Saint Lucia's Folk Culture and the Struggles for Emancipation

ST. LUCIAS FOLK CULTURE AND THE STRUGGLES FOR EMANCIPATION By Travis Weekes My main motivation for researching the contents of this paper stems from my curiosity about the origin and development of some of St. Lucias most vibrant and persistent cultural forms. Forms which I believe have been and are still very instrumental in the shaping of the St. Lucian person forms such as the bele, the konte, the abwe, the flower festivals of La Rose and La Maguerite and of course the language Kweyol, which emerged as a vehicle of those forms. Harold Simmons, St. Lucias pioneering anthropologist laid the groundwork for continued research into these areas and Monsignor Patrick Anthony, through the establishment of the Folk Research Centre ensured the survival of interest into those forms. Little research however has been carried out into the origin and development of those forms. The explanations up to now do not say enough about who we are. For some St. Lucias folk culture is African. For others it is a mixture of Amerindian, French, British, African, East Indian etc. Not only are these explanations too general but because of this, they do not sufficiently contextualize the development of the culture within historical events, incidents and phenomena and consequently there is little textual analysis. When I carried out the research for this paper I was the Cultural Education Officer of the Folk Research Centre and part of my duties to educate the community about St. Lucias culture. To this end I used what ever resources were available in the small library at the centre and my own experience of field work into the rural communities on the island. Although my paper is about St. Lucia I will speak about the surrounding islands, particularly St.Vincent because what I discovered about British or French colonial policy was such that in the period of colonization, they often dealt with the islands en bloc particularly if they were similar in terms of geography, topography and demography as was the case with St. Lucia and St. Vincent. During the colonial wars for the Caribbean, St. Lucia was the most strategic of locations. Its safe and hidden harbours combined with its abundant resources of wood and water provided the necessary refuge for ships of desperate European explorers. This may be the dominant reason why the French and British battled constantly, changing hands fourteen times for the island. From the inception of European reckless protrusion into the Caribbean, they attempted to enslave the indigenous peoples to work on slave plantations. The Carib settlers at the time in the smaller islands of the Caribbean resisted all attempts by the Europeans to set up colonies in these territories. Many preferred to take their own lives than be subjected to exploitation by the Europeans. Others used their own knowledge and mastery of the sea routes among the islands to flee from one island to the next in search of refuge. Having failed with the Caribs, Europeans imported forced African labour to work on the plantations. The development of the slave plantation system, accompanied by a highly intensive and profitable trade in African slaves was expected to produce at the maximum. European rivalry for the Caribbean islands was as intense as the rapid development of the plantation system and the harshest of measures was used by the Europeans to protect their interests. Like the indigenous peoples, African slaves resisted all attempts at subjugation. Slavery was cruel and inhumane and for this simple reason there was always maroonage. Both the Caribs and runaway African slaves developed a common bond in their resistance against European exploitation. Slaves fled the estates whenever they had they got a chance despite the fact that the punishments when they were caught were extreme. The Windward Islands were then even far more then than now, thickly wooded with high mountains and ridges often leading from one end of the island to the other. African slaves brought to the Caribbean had come with the ability to survive in mountainous and jungle like terrain. The Caribs, the indigenous peoples had already developed and mastered routes along the islands and learned to move rapidly back and forth from one island to the next. Consequently during the colonial struggles for the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, maroons in Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and St. Lucia consolidated their energies and intelligence for survival and resistance. Research illustrates that as far back as the early seventeenth century there were already established maroon communities as support systems for those who managed to flee European terror. In this paper I will examine the maronage established in the Windward islands particularly in St. Lucia and the role that this maronage played in the political and cultural development of the St. Lucian folk culture. Too little research has been done and thus insufficient attention given to the role of St. Lucian maroons in the establishment of a culture of sustenance, independent of any direct assistance by external forces and the use of that culture as a tool of resistance, community development, and political power. St Lucia was late in the cultivation of sugar cane. Due to the resistance of the Caribs no attempt was made to colonize the island until 1635. According to Breen In that year the king of France made a grant to Messrs Latine and Duplessis of all the unoccupied lands in America but these persons having selected Martinique for