it connected me so closely with my roots. It also made me realize in an intimate way, the tremendous sacrifices that Garifuna teachers and their families went through as agents of the Catholic church to establish and head schools in rural communities all over Belize. My grandparents’ story in this book covers the period from around 1900 to 1950. Their story also provides rich insights to Belize’s history in ways that have not been told in our national historical discussions. What became clearer to me as I edited and worked on publishing this book, is the importance of connecting to our roots, of understanding where we came from. Hopefully, this book will become a part of the school’s curriculum as it reveals a rare snapshot of Belize’s history.
4. Have you authored other books/publications? Could you tell us in short about them?
Most of my other writings have been academic research publications in journals. For example, some years ago I conducted a socio-economic analysis of ecotourism as part of a consultancy sponsored by World Wildlife Fund. There I visited a number of protected areas in Belize, such as Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, Gales Point Manatee Reserve among others, to conduct an assessment of the impact of these protected areas on their adjacent communities. I designed the survey questions, conducted the interviews and partnered with a US professor, Kreg Lindberg to publish an analytical piece. I have also published academic articles such as, “Birds Come, Tourist Come: A Socioeconomic Analysis of Ecotourism in Crooked Tree Village” as a chapter in a book entitled, Education, Learning and Caribbean Development and “Ecotourism Questioned: Case Studies from Belize” in Annals of Tourism Research. Besides that, I have written dozens of consultancy reports, including Strategic Plans, Project Evaluations, Socioeconomic Assessments, etc.
I have also served as keynote speaker to a number of audiences including at a University of Belize graduation ceremony, annual general meetings of Lion’s club, Belize Central Prison and other organizations. Somehow writing is in my genes, from my grandparents to my father to me. My father used to publish his local newspaper in PG: — The Voice of the South. I can still in a sense hear his typewriter clicking late into the night with his cigar puffing away as he worked to meet his own deadline. His writing was inspiring and passionate.
When I am not writing professional papers, or work-related reports, I write for publication in the local newspapers, which I must return to do soon after a long break to finish my book and also other consuming work related matters.
5. What are the challenges you face as an author and writer? Opportunities?
If I had the resources, I would actually want to write full time. I could imagine myself near a quiet beach swimming and writing countless stories that I could turn into books. Of course I still enjoy what I am doing. However, this does not provide the space I need to write for long hours as the inspiration comes. It can be a bit discouraging to start writing when the juices are flowing and then one has to stop less than midway to re-enter the mundane of busyness. You know, there is the challenge of meeting work related stuff. I often reminisce about my father who wanted to do so much, he had brilliant thoughts and ideas ahead of his time but then he lived in limiting and limited conditions that frustratingly kept him from realizing his full potential. Many in Belize struggle through that, thus leaving our cemeteries with so much untapped brilliant persons. I hope that I won’t just fade out not doing more of what I can do, although I suffer similar constraints. Belize is a hard place. At the same time, I have had opportunities in the past to just move and live abroad. I also didn’t want to be caught up in an apathetic rat-race of “human-doings” rather than “human-beings”. The “busy-ness” of life could really consume people. In Belize, though there is a lack of material comforts, there is still people connection. Rather than a sort of enslavement to a sort of cold structure and systems, the human connections as part of an ecology of the system makes life more meaningful.
6. You also write a weekly column in the Amandala. What are the major national issues do you discuss/debate? Why? Do you receive public feedback/reviews?
My weekly column in the Amandala sort of evolved from my own weekly reading of the Amandala, starting way back when my father and I used to read the newspapers on Saturday evenings. That’s when I got into the habit. At some point I decided, instead of only consuming the articles, why don’t I also contribute?!. That’s when I started first with single articles submitted occasionally to weekly articles. I don’t have a structured list of topics to write. There are many themes I could write from. The articles that I write would be the thought that dominate my mind at the time of writing. Often it is a response to a current national issues. Or at other times, I select my own issue and make it a part of the national discourse. I don’t provide the space for feedback or reviews anymore because it can become too much especially when people want feedback to their feedback. I write the article get it published and then leave it there for public discussion. I don’t follow up to become engaged. At least not yet. But it is also very encouraging as I travel all over the country for people to come to me, shake my hands about some article, or offer words of support or encouragement to keep writing. I actually wasn’t aware that I was reaching so many until people approach me whenever I walk the streets anywhere. There are times that people also share their own stories, wanting me to write about it. Most often I just can’t keep up with their requests. There is so much room for writers to emerge. People want to be heard on so many issues apart from the regular reporting on crime and politics.
