The history of St. Mary’s College, as written by Calixte George, is an encyclopedic historiography; a gem. In this fast-expanding global interconnectedness driven by advances in science and technology, the use of history seems lost as the world rushes ever faster forward. It is therefore left to teachers and professors of history to make the subject interesting to those who dare to probe the past, perchance to better understand the present and help plot the future. Where we are today, and how we arrived here, are questions we can’t continue to shirk. Those who do not turn to history for fear of confronting a traumatic past may be forgiven for thinking the past can return to harm them.
There is unfortunately no escape from history. Some have argued that there is hardly a more important subject for study than history. History pulsates with life, making it vibrant, especially if it touches on interesting personalities who helped shape the present. Indeed, it may be said that there are few things that bring history alive more than the biographical approach in which interesting personalities are described. Everybody loves an interesting story. One about exciting personalities who triumphed where others tasted the bitter fruit of failure can be even more riveting.
St. Mary’s College, the Caribbean’s Nobel Laureate School, is an 800-page meticulously researched labour of love. The book covers three epochs presented within six chapters covering 130 years of the moulding of Saint Lucian men. It is a masterpiece by any measurement standard. Mr. George writes with a feeling for style and with a sense of values that gives him a unique and secure place among those who have attempted to write the history of Saint Lucia, or some aspect of it.
I was privy to some of the early discussions and writings as Calixte embarked on this long and testing journey. One question kept popping in my mind as I observed him examining research materials: Who else could undertake such a task? Interestingly, the two names I settled on, both contributed to the finished product. I refer to Dr. Edsel Edmunds (Cy) and Mr. Francis Leonce (Frankie). On further reflection, it’s the painstaking work and patience of the trained agriculturists, whether in research or in administration (to monitor the growth of plants and animals or in pest and disease control), that gives them the edge for such long, challenging work.
Such discipline puts the final touches to their character and professionalism. In addition, only someone in the age group that made the transition from the old to the new St. Mary’s after the great fire of Castries and the end of World War II (the end of the second and the commencement of the third epoch in Calixte’s book) could have qualified for such a monumental task.
In my early days at St. Mary’s I was a little ambivalent about the final outcome. I was already building a financial base, with my several animals in Vieux Fort, when my life was disrupted. I left St. Mary’s more knowledgeable than I entered it, but poorer . . . or so I thought. My family believed that I was privileged to have passed to “go-to-college” but I feared being uprooted. I was aware of the many bright boys who could have been an asset to St. Mary’s had there been room at the school. It was the only secondary school for boys and it’s a shame that only three of us left Vieux Fort that year for St. Mary’s.
I therefore view the success of St. Mary’s with mixed feelings as there was nothing to compete against. From its history, we now learn that its early beginnings were more about religion than education, as such. Why did it take so long to build another secondary school for boys (or for girls) when the need was so great? In Mr. George’s book, we see Dominica, St. Kitts, Antigua and Grenada clearly taking preference over Saint Lucia in investment in education by the colonial power. “Little England” (Barbados) was a white-owned and ruled country, so it does not count here. Even with its late grudging start, St. Mary’s produced notable names that are today recognized in the Caribbean and the World. Names such as Auguste, Charles, Devaux, George, Gordon, King, Louisy, Lewis, St. Rose and Walcott come readily to mind.
Perhaps God has answered the neglect of the early church and the colonial office with the vengeance of bestowing two Nobel laureates who are highlighted in Calixte’s historical masterpiece. Whatever one
may think about the Presentation Brothers in Saint Lucia, they made a great difference to education on the island. They were more open-minded about the culture of the island and, without them, Derek Walcott would never have emerged the brilliant writer and poet he became.
Walcott was denied a teaching job at St. Mary’s upon graduating from UCWI. Later, George Odlum was denied the permanent secretary job in Education, from the same sort of thinking. Odlum and the St. Lucia Forum fought that thinking and helped establish Hunter Francois’ Education Bill that finally removed education from the hands of a narrow-minded, self-centred religious group. A burst of secondary school construction followed and now there are more secondary school places on the island than children to fill them.
The life of a human being who has achieved anything of value fascinates me, as it should others. The great figures of St. Mary’s history have all had exciting lives, and Calixte has written about them in a manner and thinking that transcends didactic purpose. It is informative without being doctrinal or pedagogic. In other words, it’s a historical monument that deserves a special place in the home of every Saint Lucian, or friend of Saint Lucia, wherever they may be.