their place of residence, the Caribs continued in the uninterrupted possession of the island (St. Lucia) until 1639 The Caribs continued their fierce resistance against colonial domination and Breen reports a massacre by Caribs of English settlers in 1640. This fight by the indigenous people against the colonialist only subsided when on the 31st of March 1660 a general peace was concluded at St. Christophers at the residence of the French governor, M Longvillers de Poincy, between the English and the French on the one hand and the Caribs on the other. According to Louis St.Lucias early development followed the familiar pattern of European colonization and the creation of a sugar industry through African labour. However the pace was much slower. The Caribs who formed the indigenous inhabitants put up a stiff resistance against the early English settlements. They quickly defeated a group of Englishmen who landed in the island in 1605 and in 1641 they forced another group of English settlers to abandon their three year old settlements. It was not until 1660 when the sugar revolution had already begun in other colonies that the English signed a peace treaty with the Caribs. The original maroons are descendants of a union between the indigenous Amerindians and descendants of runaway African slaves. Sir William Young who headed a commission to St.Vincent after the island was annexed to Britain in 1763 offers a description of his perception of the origin on the Black Caribs. The Negroes, or Black Charibs ( as they have been termed of late years) are descendants of the cargo of an African slave ship, bound from the Bite of Benin to Barbados and wrecked, about the year 1675, on the coast of Bequia, a small island about two leagues to the south of St. Vincents. The Charibs accustomed to fish in the narrow channels, soon discovered these negroes, and finding them in great distress for provisions, and particularly for water, with which Bequia was ill supplied, they had little difficulty in inveigling them into their canoes, and transporting them across the narrow channel to St. Vincents where they made slaves of them, and set them to work. These negroes were of a warlike Moco tribe from Africa and soon proved restive and indocile servants to the less robust natives of the Western ocean. The Charaibs, incommoded by the refractory spirit of the slaves, and apprehending danger should their numbers increase, came to a resolution of putting to death all their male children which should be born still according to their national custom in war, reserving the females. This cruel policy occasioned a sudden insurrection of the Blacks, who massacred such of the Charaibs as they could take by surprise, and then fled, accompanied or followed by their wives and children, to the woods and racks which cover high mountains to the northeast of St. Vincents. In these almost inaccessible fortresses they found many other negroes form the neighboring islands, who murderers or runaways, had fled form justice, revenge or slavery. Incorporating with these negro outlaws, they formed a nation, now known by the name of Black Charaibs a title themselves arrogated, when entering into contest with their ancient masters. Young claims that the Black Charaibs are descendants from a ship wrecked in 1675, yet he also states that when they fled into the woods they met many other Negroes from the neighboring islands. It is thus quite possible that there were other unions of Caribs and runaway slaves who had fled before them. Young also uses the terms Negroes and Black Charaibs interchangeably which reinforces this writers perception that the earliest successful acts of resistance against Euuropean exploitation in the Eastern Caribbean came from a cohesion of the energies of African descendants and rebellious Amerindians. Beckles uses the term Kalinagoes, the original names of the indigenous Caribs. Recent studies of early acts of resistance in the Eastern Caribbean attests to the political power and regional unity which had already been harnessed by the maroons of the Windward islands in the mid seventeenth century. Beckles reports that in 1667, William Lord Willoughby, Governor of Barbados came to a decision to attempt diplomatic negotiations with Kalinago leaders. On March 23rd, 1667 Kalinago leaders of St. Vincent, Dominica, and St. Lucia met with Willoughbys delegation in order to negotiate the peace. At the signing of the treaty were Anniwatta, The Grand Baba (or chief of all Kalinagoes) chiefs Wappa, Nayi, Le suroe, Rebura and Allons. The first two conditions are very revealing The Caribs of St.Vincent shall ever acknowledge themselves subjects of the king of England and be friends to all in amity with the English, and enemies to the enemies. The Caribs shall have liberty to come to and deport from at pleasure, any English islands and receive their protection therein, and the English shall enjoy the same in St. Vincent. Two months after the treaty, the British recommenced their colonization attempts of the Windwards. The Caribs or Kalinagoes as Beckles call them resisted and broke the accord. Even while the British were negotiating with the Windward island maroons, the French had been persistent in their efforts at establishing a colony on the island of St. Lucia. In 1672 the king of France ceded the island to the French West India Company. Unsuccessful in their efforts at agricultural development, the company sold the island to several other Frenchmen. The French, even in their repeated fights against the British never became distracted from developing closer