Independence! Does it really matter? Youth rallies, ecumenical services, and countless speeches? Do any of these activities engender national pride? Has the joyous mood of February 1979 dissipated over the years? According to Saint Lucia’s “Father of Independence” Sir John Compton, the mood was far from light. There was threat of upheaval, and possible death. It was as if the people were treading on a minefield. What should have been a great celebration was instead marred by the threat of violence!
STAR: When and how did the idea of independence emerge?
Sir John: That’s a long, long long story. When I first thought of independence, I thought of independence within a Caribbean Federation. All the countries coming together and forming one nation. That is what I felt, that we would be Caribbean people. That we would be West Indians, not Saint Lucians and Bajans and Dominicans. That is how I thought when I was looking at independence.
But one by one the countries dropped out. Jamaica went independent. Trinidad went independent. Barbados went independent. This dream feel and therefore we were left with no other choice. My thinking at that time was ‘together if we can, alone if we must.’ So the independence for Saint Lucia was a last resort, the last option not the first.
STAR: Recall for us the days leading up to independence?
Oh it was bad. We nearly went to civil war because the Labour Party was on the warpath. They were burning. They were stoning. They were doing all type of things. I remember there was what we called Ouija board to predict things, and people who were playing the Ouija board said my death would fall on February 22. It was so tense they expected me to be assassinated. But we came through it. We fought the elections after. My party lost. Labour went in and within three years we were back. And from the ruins really, from the ashes of Saint Lucia at that time, we built it back from 1982 right on to where it is now. We put it in the path of progress.
STAR: Describe the atmosphere on February 22,1979.
Sir John: There was joy but also apprehension. Even some of the schools did not participate. Teachers were on strike. They fermented unrest among the civil service. It was a day that we should have been very, very happy but some of the people were not. There was fear that there might be violence.
STAR: After independence did things go back to normal?
Sir John: No, no, they didn’t’. The mood didn’t lighten until the elections of 1982. You had the Grenada revolution, and a set of upheavals here. Within a month of our independence, there was the Bishop coup in Grenada. And there was this threat of this coup here all the time, until elections of 79, and it went on with the Odlum/ Louisy leadership struggle. And until we had election in 1982 that was the time we really started the road to achieve what we were fighting for, independence.
STAR: What are your views on the present Independence Day celebrations?
Sir John: It’s low-key. We are not celebrating. We are observing it. Its an observance. Independence should be a celebration but people are now dispirited. They’re in despair. There is no celebration. You have the police parading and so and so, but for the people themselves, there is not enough participation.
Reprinted from February – – – STAR, 2005
