National anthem of Belize
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National anthem of  Belize
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| Lyrics | Samuel Alfred Haynes, 1963 |
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| Music | Selwyn Walford Young, 1963 |
| Adopted | 1981 |
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"Land of the Free" is the national anthem of Belize. The words were written by Samuel Alfred Haynes and the music by Selwyn Walford Young in 1963. It was officially adopted in 1981.
Chorus:
Haynes participated in World War I as part of the colonial effort for Great Britain and encountered much abuse and ridicule along with his fellow workers. On his return to Belize he became a part of workers' movements in Belize and is readily identified with the 1919 Ex-Servicemen's Riot that began on July 22. After that riot was suppressed, Haynes began organizing Belize's branch of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and facilitated the visit of its head Marcus Garvey of Jamaica. Garvey recruited Haynes to work with him in the U.S., a move that rendered the UNIA in Belize leaderless for much of the 1920s and that indirectly contributed to the Isaiah Morter controversy. Haynes most likely wrote the anthem as an answer to colonialism's stifling of Belizeans' identity. The lofty language and uplifting lyrics referenced Belize's former status as a slave society indebted to profits from forestry, cleverly linking it to the end of Belize's colonial period, a process that culminated on September 21, 1981. The song was originally titled "Land of the Gods", a salute to the proliferation of organized religion in Belize.
With the arrival of the nationalist movement led by the People's United Party, the search was on for new symbols of Belizean identity. The PUP had defied the colonial order by singing "God Bless America" instead of the royal anthem "God Save the King" (or Queen). At independence, the ruling PUP named "Land of the Free" Belize's official anthem and played it at emotional independence ceremonies on September 21. Most Belizeans agreed with the choice but lamented that it had not been put to a vote of Belizean residents.
The anthem has come under fire from critics who charge that its language is archaic and does not appeal to a new generation of Belizeans who are in any case too young to remember Samuel Haynes.
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