relationships with the island folk particularly the red Caribs. In that year one Frenchman even married a Carib woman, signifying perhaps the difference of attitude by the French in the development of relations with non-Europeans in the New World. Perhaps it is of equal significance that upon the death of that Frenchman, the Caribs from the neighboring islands recommenced the onslaught upon the colonialists and several French leaders died in the process. The European powers were tireless in their efforts to take possession of the Windward Islands. The British had already succeeded in taking over Barbados and operated from there while the French on the other hand had their principal base in Martinique. From these islands both these colonial powers made repeated attempts to take the Windward Islands but had serious difficulty in establishing any large scale settlement because of the constant harassment from the maroons. The maroons were thus the bulwark of resistance against European colonialism and a thorn in the side of those who wished to establish sugar plantations. As harbingers of runaway slaves they increased in number and cultural reserve. As inheritors of Carib and African cultures they enjoyed a broader cultural landscape matched by a wider range of skills to deal with the terrain on the coast and in the interior. They had the security of the dense forest to develop and practice a culture of sustenance. From there they could also strategize for the raids upon the Red Caribs. Youngs description of the outcome of a conflict that developed between the Red Caribs and the maroons tells as much about the relationship between the red Charibs and the French, as it does about French political strategy. The mountaineer in bodily strength, as in every other advantage of predatory attack, must ever be superior to the inhabitants of the more plain and open country. The Red Charaibs felt the inequality of the conquest and in the year 1700, recurred for assistance to the governor of Martinique, a French island which they were accustomed to visit in their canoes, for purposes of petty traffic in provisions and fish, for utensils, tools, and ornaments. The governor of Martinique, did not venture to commit his sovereign by direct and open interference yet whilst he dared not assert the title of France, he plotted and effected a lasting opposition to that of Enchland With a policy most insidious, and in its remote consequences (and perhaps at this very hour) fatal to the British interests in St. Vincent, he took upon him to arbitrate the claims of the Black and Red Charaibs and to divide the island between them. He drew a geographic line, still called Le Barre de Lisle. To the Red Indians he warded the Western, to the Blacks the Eastern moiety of the island, and to those titles he conferred, though owned by none, and acknowledged by none, grew shortly into prescription in the short memorials of a savage people, and perhaps are not now to be cancelled but with the strong arm of conquest and control. Reading this passage by Young makes it difficult for this writer to refrain from the conclusion that he was also not writing about St. Lucia. Current geographical evidence in existence today on the island, fall squarely within the pattern described by Young. The Barre de Lisle in St. Lucia runs longitudinally through the centre of a northern section of the island. On the Western section of the island one still finds descendants of the Caribs and of the unions of the Caribs and French. They are found in the districts of Canaries, Choiseul, and Laborie. On the Eastern side of the island petroglyphs and archeological finds give testimony to former Carib settlements. The main crop manioc from which cassava is made is still to this day cultivated in the Grande Anse area. Interestingly, in keeping with Youngs description of the geographical division of St. Vincent, on the eastern side of the island one cannot find the red Carib descendants that one finds in the areas of Canaries, Chosieul and Laborie. Yet some distance from the coast at Grande Anse, one finds inhabitants who are descendants from the union of Caribs and Africans, the Black Caribs. The French were quite cunning and strategic in their war against the British and the Maroons. By assigning the Maroons the Eastern side of the islands they were assured that they would keep watch over any British attacks from Barbados. Meanwhile they were able to use their relationships with the Red Caribs to maintain and increase their presence on the island. The strategy worked and during the first half of the eighteenth century, the French increased their hold on St. Lucia and began to take greater social and political control. Gachet describes In June 1744, Marquis de Caylers, Governor of Martinique, set a body of troops which had no difficulty in occupying the island. St. Lucia became a dependency of Martinique. This time the French lost no time and set to work immediately to give the island an initial civil administration. Mr. Marton was appointed Military Commandant, but dies soon after. Mr. De Longville succeeded him in 1745 and showed definite eagerness in his task. He divided the island into seven quarters and set up some kind of emergency Land and Survey Department and Judiciary. Grants of land begun to be made. Each quarter was given a copymin having military and civil powers. For instance a certain Mr. Deveaux was then Capitaire of Soufriere These attempts by the French to establish themselves firmly in St. Lucia, was always a precarious affair due to geopolitical struggles that affected a