AMANDALA, a biweekly newspaper published on Tuesdays and Fridays, was founded as an organ of the United Black Association for Development (UBAD), which emerged on August 13, 1969. Even after UBAD was divided and later dissolved in 1974, AMANDALA remained. The newspaper began as a stenciled sheet (looking somewhat like a newsletter) after UBAD members and supporters subscribed $250 in donations. Pu
blisher Evan X Hyde also received a small donation from his alma mater, Dartmouth College in the USA. So began what would later become the country’s premier source of printed news. AMANDALA has been the nation’s most read newspaper since Belize’s Independence in 1981. The success of the organization has also come from a team of dedicated reporters, editors and office personnel, supported by the newspaper’s publisher, Evan X Hyde. AMANDALA is located on the same premises as three other related entities: KREM, the first independent radio station which broke government monopoly over the airwaves on November 17, 1989; KREM TV established in 2004; and the Library of African and Indian Studies (renamed the Dr. Leroy Taegar Institute of Learning in 2014).
