Cul-de-Sac People
Last night I attended the book party for the publication of 'Cul-de-Sac People', a book written by Mathias Voges, relating the genealogy of the families from the various districts of St. Martin. I was invited as the guest speaker of the evening by the House of Nehesi's CEO - Lasana Sekou. The attendance was wonderful. It was heartening to be part of a full house of off springs of families, who could be traced from even before the official emancipation of the island enslaved Africans. It was ironic, to say the least, for such a book to come from a Simartner with such a somatic appearance.I spoke, therefore, in particular to the historical circumstance to the Simartn families and honestly with regards to the importance of such a documentation. I perceived this publication as a celebration of the enslaved Afrikan's spiritual resilience, dignity and self consciousness. Here follows the full length address of that evening.
CUL-DE-SAC PEOPLE -
A St. Martin Family Series
January 14, 2006
As we come together here this evening to celebrate the book Cul-de-Sac People - - A St. Martin Family Series, written by Mathias Voges, allow me a quote from Lasana Sekou, also used in said book which, in essence, celebrates the vibrancy, resilience and creative memory of the enslaved Afrikan people in St. Martin.
It reads: “The St. Martin people through their own hard work and dignity of spirit and conduct, transformed the names that were forced on them or they obtained by cruel or unusual circumstances or by choice, to proudly represent their new construct of self and of family”
This quote speaks directly to the importance of this book for the St. Martin family and to the character of the people of St. Martin. The celebration of Cul-de-Sac People is in fact the recognition of the fortitude, dignity and resilience of the St. Martin People; a people who came forth from the most inhuman and nihilistic circumstances and accomplished more than just their survival.
That the genealogy of our people can, at all, be traced is not only a tribute to Mathias Voges, but indeed, to an innate resilience that resulted in the presence of these families today.-
I gladly highly commend the work and commitment exhibited by Mr. Voges in the process of his research and documentation of this phase in the history of the St. Martin people as a reference in the future.
The enslaved Afrikan became a St Martin person after July 1, 1863, when the emancipation of the slaves was proclaimed throughout the Dutch territories having had the choice since April 27, 1848 when it was decreed by the French Republic. The enslaved Afrikan, however, did not become such by that act alone, more so, essentially, the Simartn people through their own hard work and dignity of spirit and conduct transformed themselves into worthy recognizable citizens.
The people were free; a sense of independence became a troublesome commodity in the lives of the former slaves. They were left without skills in management and without a market for their products. What heightened the difficulty of survival and the development of an economy was the absence of any participation in the promotion of sugar or salt. There was no political freedom and a sense of self hood had long ago been rendered dubious.
This quote speaks directly to the importance of this book for the St. Martin family and to the character of the people of St. Martin. The celebration of Cul-de-Sac People is in fact the recognition of the fortitude, dignity and resilience of the St. Martin People; a people who came forth from the most inhuman and nihilistic circumstances and accomplished more than just their survival.
That the genealogy of our people can, at all, be traced is not only a tribute to Mathias Voges, but indeed, to an innate resilience that resulted in the presence of these families today.-
I gladly highly commend the work and commitment exhibited by Mr. Voges in the process of his research and documentation of this phase in the history of the St. Martin people as a reference in the future.
The enslaved Afrikan became a St Martin person after July 1, 1863, when the emancipation of the slaves was proclaimed throughout the Dutch territories having had the choice since April 27, 1848 when it was decreed by the French Republic. The enslaved Afrikan, however, did not become such by that act alone, more so, essentially, the Simartn people through their own hard work and dignity of spirit and conduct transformed themselves into worthy recognizable citizens.
The people were free; a sense of independence became a troublesome commodity in the lives of the former slaves. They were left without skills in management and without a market for their products. What heightened the difficulty of survival and the development of an economy was the absence of any participation in the promotion of sugar or salt. There was no political freedom and a sense of self hood had long ago been rendered dubious.
It is important to note here the basic concept of a slave society, according to Dr. Paula. “A people bound together in serfdom for an end imposed on them: the performance of coercive labour. Consequently, a slave society is a part of a community, a unit, distinguishable by the fact that it is subordinated to a dominating power and has an imposed standard of living, resultant conduct and identity.”
The functioning of a slave society, as we understand, in St. Martin as well, is how entwined the slaves were with all aspects of life. For the functioning of the community, slaves were indispensable for the community. Slave labour had become all embracing within the society as did the slaves themselves. The Afrikan impact on the society was therefore indelibly made.