settlement of the islands ownership. In spite of this Martinique never abandoned the island and French and Roman Catholicism begun to take root with the introduction of priests and the establishment of churches in the various parishes. Between 1749 and 1763, parish priests had been assigned to Carenage, Soufriere, Vieux Fort, Gros-Islet. A chapel had been built at Trois Islet, Praslin by Madam Dubue-Roche where priests made occasional visits for divine worship and presided over marriages and funerals. All these inroads made by the French were Jesuitical in their eventual entrenchment across the island. This by no means meant though that they had exclusive rights over the island. The British operating from Barbados made it difficult for them to be at ease and the Maroons kept both parties in a state of insecurity. Added to this the French planters were always faced with the worst of rebellions on the estates. Gachet reports The bulk of the population was made up of Negroe slaves whose number had passed from 700 or 800 in 1732 to about 4000 in 1760. There were already about 400 estates of various sizes in that year. It would seem that the slaves had not always accepted their lot peacefully in those years it is said that a certain number of them took advantage of the declaration of neutrality of the island in 1748 to leave the estates after burning the houses and attempting to kill the white settlers. M De Longueville had to resort to force to bring them back under subjection. As a result of these various factors it was extremely difficult even in the mid 1700s for the French to establish any sugar estates. After much debate surrounding the ownership of the island between 1751 and 1754 and the seven years war in which the British won over St. Lucia for a little over a year, the island was by treaty of Paris(10 February, 1763)definitely ceded to France. In 1764 the French finally achieved the establishment of a sugar industry. In that year there were 14 carres planted in sugar cane. By the year 1775, this number had increased to 1353. The development of the sugar industry had meant of course an active immigration of people form France, Martinique and other West-Indian islands. There had been in particular a great increase in the number of Negro slaves who were the working force of the estates. The great bulk of the population was still established on the Leeward side but the Windward side was beginning to attract colonialists. The maroons however kept the Red Caribs and the French constantly on their guard by descending from their mountains in raids. Deveauxs exploration and documentation of various holes and tunnels in significant parts of the island particularly on the West Coast offers evidence of the intelligence with which the Maroons monitored and attacked the Caribs. They watched and observed from the hideouts, raided at the opportune time, they retreated into the interior when the French inevitably intervened. The Maroons as we have seen would have had a broader cultural landscape matched by a wider range of skills to deal with the terrain, on the coast and in the interior. They were a force to reckon with and were often driven to violence by the colonialists. Thomas explains The Black race feared possible French plans to enslave them, and were at all times anxious to emphasize their distinctive status viv-a-vis the black slaves brought by the French. Fear of renewed slavery and possibly of the English reclaiming their property (the original shipwrecked slaves were alleged to have been on an English slaver) was evinced in explanation of black reticence and obstruction in the 1760s with some suspicion being voiced that the French were playing on these fears. There had been constant threat of British aggression against the Maroons. Thomas also writes of strong opposition in the British parliament in 1772 over reports concerning the sending of two regiments from America to aid local troops in the suppression, and possible deportation or even extermination of a group of free negroes to St. Vincent, whose main crime appeared to be their refusal to sell or exchange their lands to planters, speculators and investors. The year 1778 ushered in a serious and bloody battle between the French and the British when the latter manages to regain control of the island. Subsequently in a peace treaty signed at Versailles on the 20th January 1783, St. Lucia was restored to France. As part of the agreement, Grenada was restored to the British and Baron de Laborie the governor of the island was sent to St. Lucia. According to Breen Sometime previous to his arrival the island had been infested by Maroon negroes, who taking advantage of the defenseless situation of the planters, had committed the most wanton depredations on the different estates and even cruelly murdered some of the inhabitants. The slaves were primarily interested in their freedom and used any opportunity caused by the political turbulence to flee the plantation. Breen obviously did not fully understand the system of maroonage that had developed from the first attempts by the Europeans to exploit Amerindian and African labour. While it is evident that he did much research on St. Lucia yet his pejorative description that the island was infested by Maroon Negroes betrays a lack of understanding of maroon life. Maroons lived in communities. In a period of European indiscriminate terror against runaway slaves, those who lived in the hills and mountains developed small but strong communities to ensure their survival. As their numbers increased, the African in the interior fed off