7. What are three things you learnt as an author and writer? Many young people and Belizeans in general have a ‘dislike’ for reading, researching, and writing. How/why would you encourage them to read books?
For me, writing developed through a set of family circumstances, encouragement if you may. From as early as around Std. 2, my mom used to have me write the shopping list before I went shopping for her at the neighborhood store. Later in high school, one of my chores was writing letters for my grandmother and my blind granduncle. When my father was away traveling to other districts, I would also write him letters. All these childhood practices provided practical experiences to the spelling, grammar and writing that you learned at school. Writing shopping lists or letters for elders that would be mailed abroad were real life experiences. In school, I was often bored with classes. That was because my father would have already taught me the lesson and I was usually way ahead in class, and could have been jumped to a higher class if my father did not disagree with the principal’s request. He thought that since I was the youngest in class, I was too young to be promoted above my age level. So I spent a lot of time reading while teachers taught and they were OK with that. I read whatever I could get my hands on, newspapers and comics books too — Archie comics, Westerns etc., which was an interesting break from academics.
Interesting and captivating books should be made available to Belizean youths. This seems hard to find so this lack does not help to encourage youths to read. Lamentably they are increasingly glued to short bursts of text and electronic social messages. There is a niece of mine who reads quite a lot though, and this encourages me to send her more books. The difference shows, she speaks more informatively and intelligently, does not take information for granted (she researches on her own to gain info). Technology can spark a reading habit too, if used wisely.
8. In one of my recent articles, I stated: ‘It is important to realize that majority of Belize’s younger populations continue to be very mediocre as it relates to becoming holistically educated and cultured, personally and professionally.’ What’s your perspective on this? What is your personal definition of discipline and excellence?
Quite interestingly, at a recent conference where I served as keynote speaker, I mentioned that Belize is yet to “unstuck” itself from the fossilized structure of our inherited colonial education system that has tended to alienate people from self, others, community and nature. It is a foreign system that was created to serve an industrial system. I often shudder when I see people being forced to fit into that externally conceptualized and established system designed to serve others. And those who designed it followed a mindset to suit themselves, they do not care about the culture of others or who they are or for the liberating wholesomeness that education ought to bring. Education has become a tool for conformity, uniformity and subservience. There are Belizeans who are very concerned about that but not enough of us to make the changes so desperately needed in our society. As a result, the education system continues to alienate many and condemn most to failure. Over decades I have advocated for radical changes in the system. But when this system is funded by international agencies, such as the World Bank education project, then how can we expect change to deeply serve our people. As we have seen, even our authentic cultures, our productivity, our social systems are destroyed as we continue to slavishly follow systems that are designed not for ourselves as an independent country but for others who seek to impose their will upon us and who threaten to ostracize us if we do not conform to their alienating values. So what we are seeing now — increasing poverty, low educational attainment for the majority of the population, increasing crime and abuse, high unemployment, lack of employable skills, and increasing disconnect from one’s culture, are all manifestations of a failed education system. Along with other colleagues from SPEAR where I served as a member of the Board, I have been saying this for decades. Our education system needs radical reform.
9. How can people purchase your book? Contact?
Ah, you’re back to my book. Thanks very much for your interest. The book can be bought at Flo Johnson’s store in PG, Mr. Oscar Ramirez’s store in Dangriga, Dakers Stationery & Books in Belmopan, Martha’s Kitchen and Zyan’s Gift Shop in San Ignacio, as well as Angelus Press, A&R, Brodies and Image Factory in Belize City.
10. What three words do you have to say to young Belizeans?
Never give up.