St. Martin being a small scale slave society, it featured a pseudo-unity, based on family ties, bonds of friendship and loyalty which often ran across all racial differences. It was socially conditioned and race prejudice became a cultural element as a consequence of children being born with one white and one black parent. The psycho-social effects of that phenomenon in our society have not yet been resolved.
The period of planters and merchants shipping large quantities of sugar, molasses and rhum had ended. The abolition of slavery, ownership of property by former slaves, labour agreements with former slave owners being now possible, meant the breaking of a new era.
The story of the enslaved Afrikan in St. Martin depicts the challenges throughout their being elevated from the status of slave hood to subjects of the colony, to citizens with limited rights, to autonomous status with political rights, but subjects of economic deprivation.
The dignity, pride and enterprising spirit of the freed Afrikan chose for emigration to respectively the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, Panama, Aruba and Curacao, the USA and consequently repatriation for many St. Martin families in the late fifties.
In this light, I agree with Dr. Yandi Paula, that the emancipation of July 1, 1863 and of course, for St. Martin of April 27, 1948 was the greatest social revolution in the history of the St. Martin families.
When we comprehend how they were facilitated to maintain themselves, now free from the yoke of slavery, we – today in the throes of gaining the status of a country within the Kingdom – must honor their spiritual resilience and their great inner self consciousness. The essential catalyst was a culture of self preservation and recovery.
In the “The Village Simartn”, an unpublished work in progress, this same power and spiritual resilience is most present in the noble initiates of the village. Cul-de-Sac People, first in the St. Martin Families series is, in fact, a response to the plea, if you will a poetic lamentation of the impending lost of our name, of our autochthonic culture as a people. Cul-de-Sac People seriously addresses a very important aspect in the positive authentic development of the St. Martin people.
It tells you, “It is not true, that nobody knows my name”. The St. Martin families, as they come forward, researched and documented, like Cul-de-Sac People will continue to testify to that.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am hopeful and encouraged by the appearance of Cul-de-Sac People as it responds to my poetic exhortation some twenty years ago. In the context of the Village I called ‘the families that survived the plantation economy and its slave society “Noble Initiates of the Village”.
The Village of which I spoke, is not a narrow standard definition of a small community of people, located and developed spontaneously by settlers into an island or country, rather, it is a semantic reference to the creative memory of our forefathers. A creative memory, put into action, that has recalled truths of our existence, here in Simartn.
The village is the cultural context within which the noble initiates are our memory which has been so painfully and blatantly forgotten. The noble initiates are the creative basis of our imagination; they are the continuum of our original creative memory.
The noble initiates are the Simartn we fail to recognize in true relevance with our authentic development and in forfeiting this experience we are doomed to exist in a vacuum, not being able to really rediscover or recreate ourselves.
So now, when drum beat, goatskin don’t tremble and when eye hurt nose don’t run water.
The heart beat of our real development is our cultural development and our cultural development finds its source in the village. That source is you, who in our modern day St. Martin are now called the St. Martin Families.
But when I address you in the village I name you with utter reverence "the Noble Initiates." You are to us the source from which we are to draw our cultural sustenance, in order to survive as Simartners, as vicarious inhabitants of the village.
Noble initiates of the village, I recall saying at the time, we will not be able to find the means to re-establish the link with our past, with our creative memory without your help. As you utilized oral tradition to communicate your life, to consolidate your kinship with the co-habitors of the village, it seems to me that we are left to ourselves to look at the brutal experience of our history, to find our own footing in the scribal experience of today.
Cul-de-Sac People is the scribal experience of the village; National Symbols of St. Martin is the scribal experience of the village; and The House of Nehesi is a noble initiate of the Village.
The functioning of a slave society, as we understand, in St. Martin as well, is how entwined the slaves were with all aspects of life. For the functioning of the community, slaves were indispensable for the community. Slave labour had become all embracing within the society as did the slaves themselves. The Afrikan impact on the society was therefore indelibly made.
St. Martin being a small scale slave society, it featured a pseudo-unity, based on family ties, bonds of friendship and loyalty which often ran across all racial differences. It was socially conditioned and race prejudice became a cultural element as a consequence of children being born with one white and one black parent. The psycho-social effects of that phenomenon in our society have not yet been resolved.