the existing landscape, cultivated spaces, grew even stronger roots, extended himself and established a way of life. Community development was not an abstract term. It had very practical connotations. The men had to protect their women and children from any sudden attacks buy the slave master or from any for that matter working in the interest of the enemy, French or British. They had to construct shelters to shield them from the elements. They had to plant food and work out whatever relations necessary to ensure supplies of marine food from the rivers or Carib fishing villages along the coast. They had to socialize their children in skills of survival. These pressures of survival in between the cycle of birth and death gave absolutely real meaning to their need for recreation. Although when someone in community passed away, friends and relatives came to give moral and material support, laveye pate janmen bloko. Ancestor worship and the rites and rituals of burial practices carried from West-Africa ensured the renewal of energies and the tightening of kinship and friendship. In death the yard of the bereaved came alive. It was a place for the griot. It was the setting for the casting of praise. Praise for a woman and the quality of her produce. Praise for the man, for his deed of valour. The yard was the place for the chronicling off significant events, of highlighting successes, prowess. It was also the place for the expression of grief and suffering, for accounting and recounting, for pride and shame, guilt and innocence. It was in effect a place for relief of conscience and open communication among people who relied on one another even for their safety for their very survival. The survival of the maroons was inseparable from the culture that they harnessed for their survival. This culture is an important part of our heritage. It is a heritage of folk forms. Those forms were an integral part of community life. They structured the social relations. The folk forms provided the paradigms for the development of relations within the community and among the communities. One example of such a form is the solo. The best Solo I witnessed took place in Cabiche. The men and women were all gathered under a shed in a yard, joking, storytelling and conversing, interacting, dealing. People have come to deal with each other. The chantwel of the yard moves around. Another, from another community struck by his muse begins to harness some support. The drummer is present and conscious of his role. As provider of the rhythm, he awaits the right time. The music is important. The rhythm structures the interaction. There is no chance of the drummer being forgotten. A couple of deep sounds are a good reminder of goading them if he senses that the music should begin. The music is important. The muse brings expression. Someone drops a line, some tease, some call searching for a response. A cry in need of an answer. The women were the ones to answer. One for a start one had to really feel and the chantwel would come again. He would give expression. They would give support. Someone drops another line, throwing a blow at someone in the yard, one voice pulling up another. It had to come real and it had to come hard. It was solo. Every chantwel had the opportunity throw his line. It was he who had to fish for backing, to solicit the response of the chorus of women-those who could tug at the drummer for the rhythm to unfold. The drummer becomes solar, while the rhythm and steps define the area. By the time the drummer moves into the centre, the circle is in full swing, everyone moving in time. Artists they were. Communication developed to the highest of sophistication. No names were necessary. Situations metamorphosed into metaphor but were clearly understood. Though it was solo, the chantwel had to pluck at the chord of the community for support. This is the roots of the extempo form of calypso, where with the smoothness of art we thrashed out our grouses in community. This was the place for it and peace and reconciliation were respected. Talent was what counted. This was what engendered support. It had to be a voice that was endearing, that emanated from the soul, a cry in need of a hearing but nonetheless a cry without strain. This was the voice that received support because it was the soul most capable of extending the solo, of pulling the others. It did not matter where the cry came from. It could come from torture. It could happen. Those who more often deeply feel are the ones in greater danger. Prejudice in itself had no place. Neither did class. Prejudices had to be channeled into artistic expression or fall apart. Manipulation worked only through the art form since the chorus of women gave the fullest support only to the talent that plucked the chord and sent the drummer into readiness. Expression had to be strong. Humanity had to come through. Even in the expression of firm resilience there is the vulnerability and pain. It is the responsibility of talent to find ground, to be present at the solo. It is its responsibility to generate interest among the audience. Once talent finds support, the artist has to keep going. He has to embrace the comfort from the yard, remain on his feet and deliver. Only then will he be welcome at the next solo. Only then would he receive the necessary drive from the women in the yard. For it is the women who drive the dance. They respond to the call of the solo with their voices and orbit the drummer with their bodies as they move one behind the other. As they dance and sing, moving round and round, the rhythm intensifies. So do the singing and the wailing until the lyrics are fully improvised by the chantwel and the emotions and movement stimulated by this particular performance completely, are exhausted. The maroon communities in St. Lucia and the rest of the Windward Islands were strong and faced their toughest challenge following the impact of European rivalry and the subsequent decret de la convention Nationale which officially declared the abolition of slavery in the West-Indies. CLR James offers some insight By February 1793 war had broken out between revolutionary France, England and Spain. The Spaniards in Spanish Saint Domingo from the start had helped the slaves against the FrenchSonthonax, the French commissioner, at his wits end, threatened by Britain and Spain and increasingly deserted by the French blacks, abolished slavery as his last chance of getting supportFor the planters, abolition was the last straw and they offered the colony to Pit, who dispatched an expedition from Europe to capture the French colonies in the West-Indies. The British carried all before them, and by June, 1794 over two thirds of san Domingo and almost every French island of importance was in the hands of the British. The French declaration of 1794 followed by Britains war on the French islands instigated tremendous instability in the French colonies including St. Lucia. The intensity of the British attack on the French matched by the vigorous counter attack of the maroons sent the island into a state of chaos. According to Louis (St. Lucias) Involvement in international politics had the most disastrous impact following the French revolution. Slaves had received their freedom from the French and British re-imposition of the institution triggered a destructive war in the island. In 1779, the L.T. Governor George Prevost wrote of the misfortunes of the internal commotions. They were unparalleled for cruelty and excesses, Proust continued, which have devasted the island, destroyed a great part of the inhabitants and reduced the Negroes to one half of the original number According to the same writer, many slaves died from famine that swept the land during 1796-98, created by the abandon of all cultivation in the colony during these periods. The wars between 1794 and 1796, in St. Lucia in all practical terms put an end to the slave plantation system. The slaves set fire to the plantations and fled. French royalists sought refuge in Trinidad and elsewhere. French republican soldiers joined the Maroons and other rebels in the woods for the struggles against the British and the threat of the re-imposition of slavery. The maroons with their networks of quick communication among the islands particularly between St. Lucia and St. Vincent reinforced each other with arms and other essential supplies. The maroons had already long established strategic look out sights and the French reinforced these and used them to monitor the actions of the British. The war against the British was a war for St. Lucia in which both Blacks and the French became a cohesive unit and intensified efforts. Dr. Gaspard describes In February 1795, there were also signs that the French were preparing a major Caribbean offensive. Vaughn (Lieutenant general Sir John Vaughn) explained that they might successfully invade the islands because they could depend on disgruntled white inhabitants, as well as most of the blacks, joining them. Reinforced from France after he succeeded in taking the whole of Guadeloupe at the end of 1794, Victor Hughes next bold efforts were to intensify the fight AGAINST THE British in the Lesser Antilles. Hughes sent troops south to St, Lucia, Saint Vincent and Grenada. By March 1795, Saint Vincent and Grenada were like St. Lucia scenes of internal war. J Fortescue, in his military account of the period called these events simultaneous insurrections. French soldiers were involved in each island to some degree, and the insurgents maintained contact across the narrow channels waterways that separated their shores. This band of freedom fighters waged a very successful war against the British. The British however regained lost ground when Brigadier General Stewart increased his attack and achieved some degree of success around the middle of April. The French twice defeated, were compelled to retire from Vieux Fort and to retreat to Soufriere, their source of refuge. On the 22nd of April, as the British troops advanced on Soufriere, they were startled by a division placed in Ambush . There in a battle that lasted for seven hours the British were made to retreat to Vieux Fort having lost about two hundred men. It is interesting that the French had to retire into the woods for the support that led them in that decisive battle against the British. That battle strengthened the position of the slaves and in practical terms put an end to the slave system in St. Lucia even though both the French and the British did attempt to re-establish its shackles. All this however happened at tremendous cost to the Maroons and slaves. They paid for it with their lives. Even a brief analysis of the population statistics is of tremendous interest. In 1789 there were 2018 whites, 663 coloureds, and 12795 blacks. In 1792 the number of whites increased to 2198, coloureds to 1588 and blacks to 17992. By 1810 after the French revolution and the colonial wars between these periods, coloreds increased up to 1878 but the figure for Blacks dropped to 14397. The population of Blacks also decreased during the period 1810 to 1825, dropping from the previous to 13530. It is important to note that