The period of planters and merchants shipping large quantities of sugar, molasses and rhum had ended. The abolition of slavery, ownership of property by former slaves, labour agreements with former slave owners being now possible, meant the breaking of a new era.
The story of the enslaved Afrikan in St. Martin depicts the challenges throughout their being elevated from the status of slave hood to subjects of the colony, to citizens with limited rights, to autonomous status with political rights, but subjects of economic deprivation.
The dignity, pride and enterprising spirit of the freed Afrikan chose for emigration to respectively the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, Panama, Aruba and Curacao, the USA and consequently repatriation for many St. Martin families in the late fifties.
In this light, I agree with Dr. Yandi Paula, that the emancipation of July 1, 1863 and of course, for St. Martin of April 27, 1948 was the greatest social revolution in the history of the St. Martin families.
When we comprehend how they were facilitated to maintain themselves, now free from the yoke of slavery, we – today in the throes of gaining the status of a country within the Kingdom – must honor their spiritual resilience and their great inner self consciousness. The essential catalyst was a culture of self preservation and recovery.
In the “The Village Simartn”, an unpublished work in progress, this same power and spiritual resilience is most present in the noble initiates of the village. Cul-de-Sac People, first in the St. Martin Families series is, in fact, a response to the plea, if you will a poetic lamentation of the impending lost of our name, of our autochthonic culture as a people. Cul-de-Sac People seriously addresses a very important aspect in the positive authentic development of the St. Martin people.
It tells you, “It is not true, that nobody knows my name”. The St. Martin families, as they come forward, researched and documented, like Cul-de-Sac People will continue to testify to that.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am hopeful and encouraged by the appearance of Cul-de-Sac People as it responds to my poetic exhortation some twenty years ago. In the context of the Village I called ‘the families that survived the plantation economy and its slave society “Noble Initiates of the Village”.
The Village of which I spoke, is not a narrow standard definition of a small community of people, located and developed spontaneously by settlers into an island or country, rather, it is a semantic reference to the creative memory of our forefathers. A creative memory, put into action, that has recalled truths of our existence, here in Simartn.
The village is the cultural context within which the noble initiates are our memory which has been so painfully and blatantly forgotten. The noble initiates are the creative basis of our imagination; they are the continuum of our original creative memory.
The noble initiates are the Simartn we fail to recognize in true relevance with our authentic development and in forfeiting this experience we are doomed to exist in a vacuum, not being able to really rediscover or recreate ourselves.
So now, when drum beat, goatskin don’t tremble and when eye hurt nose don’t run water.
The heart beat of our real development is our cultural development and our cultural development finds its source in the village. That source is you, who in our modern day St. Martin are now called the St. Martin Families.
But when I address you in the village I name you with utter reverence "the Noble Initiates." You are to us the source from which we are to draw our cultural sustenance, in order to survive as Simartners, as vicarious inhabitants of the village.
Noble initiates of the village, I recall saying at the time, we will not be able to find the means to re-establish the link with our past, with our creative memory without your help. As you utilized oral tradition to communicate your life, to consolidate your kinship with the co-habitors of the village, it seems to me that we are left to ourselves to look at the brutal experience of our history, to find our own footing in the scribal experience of today.
Cul-de-Sac People is the scribal experience of the village; National Symbols of St. Martin is the scribal experience of the village; and The House of Nehesi is a noble initiate of the Village.
The publication of matters essential to St. Martin in whatever form by artists whether they be musicians, calypsonians, dancers, craft people, researchers or writers --- I pronounce St. Martin as Simartn to include all the people living in the North as well as in the South, --- are, in fact, contributing to the St. Martin families.
However, unless, the work of these noble initiates becomes the body politic for establishing a country, the importance of these very valuable efforts and contributions would have been unforgivably trivialized.
Therefore, I recommend that the widest range of popular creativity be used in formal education from the very early years as part or the central core of the curriculum in our schools.
After all, the school is the basic element in the recovery and dignification of the basic values of each community; the formal educational system should be used to support and strengthen the authenticity, integrity and cultural identity of the island.
Cul-de-Sac People- A St. Martin Family Series: is a very important contribution to the cultural and educational process of identification of all of us, as Simartners. Please, I invite you to stand as you salute the author, Mr. Mathias Voges.
I thank you.
Camille E. Baly, Esq.
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