during this period, the population of coloreds/creoles increased steadily, moving from 663 in 1772 to 5287 in 1843. The wars between 1794 and 1796 brought for the first time the Maroons and the French into one unit. This would have been a significant advancement of the creolisation process which would have already started with the establishment of the parishes and the relationships that had developed primarily among the French, the Caribs and the slaves. The Maroons joined forces with the French soldiers out of sheer necessity. Even with the coalition however, the Maroons as we know them would have been resilient in the maintenance of their identity. They were forced by the circumstances of the war into a camarderie with the French yet they had to maintain their identity. A song feast from our folk culture that took place in the northeastern section of the island during the months of November and December provides some insight into our methods of cultural resistance. This song feast is called the Abwe and here is a description by Simmons Participants gather around a long row of tables, on which are saucers of fine salt, peppermint lozenges(called extra strong) or rock mint (called le menthe), bottles of rum and tumblers. The fete begins with the host welcoming guests, asking for good behaviour and members to contribute a fee to cover the costs of refreshments. The speeches and songs are a very Frenchified creole, a macaroni language, using many French words and idioms, for instance le foret is used instead of grand bois for forest or high woods . These songs appear to be of 17th or eighteenth century origin, ballads introduced by the French army. These ballads over a hundred of them, deal with kings and queens and knights, voyages, deeds of valour, seductions, evenings at the ion and wars. Although in French Creole, these tales are fragmentary and difficult to interpret, the tellers themselves are vague regarding their meanings. The storyteller or chantwel sings the verse, the rest joining in the chorus. There is no musical accompaniment, but there is a liberal sucking of peppermints (to minimize husking in the vocal chords) and sipping of white rum, which act is termed in the local Creole as wuze gorge or sprinkling the throat The Abw as described by Simmons provide tremendous insight into the development of the Kweyol language and in the use of language as resistance. With the invasion of the British in the eighteenth century, it is reported that many of the slaves fled into the woods and were followed by French soldiers. This may explain why the speeches and songs were a very Frenchified Creole. The slaves must have had fun trying out the speeches of the soldiers but naturally made it fit into their own sounds, their own languages. It is no surprise therefore that the speeches would be difficult to interpret. They were not French. The slaves were communicating among themselves, and as typical poking fun at the colonial culture. The call and response structure used for singing the French songs suggests that as typical again of the folk culture, the European songs were made to fit the existing structural pattern of the Maroon folk songs. The European language, the French lexicon, was made to adapt not only to the sounds and tones of the Maroon languages but to also fit into the existing syntactical pattern of these languages. The birth of our language was the reflection of our determination to maintain our identity as a proud and distinct people. We had no wish to be subsumed into the English or the French. Our Creole developed out of this ethos. This is the spirit of the St. Lucian. This is the ethos that has shaped his character and driven him to achieve world class in literature, sports, economics, medicine and law. The determination always to assert his pride, dignity and self-respect this is our heritage our determination to be independent and to use whatever resources that are around us for sustenance. Cultural resistance uses intelligence and creativity to create art at its best. It begun with our voices, our bodies and the drum. Our culture has been our resistance. The festivals of the establishment couldnt be disregarded. The colonialists used the law as well as our aspirations to ensure a following. At the same time they outlawed our festivals and our religious practices. Our response, we joined in their festivals but brought our own rhythms. It was they who had the official names. As Christmas approached and the establishment begun preparations for the festivity, we organized the swnal. When Christmas was over and preparations began for Lent and Easter, we organized for carnival. We started our calypsos to air our opinions at what was affecting us. Our folk festivals also form an important part of our cultural heritage. We went through a very violent period. Even after the British had finally won over and reinstituted slavery, what we feared all along, they still used violence to hunt us down in the woods. All of the violence had been terrible on us. So many of us died. Our communities were dislodged and Moore and other British commanders devastated the land and the food in an attempt to subjugate us. All of these and the experiences helped shape what we became-our values. We had to assert our identity and dignity but instinctively we knew that violence would no longer work. We had to do it through our art forms. This is the way we dealt with one another. This is how we would deal with them with our heritage of folk culture and all that it encompasses, chantwelles, dancers, games, folk songs, folk dances, folk characters. All these make up our cultural inheritance. All these have to be stored and utilized continually. They are pointers to our development, indicators for direction. They provide a record of our actions, thoughts, feelings that we can study and reflect upon so that we may examine what we may become, where we have come from, which would better enable us to guide the generations after us. Singing is healing. It can engender harmony, inspire happiness and create beauty. The folk festivals, La Rose and La Maguerite, are like the French and British during our experience, opposing factions. The difference however is that the exchange between the rival sections is a war of songs, stories, jokes, satire. We have learnt to claim our space peacefully. The folk festivals allowed for a tremendous amount of theatricality. Participants of the opposing factions attired themselves in the various costumes of the colonial administration queen, king, governor, magistrate, policeman, and other respected professions such as lawyer, doctor and nurse. It was energetic role play. Participants take extreme care with costuming and carry out the work of their professions with mock diligence. The sances allow them to commune and practice the arts of singing, dancing and making music. This is cultural assertion at its most powerful. By taking on the roles of the highest office, the folk demonstrate their ability to fit into the masters clothes and shoes if they choose to. The flower festivals also ridiculed the war and rivalry between the colonial powers. The folk used the parading aspect of the festivals to take their place, make their presence felt and to give expression to their innermost feelings. So cohesive and impacting were the societies, that the establishment was forced to accommodate them and used them to work on building and refurbishment of churches and other religious causes. However outside of the annual parades of the La Rose and La Maguerite on August 30 and October 17 respectively, the flower festivals enabled the folk to function in communion outside of mainstream society, practicing their arts, with the eventual culmination of a strident assertion and brilliant display of their cultural power in the urban centers. The journey towards emancipation is a journey toward pride, dignity and self respect. In the absence of self respect we have self pity. Achievement brings independence. Culturally we have always been independent. That has been our greatest resource. Our culture has been the source of our creativity. It has been our resistance. Culturally we were always vigorously alive. Our cultural events have brought the energies of the masses in legitimate communion. It could never happen though without a plucking of the chord at the heart of the folk-a ring throughout the entire community. Historically it has always been difficult for the authorities to restrain expression. One must not underestimate the potential of indigenous culture in harnessing and mobilizing the power of the folk, bringing them together in legitimate activity, in collective expression. It is these movements that have caused major political developments in our history. It is the culture of our folk that ushered emancipation. It is the culture of our folk that earned us our independence-our freedom. BIBLIOGRAPHY Breen H. Henry, St. Lucia Historical, Statistical, and Descriptive London Frank Cass Co. Ltd, 1971 Brownrigg, Beatrice The Life Letters of Sir John Moore Oxford Basil Blackwell, 1923 Deveaux J. Robert , They Called Us Brigands Castries Optimum Printers LTD, 1997 Frank John, Eden The Memoires of Pere Labat 1693-1705 London Cass Co Ltd, 1970 Gachet, Charles A History of the Roman Catholic Church in St. Lucia Port of Spain Key Caribbean Publications Ltd, 1970 Gaspard, David Barry La Guerre des Bois Revolution, War and Slavery in St. Lucia, 1793-1838 Gaspard, Barry David and David Patrick Geggus A Turbulent Time The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, Bloomington Indiana University Press, 1997 Kolar, Ernestine St. Lucia Sklaverei, Emanzipation, und Freiheit PhD thesis Univ. Of Vienna, 1985 Louis, Michael. An Equal Right to the Soil, the Rise of A Peasantry in St. Lucia 1838-1900. PhD Thesis John Hopkins University Verin, Pierre La Pointe Caraibe, (Sainte Lucie Antilles) New Haven 1963 Young, William, An account of the Black Charaibs In The Island of St. Vincents London Franks Cass Co Ltd 1970 PAGE PAGE 5

Bibliography: Breen H. Henry, St. Lucia Historical, Statistical, and Descriptive London Frank Cass Co. Ltd, 1971 Brownrigg, Beatrice The Life Letters of Sir John Moore Oxford Basil Blackwell, 1923 Deveaux J. Robert , They Called Us Brigands Castries Optimum Printers LTD, 1997 Frank John, Eden The Memoires of Pere Labat 1693-1705 London Cass Co Ltd, 1970 Gachet, Charles A History of the Roman Catholic Church in St. Lucia Port of Spain Key Caribbean Publications Ltd, 1970 Gaspard, David Barry La Guerre des Bois Revolution, War and Slavery in St. Lucia, 1793-1838 Gaspard, Barry David and David Patrick Geggus A Turbulent Time The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, Bloomington Indiana University Press, 1997 Kolar, Ernestine St. Lucia Sklaverei, Emanzipation, und Freiheit PhD thesis Univ. Of Vienna, 1985 Louis, Michael. An Equal Right to the Soil, the Rise of A Peasantry in St. Lucia 1838-1900. PhD Thesis John Hopkins University Verin, Pierre La Pointe Caraibe, (Sainte Lucie Antilles) New Haven 1963 Young, William, An account of the Black Charaibs In The Island of St. Vincents London Franks Cass Co Ltd 1970 PAGE PAGE 5